In the wake of the nervousness many people are feeling over Obama’s inability to counter McCain’s negative campaiging, there is a big drive going on now in Democratic circles to fund 527s to hit back on his behalf. The Obama campaign shut the independent expenditure groups down earlier this year, so nobody is really going to have the staff and the research capabilities to be truly effective in this campaign cycle (they needed to start ramping up a year ago). But if they’re looking for good messaging on the fly, Matt Damon in the video above does a really great job.
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Great post, Jane. Hope it’s effective!
Amen,…where are the Democratic 527’s? Oh but wait….according to morning Joe and Mika and every other talking head on his show this morning…Sara Palin is off limits….do not attack her because it will backfire…I think that means we need to double down and show the world just how absurd the VP choice is. Kudos Matt Damon.
In fact Mika stated “go back to acting” when she heard the Matt Damon absurd clip this morning.
I thought we were staff and research…oh paid staff and research:)
Too bad the Righty Blogs never vetted Sarah I still have my doubts about Biden but at least I got to air them and others defended him.
Mika is a malleable stooge.
Joe is just a dickbag with a unexplained death hovering over his head.
-G
Jane,
More of this please. This sounds just like the conversation my husband and I are having daily. We keep asking, how did we get to this? Top that question with the revelations of the Interior Department Royalty In Kind mess…
The question then becomes, “How do we get out of this?”
There must have been a few parents who just failed on setting limits on their children and now those spoiled children have power. I think it is time to “set limits” and say, “No!” to them.
Rule of Law leadership…
Rule of law leadership is THE concept that is Palin’s weakness, as well as McCain’s…
It’s an awfully short time before November, and from what I’m hearing there’s a lot of disorganization around the effort. There may be a whole lot of money thrown at people who don’t quite know what they’re doing, so how effective it will be is anybody’s guess.
How about calling McCain’s campaign for what it really is: “The Campaign to Nowhere”
As good ( “articulate” ?) as Damon is, the fact that
this looks like it was filmed in a very expensive hotel suite
would not play well in Peoria.
With the Rovians in full bloom trying to snatch another WH four year run amok for GOP and McPain/Painlin the DEMs need to wake up,get in gear and hit the go pedal!
Once again why are the DEMS so lethargic? This is not Easy Street.
The Rovians are going to have to be beaten down hard and often elsewise the DEMS may as well pull out now and spare us any more “lipstick on pigs” news days.
Barack seems smart. Coming out of Chicago politics he ought to be street wise regarding hit and push politics.
So? Why this stall and dither? If he is going to try and coast into the WH he may as well just stop here. Get going or get out of the way DEMs!
What’s the take on Obama’s appearance on Letterman? My fear is that he came across with the persona of a “celebrity”, chit chatting, smiling and joking with Letterman rather than the persona of a politician with a fire in the belly who has had enough and isn’t going to take it anymore.
Thanks Jane.
digg
1 out of 3 chance McCain won’t make it, does that count his cancer survivor status, drinking, time as a POW, his confusing Shia and Sunni which could mean lots of things Dementia, a stroke, forgetting etc.
Maybe we are right to focus on Sarah book banners don’t make good education Presidents.
America is not a small town in Alaska where she can hire an administrator to run the government and put her small town millions in debt.
Nope as Bush has shown if you want to put America Billions of Dollars in Debt you have to be able to
leadspend from day one.I thought the TPM Alaska/Wasilla pork video was the kind of thing which would really get the McCain b/s message across to a lot of critical constituencies.
Politics in Chicago is the politics of competing Democratic interests. I think the Obama campaign has been flat footed and far to defensive in the face of the Republican attack machine. You don’t play nice with bullies, you smack them until they are down and then you smack them again and again to make sure they stay down.
McCain/Palin’s campaign theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQXsuAey-NE
I would hate to lose reading you at FDL until the election, but imho, you’ve got all the credentials to manage the project. Dodd, Feingold, Maxine Waters, Lamont, and many others might be able to position you. It doesn’t sound like a job for a committee. It needs someone with proven experience in messaging.
Matt can go back to acting when Mika does.
with a built-in creative strategy team.
It was pointed out in another thread that McCain has captured the mantle of “change” among the independents. How incredibly stupid is the American public? They say democracy can only work with a well informed public. The public today has been dumbed down by a corporate media that would like to keep the truth from them and to keep them in an infantile state. Obama needs to begin treating the “independents” as the children that they are. Obama should have hired George Lakof 12 months ago to craft a compelling narative that would counter the faux narative of the Republicans.
