As the rhetoric ramps up and the invective intensifies, a clearer picture of the overall attack strategies utilized by the two presidential campaigns emerges. In the case of the McCain campaign, a particularly ingenious (or insidious, depending on your perspective) tactic has become commonplace; the magic of turning strengths into weaknesses. DoubleSpeak co-host Peter “the one without a mole on his cheek” Slutsky brought up this topic in his appearance on MSNBC Sunday morning (see the video below). Today, we take a closer look.

Of all the attacks on Obama leveled by John McCain, the most widely known and commented upon is his assertion that Barack is a celebrity on the order of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In equating Obama with Spears and Hilton, McCain implies that the junior Senator from Illinois is a product of media infatuation and a rampant culture of meaningless celebrity. This is an effort to turn Obama’s greatest strength against him; people actually seem to like the guy. Ridiculous, right! Who wants to vote for a president that’s likable? As an added bonus, the commercial juxtaposes pictures of the aforementioned Spears and Hilton with shots of Barack in front of the world’s two most-recognizable phalluses (the leaning tower of Pisa and the Washington monument). Get away from our white women, Barry!

Another of Obama’s supposed faults is his youth. In an article in the Chicago Tribune Steven G. Calabresi, who serves on John McCain’s justice advisory committee tackles the horror of kids head-on. He suggests that if the framers of the Constitution were still around today, they would change the presidential age qualification from 35 to… wait for it… 55 or 60! Re-read that line. 55 or 60. Calabresi goes on to point out that Obama, at 46 would be the fourth youngest President in American history, and the three younger than him were all crap. Yup, Bill Clinton, John F Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt sure did suck it up. Young people are just too vital and healthy, with their awful clothes and their rock an’ roll! What we need is somebody really old.

Speaking of healthy, the McCain campaign has even taken to suggesting that Barack is too thin to be President. McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis issued a memo in which he attacked Obama for working out and eating healthy food. I mean, who does that? Protein bars? Organic tea? In John McCain’s America, a protein bar would be a deep-fried turducken wrapped in bacon. The rallying cry was picked up by Wall Street “journalist” Amy Chozick whose August 1st article entitled “Too Fit to be President?” plagiarizes Davis’s memo and backs it up with the type of hard data that can only be acquired by starting a Yahoo! Message Board and picking short phrases out of sarcastic responses. Clearly, Barack Obama is too fit.

The McCain campaign has gotten so good at turning virtue into vice, that they can do it almost instantaneously. Just hours after Obama announced that Joe Biden would be his running mate, McCain had Ron Fournier (his man inside the Associated Press) publish an article accusing Obama of making a nefarious strategic decision to choose somebody with a lot of experience. The temerity! The message here is clear. Barack Obama has too little experience. Joe Biden has too much experience. But John McCain is juuust right.

The picture of Obama painted by John McCain is a scary one. Here is a man that is too personable and well-liked. A man that is too young. A man that is too healthy. A man who surrounds himself with people that are too qualified. Who would vote for such a man? Choose John McCain, the candidate of old, detested, infirm dilettantes. You know, he makes a good point.