I have been diarying here and here and here (yeah, yeah, I know, I have a real Jones about this point) that the Obama campaign needed to take no chances regarding a possible McCain victory, which meant that the Obama campaign needed to definitively take out McCain for good once and for all with a silver bullet, that silver bullet being the issue of McCain's temperament (ie, the issue of McCain being psychologically unfit to be president.)
Well, that moment has finally arrived, and I am positively glowing!
Back in 1964, what Americans in general cold-sweat feared the most was getting into an all-out nuclear conflict with the USSR, and the Johnson campaign successfully played into that fear by implicitly framing Goldwater as an unhinged nuke-loving nut (ie, a temperament issue) who could possibly bring about that very thing:
LBJ "Daisy Ad" political commercial, aired September 7, 1964
"I just shudder to think what would happen if Goldwater won it. He's a man that's had two nervous breakdowns. He's not a stable fellow at all."
— President Lyndon B. Johnson to Texas Governor John Connally, from a 7/23/64 White House telephone tape recording
LINK - AUDIO
Now, here is the new twist to the above "Daisy Ad" temperament/fear theme, and here is where the Obama campaign just did something absolutely brilliant.
Today, in 2008, what Americans in general cold-sweat fear the most is not a nuclear meltdown, but rather an economic meltdown of "nuclear" proportions; thus, in 2008, the silver bullet temperament card to play against McCain is that McCain is psychologically unfit to deal with a financial crisis, and that is exactly how I read the Obama campaign's use of the word "erratic" in their new ad here.
Well done Obama team!
I just felt I needed to say that.
Oh yeah, I also wanted to say that now that McCain is going to soon "kitchen sink" Obama, the best way to defend against such vile attacks is to play hard offense and hit McCain back even harder; that's the Chicago way, and Obama is doing exactly that with his new campaign theme here of framing McCain as being "erratic".
Obama HAS indeed saved the very best for the very last, and I am very pleased!