Obama Better be Ruthless

It's clear that the McCain campaign has lost any moral compass it may have had. When asked about the dreadful tone of the contest in his 9/11 interview, McCain shifted blame to Obama for not agreeing to a series of town hall meetings. The tone "would have been completely different", he said shamelessly while smiling.

When dealing with such a totally ruthless opponent, kicking and biting and scratching and whatever else is necessary must be deployed. Obama is now being taught what McCain has learned and he has only a few weeks to counter-attack viciously.

John McCain was abused as a POW in Vietnam but, most importantly, was unfairly attacked in 2000 by the Republican thugs who mugged him in South Carolina to get the nomination for George W. Bush. They spread a whispering campaign that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was his black illegitimate child, that McCain was a homosexual and that his wife Cindy was still a drug addict. He lost his huge lead, Bush won the primary, and McCain was shut out of the presidential race.

The world's rough, both at home and abroad, as McCain has learned. So fearing Obama's lead, he has been doing whatever he needs to in order to win or, as he likes to rationalize, "put country first".

So must Obama -- not only to win, but to show he has the "right stuff" and can play rough.

Here are some vulnerabilities:

-- Senator McCain is scary. He is an old trigger-happy veteran who crashed five planes and was only kept as a naval pilot because his daddy ran the U.S. Navy. Air the details of this.

-- Senator McCain is scary. Ask Nebraska's Republican Senator and Vietnam veteran, Chuck Hagel, who has said so publicly and must be featured in commercials across the country.

-- Senator McCain is fooling everybody with his maverick reform stuff. He wants to be president because he is a rich guy with 11 houses who wants to eliminate taxes for himself and the other rich people. He wants a single parent mother in Ohio to pay more taxes on her income than hedge fund guys in Manhattan. Examples.

-- Senator McCain is a greedy and insensitive politician whose health problems have run up millions of dollars in bills for taxpayers, but who would deny a family of four in Missouri the same healthcare. John McCain's personal health care costs as a Senator? Zero. His medical costs so far? $10 million or whatever. Healthcare costs for a family of four in Missouri? $14,000 out of an average income of $60,000? Examples.

-- Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. This is top of mind for most Americans and is superior, and more cost-efficient, in every developed country in the world except America. The lack of decent health care is not a policy matter but a searing metaphor for the failure, by McCain and the other members of Washington's establishment, to look after the people of their country.

-- McCain's running-mate, Mrs. Palin, is a cocky housewife who's had a cake-walk in Alaska only because oil revenue surpluses allowed her to hand out $1,200 checks to everybody. Her choice by McCain is a contemptuous rip-off of American Idol as Roger Ebert says eloquently. Put Ebert and his thumbs-down in the commercial.

John McCain is a plutocrat, a greedy have-more, an I'm-alright-Jack on healthcare and a trigger-happy warmonger.

Obama and his team must hang the labels on this guy and make them stick.

Comments

[wilhelmR]

One of the very best political articles I've read in a year! Now regarding healthcare: My wife and I had a very good healthacare plan for the last 8 years. We were on her pplan from work since I am unemployed. She lost her job this September and to continue with her plan we must pay over $16,000 for both of us. This can happen to anybody and if you don't belive it think twice.

[Zanti]

You're absolutely right. But Obama won't do these things. Or, at best, he'll give a half-hearted try and flop. The man doesn't know how to put up a fight. That was obvious to many of us long ago. And now it's becoming obvious to everyone. This is the most painful "Told you so" I can imagine, whichever end one happens to be on.

Then again, Obama still has a chance to prove me wrong. I pray he does. But not with any expectation he will.

Let's face it--even if McCain were running a clean campaign, Obama's bearing would still appear wimpish and remote and unfocused. I'm not saying he's any of those things, but running for office is approximately 100 percent appearance. I can't believe we haven't learned that by now.

I seriously think Barack figured that all he had to do was show up. And that no one would think to come after him. I remember trying, not too long ago, to explain to some on-line Obama fans that, yes, the Republicans ARE going to attack, and they're going to attack hard. Oh, no, they wouldn't dare.

Well, yeah, they would. And, as anyone could have predicted, they've struck suddenly and in an all-out fashion, with little to no warning. They played to our expectation of meekness on their part. I wish we had even a little bit of their superb planning ability, but we're too busy forming committees to determine the least effective approaches.

[Rossan]

Obama is smart , he really is a decent man. I believe he wants to run a decent campaign. Unfortunately McCain is a deceitful liar & he's been lying for 72 yrs. he'll be hard to contain. I hope Obama can be tactful & savy bringing this McCain scam to light for voters that are in denial about McCain & problems he will cause for middle Americans.

[Zanti]

Maybe he can have a long talk about it, explaining all the ins and outs and sub-ins and -outs, and referring to charts whenever necessary. He do that grimacing-­and-starin­g-off to-the-rig­ht-while-h­olding-up-­his-hand-i­n-a-karate­-gesture thing he does so well, and which makes him such a lively and engaging speaker.

I can hear it now: "Senator McCain is being somewhat completely less than perfectly honest, and I think the American people deserve total honesty instead of less than perfect honesty of the type Senator McCain, my opponent, is displaying in the present campaign. I mean it. I think we're... (sound of cheering).­.. thank you, thank you. I... I think, um, that we're...."

[NCGigi]

Say what you want about the Clintons, love them or hate them, but they want to win. And they win. In my view, it's important to win. If you don't win, you can't change anything. Transformation follows Victory.

[Zanti]

That is SO not the Democratic Party way!

Then again, we need a new campaign strategy, and winning sounds fresh and exciting. What is it, by the way?

[Diane Francis - Huffpost Blogger]

by the way these labels are accurate about McCain. He has to be slammed back and immediately.

I would also add that he criticized Giuliani because he was only a "mayor" of a city for eight years (which is larger than Alaska economically) and he criticized Romney because he was only a "governor" for four years.
Both these guys were passed over for her. the Demos must put out a commercial with McCain dissing Giuliani and Romney for their lack of experience as a mayor and governor, respectively, then the punch line is her puny experience.
C'mon Democrats. Get Carville to write the commercials for you!!!

[goldiekins]

Wow! Good points. McCain seems so mean, I hate the thought of Obama going that way. Does the end justify the means? I know, it's a sucky world.

[speeddeeps]

Sometimes I think that Dems dont want to win the election. Sen 0 looks weak, he has to be callous and start using below the belt tactics. Lets not forget we are playing by repub rules

0bama/B!den 08