This will sound concern trollish, but there is really no other way to put it. It's time to back off on the Palin attacks. The bulk of the dirt that is being found is turning out to be untrue, overblown, or unprovable.
The speed and intensity of the attacks are creating slipshod narratives that don't hold up to close scrutiny and are perilous with backlash possibilities.
The frames are all over the place, inconsistent, and are not producing a net positive result for our side.
I quote McCain talking points directly.
MCCAIN ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR TODAY:
• Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be on all three network and cable television stations defending Governor Palin’s family and her historic candidacy.
• The McCain campaign will launch a television ad directly comparing Governor Palin’s executive experience as a governor who oversees 24,000 state employees, 14 statewide cabinet agencies and a 10 billion dollar budget to Barack Obama’s experience as a one-term junior Senator from Illinois.
• Former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee current U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman and Congressman Eric Cantor will hold a press conference calling on Barack Obama to condemn and/or dismiss his official campaign spokesman who implied Governor Sarah Palin supported Nazi sympathy because she wore a Pat Buchanan pin on one single occasion.
• McCain-Palin surrogates Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, Former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman, McCain Senior Advisor Nicolle Wallace, McCain Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker and McCain Senior Advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer will do television and radio interviews to demand better treatment for Governor Palin’s family.
The push back strategy is two pronged. They are going hard playing victim on babygate, and are calling out anyone in media or the Obama campaign buying into the slipshod smears.
The Buchanan thing will sink Wexler.
"John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans," said a statement by Wexler.
"Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".
Wexler went on to accuse McCain of having "failed his first test of leadership."
There is no workable defense to his statements. Palin is on the record as not officially supporting Buchanan, and like it or not Buchanan is not widely understood to be a Nazi sympathizer. He is on MSNBC every night across from Rachel Maddow.
He will be gone from the campaign, hopefully before Lieberman has his press conference.
That is the danger in pushing these smears. I'm not saying don't do your research, but don't go nuts on stuff without full verification on the facts of what you are doing.
I realize DailyKos is not part of the campaign, and Obama has no power to control what goes on here, but he will be on with Bill O'Reilly this week and will most likely be asked questions about some of the troubling things that have appeared on this site as of late.
If we had followed his request not to push scandal and stick to issues, he would not be having this problem.
Sarah Palin is not being dropped from the ticket, no matter what else comes to light about her. She will give a good speech tonight and the media will be back on her side. The only scandal that has achieved any media traction is the baby story. There is no honorable, effective line of attack on that issue for Obama or for us. It is a private matter. Leave it alone.
Sarah Palin will be easily defeated on the issues. She holds out of the mainstream social conservative views. She is being fed her foreign policy directly from Bush. She will hold the McCain line on all issues.
Stick to issues, and win. That is what Obama wants, and what we should be giving him.
That is all.
