With 30 days left to go and a significant Obama lead, the only way to hold the lead is to take the counterintuitive step of staying on the offensive. We all know that simply responding to smear charges -- and even "jujusti-ing"* them with "McCain is a desperate smearer trying to avoid talking about the economy" counter-charges -- is not quite enough. We have to get the MSM's attention on other issues for much if not all of the next 30 days to keep any negative smears from worming their way into the collective unconsciousness of the swing voters. Here are my suggestions -- I welcome those of others.
To keep "Ayers", "Rezko" and "Wright" off the front pages, Obama, his surrogates (particularly Biden, who's gained new-found prominence in the eyes of the media) and the Obama-favoring blogocracy have to offer something that is tastier to the media to fill their dance cards -- their front pages -- until November 4th. Some should be positive, some negative, but all interesting.
Do we need 30 news stories? No -- most good stories will have 2 days of resonance before moving on, and there's a little lag time for a new story to catch on. Weekends are slow times, and the economic issues will ebb and flow, as most experts figure that it will take close to the whole month for the credit faucet to get turned on; so, there will continue to be stories about business closing, etc. that will be distractions that will inure to McCain's detriment. And, everything from November 1st on will be too new to gain much traction. So, 24 days of distraction should do it.
Here's what I figure to be the main 'distractions' that could, should or will prevent the negative attacks from gaining traction:
- Some blowback from the attacks themselves, as either McCain or Palin oversstep and say something demonstrably false, mean and McCarthyistic -- 3 days.
- The MSM's obligatory nod toward the Keating 5 -- 2 days.
- Sarah Palin's tax return issues -- particularly her failure to declare as income reimbursement given by the state for her family's expenses at home -- 2 days.
- John McCain's suspicious failure to declare anything on his tax returns for gambling winnings and losses -- 1 day.
- Obama's more detailed plan to fix the economy -- 3 days aggregate.
- High profile appearances by Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton -- this is critical -- 3 days.
- The Troopergate report and at least one attempt by Palin to spin clear of it -- 3 days.
- One more Hail Mary from McCain that turns into a drama queen episode -- 2 days.
- The two remaining debates and the spinning of each -- 4 days.
There it is -- 9 ways and 23 days to keep the public from getting sucked into smears. What ideas to you all have to fill up the MSM dance card?
*"Jujutsu literally meaning the "art of softness", or "way of yielding" is a collective name for Japanese martial art styles ... developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it." This technique -- in a macro campaign sense often called "pivoting" -- is the key to winning most arguments and debates ), and will be crucial here. A campaign example is McC attacking Obama for his "connection" to FannieMae via Raines, and then Obama turning it around by showing Rick Davis and others having even greater ties.