A new anti-Obama mailer from the Republican Party hit voters late this weekend, and it goes after the Democratic candidate for being so dangerously inexperienced that "if he was your doctor...you'd call another doctor."
Readers in North Carolina and Pennsylvania sent over alternate versions of the same piece - the latest to go hard after the Illinois Democrat for being wet behind the ears. One copy contains a curious new charge:
"Casting a vote in the U.S. Senate only 291 days, the equivalent of working 9.5 months, Obama is still new to the job."
Beyond that, the material offers fairly boilerplate digs about Obama lacking the gravitas or years to handle the job of president, including a nod of sorts to Joe the Plumber.
"If he was in the army...you'd call him a private. If he was an athlete...you'd call him a rookie. If he was a plumber...you'd call him an apprentice. If he was a student...you'd call him a freshman."
Viewed from afar, the charge that Obama lacks the experience to handle the job seems electorally non-fruitful; not least because McCain's decision to put Sarah Palin on his ticket effective removed such an argument from the table. Part of the reason that these past few weeks have proved so utterly damaging to the GOP is that voters were able to witness the two candidates handling a crisis in real time. And overwhelmingly they favored Obama's approach. Time in Washington, in short, was trumped by the capacity to calm the public's nerves. While McCain has the former, opinion polls suggest people preferred the latter.
