Wow. While Obama is off seeing his sick grandmother, a Republican strategist criticizes him for flying his jet to see “grandma.” Meanwhile, McCain-Palin, basing their campaign (that is, the small part of it not dedicated to attacking Obama) on cutting wasteful spending, reveal that the campaign spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe and make-up, and her beautician is the highest-paid staffer on the campaign. Plain claims that anyone who attacks her on that is sexist. Then the “diva” Palin starts to “go rogue”–according to McCain-Palin loyalists and campaign staffers.

Meanwhile, McCain makes some flubs, some simply amusing, at least one obscene (it’s happened before), while his brother calls 911 to complain about traffic and then cusses at the operator.

A psychologically troubled McCain supporter fakes a story about a black Obama supporter who viciously attacks her, and the McCain campaign starts pushing a sensational version of the woman’s story to the news services.

And now we hear that staffers for the McCain campaign are starting to put their names out in the job market, calling businesses for jobs as campaign leaders begin forming a “circular firing squad,” positioning themselves to avoid the blame for the expected loss.

But hey, the GOP is making up for it–by emailing 75,000 Jewish Pennsylvania residents and warning that voting for Obama will lead to a second Holocaust.

With all this happening and with Obama ahead by 7-10 points in the polls just ten days before the election, you’d think that we Obama supporters would be pretty confident–even giddy–about Obama’s chances. But then, if you’ve been a Democrat for the past eight years, you know why we’re not. After one election that was definitely stolen and another that may have been, after eight years of dirty tricks, smear campaigns, fake terror alerts, and electronic voting machines made by Republican party chairs that have no paper trails and mysteriously malfunction almost exclusively in favor of the Republican candidates… well, let’s just say that we’ll celebrate when the deed is done. I have some friends who are deeply suspicious that we’re heading for yet another stolen election, and they are not completely without cause in worrying over such “conspiracy theories.”

Me, I think that GOP leaders may welcome at least four years of Obama–now that we’re headed into a desperate spiral of economic doom–if for no other reason than that they need to be able to blame someone else for their blunders and wait a few years for the public to forget what criminals they are.

I foresee an Obama win–followed by four years of non-stop smear campaigns that’ll make the McCain campaign seem like a session with Stuart Smalley. I hope I’m wrong, but I too have seen too much to be complacent.