The Trap

I don't think going after McCain's advertising is a winner for Barack. How does that undo the power of Palin?

GOP campaign guy strategist Ed Rollins writes at CNN.com about how Palin has changed the race:

...over the last two weeks, the governor of Alaska has deflected the arc of Obama's campaign. She can match his pretty words. The outdoor game has changed from "horse" to "moose," and only one candidate in this race has shot "moose."

Then the McCain campaign reacted wrong.

Obama's campaign diminished itself by challenging her experience. The candidate who ranked 99th in Senate seniority, with one of the thinnest resumes ever when he began his presidential quest, looked foolish challenging a governor who made decisions every day while he was missing votes in the Senate running for president.

It seems to me that Barack should be focusing on doing the thing that he's never been able to do - and that Palin makes harder for him - connecting with working class voters.

The good news for Obama is the Europeans still want him to be our president. Unfortunately for him they don't vote here, and the independent voters who do are shifting to McCain-Palin.

The other good news for Obama is that this race is far from over. But he is not going to win by telling voters McCain is too old and doesn't know how to use the Internet. Many of McCain's supporters are old and could care less about the Internet.

What the country wants to know is do these candidates understand what's going on in their lives and in their neighbors' lives, and are they willing to try and fix it.

The challenge for Barack is to get the focus off of the GOP. Complaining about McCain, and forcing discussion about whether McCain's ads are valid or not, doesn't undo the Palin effect. It leaves it in control.

Nobody cares if Palin knows the Bush doctrine. I defy anyone to tell you what the Bush-Cheney strategy has been over the last seven years (other than getting re-elected) or what doctrine has been practiced by this "gang that can't shoot straight." And who cares? They are gone in 126 days.