Wicker, who is locked in a surprisingly close race with former governor Ronnie Musgrove, has resorted to the tried and true tactic of portraying his opponent as a terrifying “other” in a desperate attempt to pull out a win.

The ad in question tries its hardest to tie Musgrove to the Democratic Washington establishment and liberal social causes  — crazy causes like equality and privacy, the horror! The highlight comes when a group of Village People look-alikes show up to support Musgrove, representing the Human Rights Campaign, which they call “the largest gay rights group in the country.”

The gay cowboy smirks at the camera, hands over a briefcase, and does everything but shout “Boo!” at all the Mississippians Wicker hopes are now hiding their children in fear of the gay boogeyman.

One problem: Wicker’s claims are not true. Musgrove is a pro-life moderate who has never received a dollar from Friends of Hillary, NARAL, HRC, or any other group mentioned.

The gross inaccuracies and transparent scare tactics of the spot would be funny if the message behind them weren’t so concerning. Sen. Wicker has reached a point of desperation, and he’s demonstrated his willingness to resort to the culture war tactics of elections past to try and squeak out a win.

I can’t say I find that surprising.

We’re two weeks from an election we’ve spent two years anticipating, and it isn’t looking good for the Republican Party. (And yes, for all you superstitious types, I knocked on wood, crossed my fingers and spat after typing that.) Barack Obama has 259 electoral votes all but locked up, and another 27 from states that are strongly leaning blue.

Throw in a handful of toss-up states, and it’s a blowout.

Obama’s successes, combined with a progressive trend nationally, are putting traditionally red states in play and the jobs of incumbent Republicans in jeopardy.

We’re two weeks from the election, and, unsurprisingly, those incumbent Republicans (let’s call them “bitter”) are starting to rely (perhaps even “cling”) to the culture war scare tactics that have proven so effective in recent elections. Wicker’s ad is a prime example—he’s not going to win on issues of defense, or the economy, or government reform. Even in Mississippi, voters are turning to the Democratic Party to feel safe.

What Wicker can do is try to undermine that sense of security by rekindling the culture wars that have yet to take center stage in this election cycle. Taking a cue from Republican successes in the past few elections, Wicker is conjuring a gay boogeyman to underline a simple message: Americans hate the gays; my opponent loves the gays; Americans should hate my opponent.

(Substitute “abortion” or “atheism” in for “the gays,” by the way, and the formula has proven equally effective.)

Part of what makes Wicker’s ad seem so surprising is that it departs from the larger narrative of the current campaign cycle. With a few notable exceptions — Proposition 8 in California and Proposition 2 in Florida chief among them — culture war rhetoric has not been central to the debate.

Obviously, that hasn’t always been the case. Focusing on wedge social issues like choice and marriage equality worked extremely well for George Bush and his fellow Republicans in 2000 and 2004. Rovian politics forced our most divisive issues to the front of our political consciousness, until we arrived at a point where someone’s party affiliation could just as likely be based on their opinion on school prayer as on taxes.

But this election has been different. Until, that is, Republicans started to get desperate.

The Wicker ad has unfortunately not been unique in its attempt at reintroducing a culture war narrative, and such attempts are getting more blatant.

The Ohio Republican Party has embraced gay-baiting as part of its strategy for this cycle. Earlier this month, the state party sent out a mailer attacking Democratic House candidate Ray Pryor for supporting gay adoption.

Just last week, they sent out a piece in support of Republican candidate Michael Keenan, touting that his first priority in office would be to keep “marriage between a man and a woman.”

And then this past weekend, the true desperation of Republican candidates was revealed when Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin stated her strong support for a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

I can’t help but notice a pattern, and wonder if Palin’s declaration was purposeful.

Out of all the failing Republican candidates in this country, no one is failing quite so spectacularly as the McCain/Palin ticket. Is it possible that Palin’s assertion was a last ditch effort to reenergize the social conservative base of the Republican Party? Was it Palin’s attempt at creating an October surprise?

Despite the resurgence of these tactics — tactics that seem designed to create a gay threat lurking just outside our political consciousness — I’m not particularly concerned about the outcome of this election on any level.

