Ana Marie Cox can't stop, won't stop

Ana Marie Cox is smooshed against the filter at the bottom of the tank for John McCain. There's just no other way one could write something this absurd about his campaign's blog comment payola scheme.

"Yeah, rewarding supporters with points for being helpful to the campaign is really desperate. And giving people pre-written talking points to disseminate? Surely a sign of ideological bankruptcy."

Those two puckishly deployed hyperlinks go to:

1) A point system for Obama campaign volunteers for making calls and hosting meetings, as an overt Obama campaign volunteer and

2) the official Obama campaign "Fight the Smears" site that provides talking points to, well, do as its name suggests.

"From what I gather, the major objection to McCain's points-for-blogging scheme is that people actually receive something of some monetary value in exchange for their hard work, whereas Obama's volunteers simply bask in the glow of their smug self-satisfaction..."

Well... YES! And it's a solid objection. Does one have to be predisposed to dislike McCain to see the tawdriness of paying people to say nice things about him on websites as if there weren't a "Country First" beach towel in it for them?

I'm not exactly outraged about this or worried that it's going to move the needle in November, but how can you read about these shenanigans and think: Oh, look at those smug Obama supporters. Not getting keychains and shit for their boosterism and thinking they're so pure!

Her bottom line: "The question is whether the McCainiacs would be doing it anyway."

Oh, man. As a Swampland commenter points out, if they were going to write the stuff anyway, why would the McCain campaign give them prizes for doing it?

She's a true believer. I think if McCain wins he could do a lot worse for a press secretary. She would never flip like Scotty 2 Hotty.