Rovian Politics by McCain
McCain's Epiphany
Toles certainly does nail what McCain’s campaign has been doing. It really seems like every four years in August, the Republicans get nasty and start through mud. Kerry was Swift Boated, Dukakis was Willie Hortoned, to name just two examples.
It’s especially heinous this year, though, because McCain said that his campaign would not stoop to this level and would run an honorable campaign on the issues. Obama has done that to date, but I think it’s time for Obama to hit back and hit back hard. Other Democratic observers think so as well. I don’t think that Obama should get down in the mud with McCain, but as Obama himself said (something like this): “When you’re getting hit and getting hit, eventually you hit back.” Well, it’s time to hit back. Obama has had some good ads out there, but it’s time to sharpen them a bit.
McCain is the Republican nominee from a weak Republican primary field in a poor year for Republicans. There is a lot there for Obama to touch on, and very little of it needs to get personal to McCain — Keating Five, for one. Obama can’t let McCain keep defining him as unpatriotic and elitist (that one is really rich, in my opinion; McCain doesn’t even know how many houses he owns) and hope to win. Obama should define himself and then define McCain in less than flattering terms. We’ve seen that McCain’s campaign — thanks to Steve Schmidt, a Rove disciple — is happy to fling mud. Some of it is beginning to stick.
I know there’s a lot of campaign to go — the conventions, the debates — but Obama needs to get back on offense.
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