Discussthing, Alive?

Hey, so I've been spending increasing amounts of time each day following the minutia of the presidential campaign, and if I don't give myself somewhere to vent the anger that steams inside me, I'll probably be a pile of ashes by mid-October.

So I took the liberty of ressurecting an old friend, discussTHING, this time with the spam-bot-proof security of Google blogger. I'm hoping we can regain a bit of the magic of yore, or at least provide each other some comfort in these times of hope and dread.

Today's topic: What does the Obama campaign need to do to regain its footing?

McCain's campaign for the past week has ressurected the familiar Rovian strategy of repeated constant attacks, each one so outrageous that the media feels compelled to cover it for its sheer shock value. Examples include ads falsely accusing Obama of wanting to teach kindergarteners about sex, and comparing his political team to a pack of wolves (misquoting factcheck.org in the process.)

My intuition is that Obama needs to ratchet up his own attacks, especially on Palin. Palin is the one thing giving the McCain campaign energy at the moment, and he needs to attack this energy at its source. There's no shortage of material: her constant lies about her record, her attempt to ban books at the Wasilla public library, her complete lack of foreign policy experience.

But the one thing they should not do is fear to be seen as over the top. Bush and McCain have demonstrated that you can go WAY over the top in political attacks, as long as you refuse to back down. Obama needs to learn this lesson: never back down and never let them make you afraid. If they hit you, hit them back. It's not pretty, but it's they only way that works.

It appears the Obama campaign may already have this in mind. It will be an ugly, awful couple of months, but with any luck we'll be smiling in November and thinking that maybe this country CAN live up to its promise.

In the meantime, DISCUSS!!!