While I certainly believe the time is now for Obama to attack and define McCain as a confused ancient flip flopping hothead lying fool who loves Bush so much he can't contain himself, I don't think that, even if it sticks, the Obama as arrogant celebrity empty suit is anywhere near as damaging as the Swift Boat charges were to Kerry
YES, it's possible that the republican smear may stick for some swing voters. Hell, they've certainly been trying hard, with 4 negative ads in a week and a half and NO positive ones in a month, and yes, the Gallup daily tracking poll does show a significant Obama drop during the Week of Mud.
I also believe that it is very much time to start painting McCain as the soulless power hungry old tool of the Bushies that he has become and do this BEFORE his convention full of war heroes in the fall.
I do not believe the Obama response is sufficient.
I also do not believe, however, that these charges are the kind of campaign sinking smear that the Swift Boar charges were to Kerry.
The central message here is just not that strong: Obama is enexperienced, arrogant, and in love with himself, to the exclusion of concern for the troops. Throw in some lies about his record that I believe people tune out as white noise, like "he's responsible for your gas prices." That's a pretty big insult, but it's just a character frame, it's not a charge of Obama having actually done something. Even if people believe that Obama did cancel the troop visit due to not being allowed to bring cameras in, that's still not even in the ballpark of what specific actions Kerry was charged with.
The Swift Boat ads didn't call Kerry French looking or elitist. That's the equivalent of these McCain slurs. The Swift Boat ads charged John Kerry with lying about his war experiences and receiving medals under false pretenses and then campaigning on a phony story of war heroics. That is a reprehensible act that would immediately make anyone worthy of justifiable contempt from his fellow human beings. It was not responding to that charge that sunk John Kerry. This charge doesn't nearly equal that accusation.
The public can live with a candidate being called arrogant and empty headed. The public can't live with a candidate being called a liar and a fraud and an exploiter of the deaths and bravery of others for his own craven purpsoses of self advancement and then seem to let that charge go unanswered. The shots fired at Obama this week aren't nearly that level of devastating.
I do think it's high time Obama attacked McCain and painted him for the horrendous person he has become, but I'm not terrified by the impact of these charges as I was by the Swift Boat charges.