blogger interrupted

The polls are looking great right now, but there’s one way for them to reverse.  If Barack lets John McCain define the narrative.  It’s too early to say definitively that this is happening, but I’m starting to worry.  Barack’s campaign seems to be on the defensive right now.  

Of course, the primary just ended, and there is a lot of re-uniting to do.  That re-uniting is going fantastically well, given the acrimony of the past 6 months.  Today’s event in Unity, NH, is a huge, necessary step.  I would very much like to see some new lines of attack opened up on McCain at the event, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s still o.k.  We need Hillary Clinton to be on board, and that’s the priority of this event.

However, the months between now and the conventions in late August, early September, cannot be filled with one defense after another of every single moronic talking point Karl Rove, George W Bush, and John McCain throw against the wall and hope will stick.  The narrative they appear to have decided on, i.e., Barack is just a politician, is so laughable the defense is easy.  But we need to make sure that narrative isn’t the dominant one.  

It is classic Rovian targeting of the opponent’s strength - Barack’s authenticity.  Rove and McCain are going for Barack’s jugular here, and Barack needs to go right back at McCain’s strength in return.

Time to go on offense.  And that means going after John McCain’s so-called patriotism.  His so-called heroism.  And his so-called ‘maverick’ness.  John McCain is no maverick.  He’s a self serving politician who will do anything to be elected president.  

How?   Barack’s campaign needs to use Barack’s strength, authenticity, to go after McCain’s strength.  One way to do that is to visit Iraq & Afghanistan, as is scheduled.  Get Barack with soldiers, who are now saying, publicly, to anyone who will listen, that Afghanistan is sliding into chaos.  Another way to do that is to pound on McCain’s record in the Senate, which is so un-maverick-y, it can even be made a joke.  Go after McCain’s complete incompetence on the economy.

Yet another way can be to have the folks who don’t mind getting dirty (MoveOn, DNC, us bloggers) to go after McCain’s military record.  Go after his super-rich wife, who McCain left his crippled first wife to chase.  Go after it all.

We need to do this soon, and we need to do it all the time.  We cannot afford the GOP to set the narrative in place that Barack is a typical politician.  We know that’s not true, but if the media narrative becomes what the GOP wants it to be, we will see the polls narrow, and we will have a fight on our hands.  

Come on, Barack.  Get in the ring.

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