Elections aren't theoretical exercises. They are between two real people. Yes, sometimes they are also about ideas and the mood of the country. But in the end, there are two names that stare voters in the face when they get in that voting booth. And they have to pull the trigger on one of them.
The Republicans have historically tried to avoid the issues and run image campaigns. Don't worry about Reagan's domestic policy; look at how much he looks like a cowboy. They even made a preppy cheerleader from Andover into a ranch-hand you wanted to have a drink with (even though he is an alcoholic).
But they don't just burnish their own image; they rip their opponent's apart. They say so many terrible things about them that when the average voter gets into the booth, they hesitate in pulling that lever next to the other guy's name. This November, it won't say "Change" on the ballot; it will say "Barack Obama." And if they have spent millions of dollars ripping down that name, then they will have an advantage.
The problem with the Democrats is unilateral disarmament. They might attack their opponent's stance on the issues, but they never attack them personally. They don't make people hesitate before turning over their trust to that candidate.
How many times have you heard Barack Obama and Joe Biden tell you how much they like John McCain, how honorable he is and how they would never question his patriotism or love of country? Meanwhile, McCain is running ads saying Obama wants to sex up your young kids. He'd teach them the Kama Sutra. Gee, I wonder why the Republicans do a better job of creating mistrust in the mind of the voter about their opponent. One side is trying, the other isn't.
In that voting booth, the voter has to understand that not only does John McCain support bad policy positions, but he does so because he is a bad person. Voters always think they are choosing between a lesser of two evils, and under those circumstances, they usually pick the one they are least afraid of.
You have to make them fear John McCain. The problem isn't the bills or the policy positions, the problem is John McCain. He supports those positions because he has bad intentions. You can't trust him. He wants to sell you out to the oil companies and giant, multi-national corporations who contribute to his campaign.
Obama has to have the balls to call John McCain a fraud.
McCain changed his positions on torture, immigration, Bush's tax cuts and the list goes on and on. Why, because he was mistaken? No, he did it on purpose. That's because he's a fraud. He is, as Ross Perot called him, a "classic opportunist."
If you don't put that chink in his armor, you are going to have voters who have only negative images of Obama and positive ones for McCain. And that's a sure-fire formula for losing an election.