Here's mud in your eye.

October is upon us. Less than a month before we find out who our next President will be. Obama is leading in the polls, but just ask John McCain, who was nearly ahead a month ago, how quickly fortunes can change. In fact, ask Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Michael Dukakis what a difference October can make.

Tonight will be Presidential debate number 2. Most agree the first Presidential debate and the VP debate were a wash. No one screwed up so no one made any significant gains. In this day and age few are willing to offer up Reagan-esque quotes for fear they will be misunderstood and have a negative effect. That is fine. All I ask is that we stick to the issues. You hear me John McCain, stick to the issues.

This country is in economic trouble. John McCain has admitted himself that he does not understand all of this economic stuff. It is little surprise that he cannot get off the topic of the economy fast enough. But, for God's sake, can you at least talk about something productive?

William Ayers? Is that all you got? A man that may have done something bad when Obama was 8 years old. At man that was cleared of charges when Obama was 14 and lived in Hawaii. A man that has since been a law abiding citizen and a professor at the University of Illinois. A man that Obama did not meet until long after his radical past. A man that Obama barely knows even today. That is the best you can do?

While the rest of the country wants to know how they will find work and how they will pay the mortgage and how they will buy perscriptions, McCain wants to talk about some guy from the 60s that was never convicted of any crime and lives on the same street as Obama. Let's focus here.

Now, to be fair, Obama has also lauched his own handful of dirt. It was just a matter of time before the Keating Five got mentioned. I would have preferred the Obama camp said nothing or just let it leak through other sources rather than producing a 13 minute video, but what goes around comes around. Let's compare.

With William Ayers you have a man that purportedly did something wrong years before he met Obama. He was never convicted of anything and has since made a respectable life for himself. The man is outspoken yes, but having strong opinions is what the first ammendment allows. McCain's claim tries to link Obama to events that transpired long before Obama ever met the man.

With Charles Keating you have a man that was convicted several times of financial crimes and has served time in prison. While Keating was commiting those crime and while he was on trial, McCain and four other senators engaged in questionable dealings with him. McCain was found to have not done anything wrong except showing 'poor judgement'. On any other day I would say this is not even news worthy, but if you are going to draw some fuzzy line between Obama and a man that was never convicted of anything, should we now also draw a line between McCain and a man who was?

Where Obama didn't even know William Ayers while he was supposedly doing the things that he was never tried for, McCain was directly related to the man that was convicted of crimes and McCain was himself put under review for his actions. The double standard that McCain is trying to use is ludicrous.

With that mud slinging aside, can we please get back to the real issues?