I've been thinking a lot about the latest attack ads by John McCain where he talks about Obama's relationship with former Weather Underground member William Ayers.  More importantly, I've been trying to figure out why its not having much of an impact.  The first reason is obvious.  The economy is tanking, and McCain is talking about events and politics from 40 years ago.

But despite that particular reality, I believe there is more to it.  After all, William Ayers did some pretty horrific things, and not only that, he managed to get away with it.  You can read a good summary here.  Not only did he bomb the Pentagon, but he also fire bombed the house of a New York State Judge.  And Obama's claims that Ayers was just a "guy in the neighborhood" are insultingly untrue.  They served on boards together, and Ayer's has even fund raised for him.  Obama's State Senate campaign was launched from Ayer's own home.

The real problem here, is that we're hearing about terrorism too much.  Much as I feared from the outset of my blog, the word "terrorism" has been severely over used.  Even last week, this news came out of Maryland:

The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.

Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan revealed at a legislative hearing that the surveillance operation, which targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war, was far more extensive than was known when its existence was disclosed in July.

The department started sending letters of notification Saturday to the activists, inviting them to review their files before they are purged from the databases, Sheridan said.

"The names don't belong in there," he told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "It's as simple as that."

The surveillance took place over 14 months in 2005 and 2006, under the administration of former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R). The former state police superintendent who authorized the operation, Thomas E. Hutchins, defended the program in testimony yesterday. Hutchins said the program was a bulwark against potential violence and called the activists "fringe people."
...
Both Hutchins and Sheridan said the activists' names were entered into the state police database as terrorists partly because the software offered limited options for classifying entries.

You'd think that with terrorism being such a dangerous word in our criminal justice system, that it would be a description of last, not first resort.  These were peaceful protestors, and yet because of a information sharing requirements, there are good odds that they're also on Federal watch lists now... all because the "software" limited the classification options.  These stories permeate our culture.  From illegal wiretapping, credit card payments being held because paying down debt makes you look like a terrorist, and rendition of innocent foreign nationals, terrorism has been applied to many innocent people with some pretty significant consequences.

And I think to a certain extent, the ho hum reaction to the Ayer's story is the fruit of overzealous use of the word, and the punishments that result.  Here we have a person who is an actual domestic terrorist.  He bombed the Pentagon and fire bombed the home of a judge, to affect a political goal.  Much like the boy who cried wolf was eventually eaten by the very wolf that he falsely warned about, John McCain may in fact suffer the same fate.

People want to hear about about the economy, not a terrorist from 40 years ago who hasn't committed terrorism in that long, even if completely (and disgustingly) unrepentant.