Jay said:
McCain has surrounded himself with lobbyists and all sorts of corrupt Washington scum, and the negative turn in his campaigning reflects that. Obama has surrounded himself with genuinely smart people, his message has stayed mostly positive, and he'll carry that intelligence and positivity with him to the White House.

McCain's campaign has turned negative because he's attempting to do what the media won't: really vet Obama and all his ties and relationships. Anyone else would've been knocked out of the primaries a long time ago if they had the same ties. The media has chosen to mostly ignore his relationships and politics in order to further spread this false message of hope. Obama has only been in the Senate for two years and yet he's the third highest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. The next highest is John Kerry he's been in the Senate for far longer. Even Hillary hasn't taken as much money as Obama.

Some of Obama's ties were forced out into the open and he was forced to cut them (Jeremiah Wright anyone?). He's been doing his best to keep his other ties swept under the rug, calling anyone that attempts to bring them up a "distraction" and not "focusing on the issues". The decisions you will make as a person are directly related to who/what influenced you as you were growing up and getting ahead in your life and career. To say this his relationships were all peripheral and mean nothing is to ignore everything he plans to do. But I guess ignorance is bliss. That is until it smacks you right in the face.

EDIT: Anyone that thinks Obama's going to end the war in Iraq as soon as he takes office had better pay attention to what he said during the debate. Don't forget that he ran on a platform of withdrawing the troops and ending the war the day he takes office.

"Obama: I'll be very brief. We are going to have to make the Iraqi government start taking more responsibility, withdraw our troops in a responsible way over time, because we're going to have to put some additional troops in Afghanistan."

Hmm, that sounds a lot like what Bush and McCain plan to do. A phased withdrawal taking into account conditions on the ground. So much for ending the war.