Earlier today the Obama campaign leaked its post-debate talking points. Whether the leak was accidental or on purpose, I want to know whether it is a trap for McCain.
The talking points included this item:
Just this weekend the weekend, John McCain vowed to "whip Obama’s you-know-what" at the debate, and he’s indicated that he’ll be bringing up Bill Ayers to try to distract voters.
· So we know that Senator McCain will come ready to attack Barack Obama and bring his dishonorable campaign tactics to the debate stage
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Go below for the fold for why I wonder whether this is a trap for McCain.
Yesterday the New York Times ran a front page story that linked a new 14 percentage point advantage for Obama to McCain's negative campaign. For the New York Times, at least, the more McCain goes on the attack, the better for Obama.
Let's assume for a moment the New York Times is interpreting the data correctly.
Wouldn't an alert McCain adviser tell the other McCain advisers that their plan to go after Obama is likely to backfire?
Wouldn't a savvy staff tell McCain to dial back on his plan to "whip Obama's you know what?"
Now let's assume a savvy Obama staffer figures out that a savvy McCain staffer might hold off on blasting Obama.
Would that savvy Obama staffer do something to goad the McCain staff into pressing ahead with their plan to, you know, kick Obama's ass?
Okay, so maybe that's a little too cute and nothing like that happened.
Still, do you think the McCain campaign might be walking into a trap if it goes full bore on its public plan to go negative tonight. And remember this would mean going negative one-on-one in front of the camera?
Do you buy the NYT's conclusion that negative 'ain't the way' for McCain?