So it comes down to this: After all the debates and analysis and character attacks and policy differences and fundamentals in clash, John McCain and Sarah Palin oppose Barack Obama over — ta da — the graduated income tax.

They tried to smear his policies, his connections, his patriotism, his character, his honesty but, in the end, the best they can find is to come after thim over the fact that outrageously Obama belives that the tax system should reflect the honest truth that those best capable of paying taxes should pay their fair share.

We’ve had a progressive tax structure since 1913 as McCain well knows and Palin might be able to learn with a little study. Just as rich people can pay $150,000 for a wardrobe and the price of a very nice automobile for two weeks worth of make-up help, rich people have had the assignment to pay more taxes than poor people Rich people like the McCains with their eight houses and 13 cars and “Let Them Eat Cake” elitist posturing. That’s the way we’ve done taxes for a century but Obama is called a “communist” and a “socialist” for advocating that that continue as respected national policy.

Instead, Palin calls Obama a pinko when there han’t been a communist to worry about since she was in her early 20s. Talk about shilling for the rich. Here she is tarted up like Imelda Marcos and whining that her rich sponsors and benefactors might have to continue pay taxes according to their ability to pay taxes.

Terrorist didn’t work. Muslim didn’t work. Tyro didn’t work. America-hater didn’t work. Paris Hilton didn’t work. Lies and smears didn’t work. The entire, intrinsic gutter sweepings of the Republican party didn’t work.

So they play the communist card — on behalf of the rich.

The rich and the GOP must think we are all idiots. Having watched so many working stiffs be bedazzled by the rich and the need to shelter the rich’s wealth and reduce their taxes at the expense of the working stiff, they have been encouraged to think that way.

Time’s up, boys.