It is desperation, pure and simple, that is leading Republican candidates to try and rekindle the culture wars of election cycles past. And the reason they are feeling such desperation — the American people’s basic distrust of their ability to handle the critical issues facing our country at this crossroad — won’t go away just because they conjure up the threat of the gay boogeyman.

Jenna Lowenstein is a progressive activist and freelance writer who writes about LGBT issues and the intersections of politics and pop culture. She works at Media Matters for America, and lives in Washington, DC.

In newly produced television ads and on the stump, McCain is casting Obama as untested, unprepared to lead the country and too aloof to connect with voters. If he has an audience in mind, it’s likely to be working-class voters, disaffected Democrats and independent-minded white women.

McCain’s weapons? Democrats themselves.

The McCain camp gleefully raked through the Democratic primary archives to find Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton archly questioning Obama’s forthrightness. Clinton’s comments ended up featured in a new ad produced by the McCain campaign.

On Saturday, swiftly pivoting off Obama’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, McCain aides created an ad in which Biden questions Obama’s readiness to become chief executive. The clip was from a Democratic primary debate when not many of the candidates had kind things to say about each other.

It’s unclear whether any of the ads have aired yet. Evan Tracey, a media analyst who tracks ad placements, said Sunday there still was “no sign” of either ad appearing in television markets.

McCain spokesman Ben Porritt said the Clinton ad would air “in key states, markets where Hillary Clinton performed well, and Denver.”

Still, whether as ads or elaborate news releases, the McCain videos are seeking to intrude on Obama’s week.

“The power to this message is that you’re using the Democrats’ own words,” said Republican strategist Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign and is close to the McCain camp. “The McCain guys have successfully used the rapid response to set the terms of the debate on the eve of the Democrats’ convention.”

But Reed believes it’s a message the McCain camp will ride all the way to the November election.

In the newest ad, McCain uses clips from a February interview Clinton gave Politico.com and WJLA Channel 7 in Washington remarking that “you never hear specifics” from Obama on issues, that “we still don’t have a lot of answers about Senator Obama” and his relationship with a now-convicted Chicago real estate developer, and that “Senator Obama’s campaign has become increasingly negative.”

The ad is also a bit of mischief aimed at Clinton supporters who still passionately believe she should have been chosen his running mate.

An announcer states: “She won millions of votes. But isn’t on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth.”

In a statement Sunday, Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said Clinton’s support for Obama is clear. “She has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq and expanding access to health care,” Strand said. “John McCain doesn’t. It’s interesting how those remarks didn’t make it into his ad.”

Both candidates are sticking so closely to their defined messages that they are leaving little to chance. In Phoenix on Sunday, McCain and his wife waved at a gaggle of reporters as he left church, the closest thing to an interaction with the media he’s had for days.

At the North Phoenix Baptist Church on Sunday, Pastor Dan Yeary aired clips of interviews McCain and Obama gave a week ago to Pastor Rick Warren. Seated, with his second wife, Cindy, at his side, McCain watched himself describe his “greatest moral failure” – the failure of his first marriage.

Yeary described the exchange as a “seminal moment” in the presidential campaign. For balance, Yeary showed Democrat Barack Obama’s confession in the same interview that he was too self-absorbed.

“I couldn’t focus on other people,” Obama said.

McCain, the hometown favorite, got a solid round of applause from the congregation, yet another odd moment in a presidential campaign where the two major rivals are growing increasingly isolated, even as voters use the convention season to begin paying attention to the campaign.

McCain was once known for his spontaneity – his bus is the “Straight Talk Express” – and he spent hours sparring with reporters in the campaign’s early days.

Over the weekend, McCain took some time off at the family compound in northern Arizona, while a tiny group of reporters was housed miles away at hotels in Sedona. Reporters were taken to an isolated road near his retreat each morning to join a motorcade to Cottonwood, where he hopped out of his sport utility vehicle and headed into a coffee shop for his morning cup. Reporters watched from about 50 yards away.