(1) Obama’s camp has always known that McCain’s camp would go disgustingly negative. (2) McCain’s decision to use Rove and his acolytes to manage his campaign ensured this. (3) Knowing this, Obama has played McCain perfectly and is now in a much stronger position. (4) The neo-con’s imposition of Palin on the McCain ticket will help Obama, not hurt him.
All the hand-wringing by Obama partisans and the attention given to Palin is extremely misguided and, as Jeffrey Feldman points out in his recommended diary today, counter-productive to Obama’s interests. Fortunately, Obama clearly does not share the anxiety many "chicken littles" (using Al Giordano’s label) have about his prospects for victory.
Obama knew that things would get ugly. He established a respectful tone toward McCain (which drove us crazy!) knowing all the while that McCain’s campaign would show none of that deference toward him. He was allowing facts on the ground to emerge that have now set things up for the knockout punch(es) that we’ll all see in the coming weeks.
Contrary to what many (myself included) "feared" after McCain’s pick of Palin, her selection will, I’m confident, be a boon to Obama and his message. We’ve already seen that the MSM has recoiled from Palin after the initial swoon. Obama was wise to hold fire on her during the week following the announcement that she was McCain’s pick (she was the neo-con’s pick, we know). He offered courtesy to her, as he did to McCain. His reticence paid off big-time when she made her snide, disrespectful remarks about "community organizers" at the GOP convention. In that one statement she insulted communities of all stripes and destroyed any pretenses McCain offered of being a "small government" conservative. Many "undecideds" took note and sided with Obama on this account. Hillary drove that point deeper by her "throw away" line last week while campaigning in Florida: "the Republicans, whoever they are!" Palin’s weak performance with "Charlie" Gibson did not hurt Obama. In Nevada yesterday Palin attacked Michelle Obama for "not being proud of her country." This will not help McCain’s (absurd) claim that Palin is a feminist. I’m sure Obama’s camp will be judiciously quiet for awhile, allowing the crass contradiction that is McCain-Palin to take root in the public’s "reptile" brain. People will recoil from them, whether their pre-frontal cortex informs them of it nor not.
Right now we have a GOP ticket whose image, increasingly amplified by the MSM (wonder of wonders!), is that of impulsiveness, elitism, and irresponsibility. Republicans are increasingly being seen by the swing voters as the party responsible for the mess the economy is in. Because of Palin, McCain’s claims to be a "reformer", ridiculous on its face as they were, are now moot (the lobbyists, the earmarks!). The MSM is calling them out on it.
More importantly, McCain can no longer hide behind his carefully crafted image of being an "honorable man." The lies and distortions offered by his Rove-led campaign, which he refuses to even acknowledge, are so glaring and offensive that even the MSM, hat tip to "The View" as well, have choked on them and the candidate’s willful mendacity in that regard.
Kossacks, get used to this fact. Obama has played McCain perfectly. He showed a modicum of respect, waited for the filth from McCain’s campaign to emerge, then attacked (thankfully with the MSM’s cooperation on this one) the disparity between the image of McCain and the actions of his campaign. Now Obama can really take the gloves off without risking the appearance of being angry/weak. He has the appearance of righteousness, if not the actual righteousness itself (I think he’s got the actual thing, too, but put that aside for now), on his side. He can call McCain a liar without the likes of Bob Scheiffer fainting over it (just an example: remember how aghast Scheiffer was with Gen. Clark for even suggesting that McCain lacked good judgment on Iraq? Scheiffer actually asked "are you questioning John McCain’s integrity?" as if that was beyond the pale. Not anymore it isn't.)
Obama has done everything he could have done to neutralize the "air war" that he knew McCain-Rove would direct against him. All the while, Obama has continued to wage the "ground war" with a relentless passion and vision that the GOP, try as they will, cannot subvert. Obama will now let the 527s launch their own air war on McCain, all the while continuing to emphasize his positive vision for America in the ads his campaign puts out between now and Nov. 4. These facts won’t show up in the national polls or in the tripe offered by the talking heads, of course.
What remains for us to do is what Giordano, Kos and Feldman, among many others have always exhorted: Turn off your TV, get out of the house and get out the vote! To that end I, living in California, will be travelling to Nevada in October to support the Obama campaign's efforts to turn Nevada Blue. I've given more money to Obama than I care to say. All because I believe that victory is within our grasp. Yes we can!