Rubber On The Road

Joe Klein has a smart take:

"Oh, so now McCain says it's a good idea to inflate your tires. This is something new: He has taken to attacking Obama on positions where he agrees with Obama. Another example: he flayed Obama for his proposal to withdraw from Iraq, then said it was a "pretty good" timetable. Meanwhile, he also continues to attack Obama for positions Obama hasn't taken or is no longer taking--like Obama's position on offshore drilling, which has become a reluctant yes, in order to get a compromise piece of energy legislation through the Senate. McCain continues to say Obama is opposed. He also says Obama is opposed to nuclear power, which Obama never has been--a position he took some grief about during the Democratic primaries. It's getting hard to keep all of McCain's attacks--and his rules about when it's ok to compromise and when not--straight."

The closer the two are on substantive matters, the more stinging the McCain attacks.