The middle name

"On Nov. 4, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happend," a Florida official says, warming up the crowd for Palin, who wasn't yet there.

It is his middle name. It's also a place the McCain campaign hasn't wanted to go, and if they wanted to go there, this probably wasn't the way to do it.

Indeed, Palin's rollout of all the harshest attacks seems to be getting McCain's campaign the downside of the attacks -- the backlash, the sense that he's playing dirty -- without actually communicating them in a particularly effective way. Today we have coverage of Palin talking about Wright, for instance, not of Obama and Wright.

UPDATE: Palin spokesman Tracey Schmitt: “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November.”