Political malpractice

Why is the McCain campaign running a spot of Barack Obama praising McCain on global warming?

This is flat-out weird. Barack Obama praises the McCain-Leiberman cap-and-trade bill. McCain runs it as a campaign spot:

The thrust of the McCain campaign, especially for the past month, has been that Barack Obama is evil and scary: a metrosexual cosmopolitan celebrity who wants to molest your children while his terrorist friends plot to kill you and his homeboy welfare chiselers from ACORN steal elections so they can then steal your money. Now, four days before the election, McCain shows the voters Obama “reaching across the aisle” to praise his rival in his best calm, reasonable, thoughtful tone.

What am I missing here? Is Steve Schmidt in the tank?

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com