By Jon Ralston

Wed, Sep 17, 2008 (2:03 a.m.)

In campaigns, the line between the overused and rendered-meaningless phrase “negative campaigning” and legitimate criticism of records or statements is as thin as Sarah Palin’s resume to be vice president or Barack Obama’s curriculum vitae to be president.

So as the biennial, obnoxious whine begins, starting at the top of the ticket, about who went negative first and what is distortion and what is fact, let’s put the filter on and realize what’s really happening here as the ad wars intensify.

For those Republicans who can’t brook any deconstruction of the Palin myth or Democrats who can’t abide any notion that Obama might not be ready, this is less about the individuals or what is said about them than about what many see as a greater good — or, perhaps, lesser of evils. And this phenomenon is being repeated here, too, as the state Democratic Party is spending unprecedented amounts of money trying to defeat two ambitious state senators and attempting to elevate two manifestly weak candidates with highly questionable tactics — tactics that just might work.

It would appear that the silliness is coming earlier this season than ever before, with lipstick on pigs, cries of sexism and lamentations of disrespect. Perhaps the crystallization of this travesty came Sunday when McCain shill Carly Fiorina, the ousted Hewlett Packard chief executive who left with the stock plummeting and $21 million in her pocket, had the gall to accuse the Democrats and media of being “disrespectful” to St. Sarah and her running mate (whatshisname). These must be the small-town values I have heard so much about — respect no longer has to be earned; you just ask for it and it is granted.

This week I actually received an e-mail pointing out that Palin’s qualifications are similar to those of a similarly situated Teddy Roosevelt, which may cause one of our greatest presidents to charge up San Juan Hill again from the grave in protest. This, of course, has nothing to do with whether Palin is qualified to be vice president — or, God forbid, president. No person with a triple-digit IQ believes she is. But McCain supporters, as they ignore their man’s astonishing judgment in selecting her, know she just might head off an electoral disaster.

When I asked the man McCain first wanted to choose, Joe Lieberman, on “Face to Face” this week about Palin, the Connecticut senator said the Alaska governor “will be ready” and “she has a lot of common sense.” Sounds like me talking about my daughter’s readiness for high school next year.

And on Tuesday on “Face to Face,” Sen. John Ensign also ignored the facts to blast ahead with the conceit that Palin is a reformer. But he became really animated only when he talked about her ability to energize the GOP base and perhaps make his year as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee less disastrous.

The Nevada Democratic Party is showing an analogous moral bankruptcy in its effort to oust state Sens. Joe Heck and Bob Beers because it must believe the end — returning the upper house to the Democrats for the first time in 18 years — justifies the execrable means.

First the Democrats recruited a pair of candidates — Allison Copening and Shirley Breeden — who are all sugar and spice but can’t tell you the first thing about state government. Better to be nice than knowledgeable — just ask St. Sarah.

But now, as Breeden and Copening avoid as many debates as they can, the Democratic Party is spending tens of thousands of dollars on over-the-top, inane and often clumsy mail pieces. Example: In a recent mailer about Heck sent out by the party, the headline is: “Senator Heck Supports Big Oil and is Against Price Gouging at the pump.” Against price gouging? How horrible.

This kind of assault, no matter how little it is grounded in reality, can work. Just ask ex-state Sen. Sandra Tiffany, who succumbed after the teachers union spent hundreds of thousands of dollars two years ago using similar tactics. As one GOP insider bluntly put it: “I’m worried about the environment.”

Thus we see the reality bar constantly lowered — Sarah Palin is an inveterate reformer about as much as Breeden “is one tough Mom,” as her literature says, who will fix the “broken” Legislature. Both sides, though, will say there is a higher goal in mind, so just forget qualifications and knowledge. For now.

Let shame take a holiday for a few weeks. If Palin and Breeden and/or Copening get elected, they will change the political dynamic in the nation and the state. Let’s worry later about how they got there and what they will do once they arrive.