Over the next four weeks,  it is entirely possible that we will be subjected to one of the most negative political campaigns in the history of our nation. Presidential candidate John McCain has vowed to “take off the gloves.” Over the last week, his entire ad campaign has gone nearly 100 percent negative, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin.

Senator McCain’s ads have one, obvious theme: Fear. The strategy assumes voters will see him as someone they can trust, but that really hasn’t been the way things have worked out. In fact, according to CNN.com, voters reacted negatively to negative talk during this week’s town hall meeting. But even more troubling has been Senator McCain’s escalating lack of civility.

In two meetings, McCain only rarely looked his opponent in the eye. During their last outing, he frequently referrend to Senator Obama as “that one,” an address both demeaning and dismissive. He has remained silent while supporters at his campaign events have called Senator Obama a terrorist and encouraged his running mate and his wife to paint Obama in that light, by unfairly characterizing his ties to former 1970s radical Bill Ayers.

The latest mantra, “Who is the real Obama?”. Though McCain spins it as a comparison of the Senator’s voting record with his current positions, the campaign theme also plays right into those e-mails that claim the Democratic candidate is not who he says he is or seems to be. It’s another way to promote the agenda of fear and loathing, which plays best with extremists.

We will see a return to civility only when someone in the McCain camp soon realizes character smears aren’t the same as a debate on the issues.

And when someone explains to Sarah Palin that bearing false witness against a neighbor is not how Jesus would campaign.