Chicago Tribune: Obama as 'Elitist' and 'Egghead'

The Chicago Tribune is channeling the Weekly Standard:

Having made hay of Barack Obama's relative youth and his foreign-sounding name, his opponents are now homing in on his neighborhood.

For his critics, the presumptive Democratic nominee's home turf offers a tempting opportunity to paint him as an elitist and, perhaps more damaging, an egghead.

It gets better:

Obama left himself open to this line of political attack when the media discovered he'd had some sort of relationship with Bill Ayers, an unrepentant 1960s radical, and Obama shrugged it off, saying Ayers was just a "guy who lives in my neighborhood."

His response permitted The Weekly Standard to wonder: "Wow, what kind of neighborhood does Barack live in?"

See, this is how the game is played: instead of automatically identifying this as pure rubbish, the Chicago Tribune uses it as a jumping off point -- literally the context -- of a brief look at life in Hyde Park and U. of C.

What's next? Call Obama a drug-addict -- no, rather say his "critics" call him a drug-addict -- and then look at how easy it is to score some weed in Washington Park?

This is how a GOP smear campaign gains traction. It's happening before our very eyes.

P.S. "...some sort of relationship with Bill Ayers..." Can you get any sloppier?