Making Obama the mysterious, dangerous other

Chris Matthews just made a good point on Hardball: The McCain campaign is trying to create a mystery around Barack Obama, with three corners: associations with terrorists, his middle name, and Arabs on his donor list. This a few weeks after the anti-Muslim propoganda piece Obsession was direct-mailed to millions of homes.

And now, for good measure, the Bush administration helps him. Observe (emphasis mine):

FBI warns of potential terror attacks on public buildings

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives.

Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and operators to be aware of potential attack tactics."

They tried this before in 2004, and it worked then. Shame on all of them.