"You know that you're going to have to hang onto your hats, because from now until election day it may get kind of rough." So said Sarah Palin during a rally in Florida last week. And indeed the muck-throwing has reached epic proportions on both sides. The old saying, 'When you dig dirt, you lose ground', does not apply to presidential politics. With the economy in chaos, it seems that Republican candidate John McCain's best chance of preventing a landslide against him is to dig fast and furious. And Barack Obama is proving no slouch when it comes to digging up and slinging the mud at his opponent. Marion McKeone reports on the mud that might stick....

What the McCain campaign has unearthed

Bill Ayers

Tony Rezko

The Chicago New Party

Bill Daley

These four combined equal a four-shovel load of trouble for Obama. Over the past week, the McCain campaign has revived the issue of Obama's association with rehabilitated radical Bill Ayers, formerly of the 1960s domestic terror group the Weather Underground. Ayers, now a professor of education at the University of Illinois, hosted a reception for Obama in 1995 when he began his state senate run and the two men have served on the board of a non-profit organisation in Chicago. Ayers has expressed no regrets about his activities and was pictured a decade ago standing on an American flag.

This is a potentially toxic association for a candidate whom a large sector of the public still believes is a Muslim. The Ayers controversy has mushroomed on right-wing blogs, publications and cable news channels over the past week.

It's part of a wider McCain strategy to suggest Obama is "unAmerican", unpatriotic and fundamentally untrustworthy. When combined with the socialist Chicago New Party, which endorsed his state senate run, and two other unsavoury Chicago characters, Tony Rezko and Bill Daley, son of the powerbroker mayor who 'found' votes for JFK, the cumulative effect is to suggest Obama hangs with a sleazy Chicago crowd. Now if they could just connect him to Al Capone…

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright

McCain declared Wright off limits at the start of their campaign, but that was before polls suggested Obama had an 11-point lead. Now it seems all bets are off and Obama's Pastor Disaster will likely be part of a final shovel. Expect to see clips of Wright fuming "God Damn America" and other greatest rants. While Obama has severed contact with Wright, explaining his 20-year friendship to already dubious voters could prove problematic. None of the associations is likely to be enough to scupper Obama's chances on its own, but the cumulative effect could whittle away his lead.

What's in a name?

Not since Johnny Cash sang about 'A Boy Named Sue' has a name been such a source of contention. It's a fair bet that right now he would rather be called Bill or George or any damn name but Hussein. As the mud-slinging gets under way in earnest, McCain and Palin have been introduced at campaign stops by local Republican leaders who refer to Obama as Barack Hussein Obama, with a heavy emphasis on Hussein. This invariably leads to boos and shouts of "terrorist" from the crowds. Which is presumably, since they keep doing it, precisely the response McCain and Palin want.

the obama dirt on McCain

The Keating Five

This is an oldie, but like any grudge or fashion item you hang onto long enough, eventually it will come back into fashion. It's unfortunate for McCain that the current economic crisis has the same DNA as the Keating Five. Corporate greed, deregulation and cronyism culminating in the collapse of financial institutions and a huge government bail-out. McCain's friendship with corrupt banker Charles Keating (right) and his intervention with federal regulators on his behalf earned him a rebuke by the senate ethics committee for showing poor judgement. Keating was jailed and the Savings and Loan collapse of the 1980s forced a $100 milllion government bail-out. Plus ça change….

McCain is old, unstable and temperamentally unsuitable for the job

"Erratic" has become a favourite word of Obama and his surrogates when they talk about the Republican candidate. "Inconsistent", "angry", "cranky" and "uncertain" are others. The message they are trying to convey is that McCain is the last person who should be put in a room with a red button.

Obama is reviving Bush 2000 allegations about McCain; his old sobriquet, McNasty, has been resuscitated and his failure to conceal his disdain for Obama is grist to the Democratic candidate's McNasty mill. His thumb-jerking reference to Obama as "that one" in the second debate, and his contempt-filled performance in the first, seem to have registered with Americans; polls suggest they have a less favourable opinion of McCain than before the debates.

...and on sarah palin...

Troopergate

The report by the Alaska state legislative committee on whether Palin abused her powers as governor when she fired Walt Monegan, Alaska's chief of police, was published on Friday. As always, it may be the cover-up rather than the wrongdoing that lands Palin in hot water; she has been orchestrating a Cheney-style obstruction of the investigation. Voters expect this kind of thing from Republicans but her husband's testimony to the committee could prove embarrassing. An abuse of power for any other reason is still an abuse of power.

Pregnantteenagedaughtergate

Polarbeargate

BridgetoNowheregate

Bimbogate

Great fodder for late-night talk show hosts and political satirists.

Seccessiongate

This wouldn't be worth a shovel but for Palin's suggestions that Obama is "not like us" and "unAmerican". However, the Obama camp is now reminding reporters that Palin's husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party, a political organisation that wants to secede from the US and that Palin, during an address to their convention, exhorted to "keep up the good work". Not very American, but when you're a white-bread hockey mom from a small town, 'unAmerican' activities don't seem very threatening.