Character Assassination = "Country First"?

The McCain campaign has announced its new strategy for the waning weeks of the campaign: " . . . McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told FOX News they would continue to point out Obama's 'associations that are questionable and point to his character and his judgment.'" (*1)

But didn't McCain say that his campaign puts "country first"? Sounds more like his campaign is resorting to character assassination.

How does that put "country first"? And can a person's "character" really be reduced to occasional encounters with people who live in your town or city? Isn't "character" the result of a lifetime time of deliberate choices? Isn't "character" the sum of our ideas, our actions, our hard-won wisdom?

If McCain truly wants to put "country first," perhaps he ought to ponder the words of Dr. King: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (*2)

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*1: Source: McCain campaign spokesperson Tucker Bounds speaking on Fox News, October 4, 2008. Emphasis added.

2: Martin Luther King, "I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963. Emphasis added.