More gun metaphors from “The One”:

(SPRINGFIELD, MO.) – Forget negative ads and attacks on the stump, Barack Obama went back in time and challenged John McCain to an old fashioned duel. “I was just reading that Wild Bill Hickok. He had the first duel in the town square here in Springfield,” Obama told the crowd of around 1,000. Referencing his extended family tree, Obama said that legend has it that he is related to Hickok. “So we’re going to research that cause I’m ready to duel John McCain on taxes. Right now, right here. I am a quick draw.”

I believe Senator McCain has offered to “duel” “right now, right here” and its Senator Obama that is, to stick with the Old West theme, too yellow-bellied to accept the challenge.

The New York Times adds a cautionary tale for Obama’s latest audacious boast:

History, alas, also offers a caution or three for the aspiring duelist. The citizenry of Springfield was not enamored with Mr. Hickok plugging a citizen in plain daylight. Soon after, he lost a close election for marshal.
Eleven years later, the curtain dropped more definitively on his political career, as a gunslinger shot Wild Bill dead while playing poker at Saloon #10 in Deadwood.