The one thing Karl Rove talks about again and again, is play to your opponent's strengths, not his weaknesses. That being said, the Obama campaign needs to start attacking John McCain's perceived (institutionalized) strengths.
Now you can't go after his 40 year old POW experience, as much as McCain uses it as a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, it's politically off the table. But his "Maverick" persona is very fair game.
It's time to go on the offensive instead of playing defense as the Obama campaign seems to be doing of late.
More after the fold.
We need to get aggressive. Either from the Obama camp, or from a 527 in aggressive ads attacking John McCain's most visible strength after the much over-used POW shtick. Maverick!
Let's look at some examples of attack ads going after his strengths
Announcer: John McCain calls himself the Maverick, but voted with George W. Bush 90% of the time. [show picture of the Bush McCain awkward hug] Over the past year, when he even bothered to show up to vote, John McCain voted 100% of the time with Bush. John McCain has the worst voting record of any Senator this year missing XX% of all the votes. George W. Bush rubber stamp, part-time senator. Is this the hallmark of a maverick, or just more of the same.
Hammer the "Maverick" strength. Sarah Palin is not above this as well.
Announcer: The most important first decision a candidate for president can make is the choice for vice president. John McCain chose a sitting governor under investigation by a bi-partisan commission in her home state for abuse of power, an impeachable offense. The governor claims publicly she is willing to cooperate with the investigation, but her legal team is stonewalling and trying to invoke executive privilege. Now where have we heard that before? [show picture of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez, Harriet Miers] John McCain, maverick, or just more of the same.
The available material ready for harvest to attack the so called maverick persona are legion. If John McCain is going to avoid the issues and run a personality campaign, Barack Obama is going to have to smash the maverick image while also actually talking about the issues.
Go after McCain's voting record. The New G.I. Bill that McCain opposed and tried to take credit for after it passed without him even bothering to show up to vote on it should be up at the top.
Hammer and hammer the maverick image and show the American people the real McCain. It's past time to pre-act, rather then react to John McCain and the Rovian elements in his campaign.