Struggling in recent election polls, John McCain is resorting to the old and familiar Republican campaign motivator – unrelenting fear. When asked in an interview with Fortune magazine what he sees as the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy, McCain answered…

“Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we’re in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence.”

You have to give him credit for finding a way to evade a question on the economy by turning it into a national security issue. But his answer elevates the destructive force of a band of cave-dwelling fanatics into an awesome superpower capable of annihilating America. Does McCain really believe that Al Qaeda is capable of doing something that Germany, Japan, Russia, and China have never been able to do? Probably not. What he does believe is that terrorism can be used to instill fear in the minds of Americans. His purpose being to distract them from the economic crisis that they currently regard as the most important issue of the day – an issue he has admitted he does not understand – to the frightful specter of imminent doom at the hands of the Islamo-fascists (or whatever he’s calling them this week).

To drive the point home, McCain’s chief strategist, Charlie Black, in the same article, gave a surprisingly candid answer when asked if a new terrorist attack on American soil would benefit McCain’s campaign. Black said…

“Certainly it would be a big advantage to him.”

[Note to idiotic politicians: When asked if a terrorist attack will help your campaign, the answer is always “NO! A terrorist attack will only hurt America and all Americans.”]

Black is saying outright that a terrorist attack would be good for McCain. McCain agrees as he tries to shift the debate from economics to terrorism because he perceives that as an issue that favors him. And while Black’s remarks are disgusting and stupid, the media has all but ignored the remarks of McCain himself. Isn’t McCain the candidate? Why is it appropriate for him to exalt our enemies by declaring that they are powerful enough to threaten “our very existence?” If that’s an example of McCain’s foreign policy expertise, America can do without it.

If you think that this is repulsive, just wait until election day nears and McCain is still trailing. Look for this sort of coordinated message to continue and sink further into the muck.