An illustrative example of how McCain is doing a better job as a smear shield for Kerry than many leading Democrats (see previous post):

Asked on NBC's "Today" if he thought Kerry was weak on defense, McCain said: "No, I do not believe that he is, quote, weak on defense. He's responsible for his voting record, as we are all responsible for our records, and he'll have to explain it. But, no, I do not believe that he is necessarily weak on defense. I don't agree with him on some issues, clearly. But I decry this negativism that's going on on both sides. The American people don't need it."

And, for the record, I loathe the framing that the press and the Republicans push that suggests that if you're not gung-ho about blowing things up with super-duper weaponry and spending hundreds of billions of dollars that you are therefore "weak on defense" or "weak on national security." These are ridiculous, specious, manipulative, and ultimately meaningless phrases, as McCain acknowledges with his uttered scare quote before saying the words.

Real journalists wouldn't use these terms. And if someone utters them, they should get that person to clarify exactly what they're trying to imply by it rather than throw it around as if it's a well-understood phrase with a commonly-accepted meaning. But, this won't happen in our political soundbite culture.