Donna, Newt, Friedman et al

Stephanopoulos had a full hour round table today. When Newt Gingrich suggested that McCain should spend the last two weeks reminding voters what Barack will do as president with Pelosi and Reid controlling congress, Donna Brazile's defense was pretty funny, and revealing.

You won't have to worry about that, she claimed, because Obama will have to lead in a way that will make liberals unhappy - he'll have to be fiscally prudent and cut budgets.

On the Powell endorsement, Newt thinks it's a big deal.

Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich reacted this morning to Colin Powell's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama explaining "what that just did in one sound bite...is that it eliminated the experience argument."

I would dispute this assertion as well - I don't see Colin as having that much credibility anymore. Those sick of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq will remember Powell's role in it - and it's clear to everyone that Powell is looking for a way to recover his legacy. This goes along with the perception that race may be a big part of his decision.

The roundtable was an ordination, with no mention of the 2 point Gallup margin or the 2.7% Zogby margin. George said the polls are running 4-7% for Obama, and most of the conversation was about Barack's first term.

McCain Gets it Across

Did you happen to see McCain with Stephanopolous yesterday. He was forceful and likable, and George couldn't figure out how to pin him down. A wonderful performance.

Character Attack

Is McCain being fair?

"It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said Tuesday in New Hampshire, in a line he’s been using regularly since.

That statement represents shorthand for an angle that is entirely accurate - attacking Barack's character for having contrived positions on the war to please liberal Democrats in order to outflank Hillary.

A former naval aviator and prisoner of war in Vietnam, McCain is pressing his case against a candidate with no military experience, and who—thanks in part to a subterranean smear campaign that’s tapped a nerve with some voters who because of it or even prior to it—don’t see him as entirely or all American.

Doubts about Barack - his background, his judgment, his patriotism - underpin his problems with mainstream voters. It is wise, and fair, for McCain to go for the jugular.

It’s a tempting line of attack, though, against Obama, who a recent poll found that 55 percent of voters thought was the “riskier” choice for president as against 35 percent who said McCain. It’s also an attack that tap into a major source of that unease, race, and is especially likely to pay dividends with a relative newcomer to the national stage such as Obama, whose public image is not yet as clearly defined.

Giving vague speeches like the one offered on the streets of Berlin only serves to fuel questions about who Barack is and what he truly believes.

"I'm not questioning his patriotism," McCain said on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous. "I am saying that he made the decision [to oppose the surge], which was political, in order to help him get the nomination of his party.

Which is, of course, an attack on his patriotism. And one that is deserved.