Bird’s-Eye View

Republicans right now are tossing as much mud as they can at Democrat Barack Obama in hopes something … anything … sticks. And many out there expect Republican John McCain to get rough and tumble during tonight’s debate (Sarah Palin said in Florida the gloves were coming off).

But as NBC’s political director Chuck Todd notes, as McCain has gotten more negative his negative ratings among voters goes up, too, which makes things a little precarious in Nashville tonight:

All this highlights a big problem for McCain: It’s increasingly harder for him to go negative, even though he’s now embarked on that path. And it might be hard for him to go negative at tonight’s debate given its town hall format. McCain’s tone and body language tonight might be more important than anything he says. It’s a tough position McCain finds himself in: On one hand, the temptation to make Obama unelectable and drive home that point is going to be great tonight. But if McCain does it in a way that makes it easy for Obama to paint him as out of touch on the economy, he could have a hard time closing the gap.

Economy, economy, economy, economy.