If John McCain were any kind of man, he wouldn't hide his depraved campaign conduct behind debates and talk-show appearances that display a kinder, gentler politician than the one smearing Barack Obama.

While he has often pleaded ignorance of the ads that carry his explicit approval, McCain is ultimately accountable for the conduct of his campaign, just as a Navy captain is accountable for the conduct of the crew under his command or a president is responsible for the conduct of his administration.

While some bloggers here want to give McCain a pass for being no worse than Nixon when it comes to the angry pursuit of power, this makes as much sense as letting a serial killer off the hook just because his body count has not yet exceeded Bundy's or Dahmer's. Besides, deceased politicians can''t be held accountable in any meaningful way. The living ones can and should be.

Others argue from the lofty gingerbread-world of moral equivalency in an attempt to equate the conduct of a few emotional Obama supporters with throngs of red-faced McCain supporters, when this is not the issue at all.

What is at issue is the official campaign of innuendo against Obama's patriotism, unmatched by any corresponding accusation officially leveled at McCain. And let's be clear: By "official," I mean coming from the mouths of the candidates themselves or their campaign spokespeople.

The willingness of McCain, Palin, Bachmann and their ilk to personally inflame the GOP base with race-based animosity and veiled charges of un-Americanism is the the very difference that sets the Obama and McCain campaigns light-years apart. And it is the source of the unsettlingly casual and commonplace instances of hate speech that have been captured over and over on camera at McCain and Palin rallies. Not with the provocation of leftists, but with the sole provocateur being McCain or Palin.

Yes, Lt. Cmdr. McCain is responsible for every "off with his head," "kill him," "terrorist" and racial slur shouted at his events against Obama. He is responsible because those are very nearly the terms he uses in his stump speeches, robocalls and advertisements.

* "Terrorist" is used verbatim--with remarkable frequency--in McCain/Palin/GOP rhetoric and outreach.

"Off with his head" and "kill him" is exactly the punishment under Sharia law for Muslim traitors (isn't traitor Obama a secret, terrorist Muslim?) And even under U.S. law, "anti-American" efforts are punishable by dishonor and death.

So to those who say the Democrats are doing the same as the Republicans, I say: "You lie." Obama has never used any words against his rivals even remotely implying suspect criminality or betrayal of country. Indeed, he has often been criticized for his dismaying habit of praising McCain as a genuine American hero.

And the evidence that McCain is a coward? All around us. Anecdotal? As is history itself. Equivalent? In a lipsticked pig's eye.