Nonsense; people in Preoria know Matt Damon has earned his money, and can afford a cut above a fleabag hotel.
Delurkin to second Boo’s endorsement. I can’t think of anyone better to help us out here.
What difference would it make if they had been up a year ago when Palin has only been in play for 10 days?
Funny, I thought it looked like one of McCain’s 10 houses.
-G
Hear, hear!
*cue picture of cute 5 year old holding “Where the Wild Things Are”
“Would a McCain-Palin administration let your child read this book?”
segue to Palin helicopter shooting wolves in ALaska > high-five closeup.
“Well, would they?”
ooh good to see you this morning – increasing concern here about Ike
do you have evac plans ?
I think Obama has been set on the defensive the Muslim/Rev. Wright shit and is afraid to show real fire in his belly lest he be accused of being angry or scary.
Not a good place to be at this stage in the hockey game as the Hanson-Rove Brothers on the opposing team begin taping their knuckles with lead and brass.
-G
Matt has 3 children,but he could well afford a home in Europe,like Cloney,Pitt,and DEpp…why stay here with the CRAZIES?
she is revolting,she should go back to OBSCURITY
Bom dia pups
hope all of you in the storm’s way stay safe.
Jane?
The endorsement is pretty strong…
Go for it!
Back before super Tuesday, a lifetime ago, I asked my neighbor (a woman who voted for Kerry in 2004) who she was supporting in the primary election. She said “Hillary.” I frowned (I supported Obama). She noted my response and said “I haven’t been paying attention to the campaign; I just know I have to vote for a woman.” Now, mind you, this woman is intelligent and well-educated. I doubt she is supporting McCain-Palin, but I’m afraid to ask.
If there is a 527 effort, I hope it targets women and women’s issues, where Sarah Palin stands on women’s issues, and where Republicans in general are with women’s issues.
God save America.
As far as the 527, I have mixed feelings. I think this is just distractions to keep people (and Obama) from focusing on issues because dems win on the issues. We need to get back on issues period
Jane, your nation is calling you! Take up the mantle and do what is necessary to destroy the Republican shiboleth.
Great video! I think it likely would be very effective. Is anyone airing it, or planning to? I’d contribute to that.
he does have the MANTLE OF CHANGE….he changes his Living Spaces(12 homes) as we change OUR UNDEROOOOOOOOOOs….”g”…its hard work
The response to Matt Damon in MO, OH, VA, FL, CO, etc. would be “he’s just another liberal hollywood celebrity. who cares what he thinks.”
I wish the Dems would zero in on healthcare reform.
yah,another strawman argument as McIDIOT has 12 lavishly DECORATED homes,and a jet…etc
Jane:
Rallying the participation of songwriters whose work is familiar to the widest demographic cohort is a worthwhile effort. I’d like to see the likes of Talking Heads (see my post 15 – Road To Nowhere), Crosby Stills, Nash & young (Teach your children), etc. participate in an online creative campaign – along the lines of Colbert’s Green Screen abuse of McCain.
If artists can be compelled to allow their songs to be used at no cost as the back drop for user-created content – whereby video clips and other images can be used creatively to produce thousands of versions of music videos of “Road To Nowhere,”Teach Your Children,” etc. – viral as can be, with the implicit endorsement of the artists – the reach/impact would be significant. Getting the artists permission up front also emphasizes that McCain’s campaign does just the opposite – demonstrating their total disregard for intellectual property rights.
How many artists would respond to a Matt Damon appeal to let their work be used in such a way? Hey Matt…are you listening?
Host it on your site and watch your traffic soar.
alot of people care what he thinks ,more than a 72 year old fossil
John McCain’s campaign has not been energized by sticking to the issues. It’s been reenergized by the narrative that the Republicans have crafted. Many, if not most, voters respond to the “story line” not the issues. Read George Lakof on the necessity of crafting a compelling story line that destroys the mythology the Republicans have crafted to sway a public that is easily manipulated.
Why Lies Work in a Faith-Based Country.
There are fact-based humans. There are faith-based humans. (There are a lot of the latter in the U.S.- the so-called “believers”.)
Both humans will tell you 2 + 2 equals four.
But anything related to the fables of the believers operate in the emotional realm in the mind of the faith-based, not in the scientific, logic based areas of their brain.
In order to appear logical and consistent within their own perceived reason-based sanity, the faith-based need a Logical Bridge to connect a candidate, or concept to THEIR belief system. Once that bridge, that psuedo-rationale, has been provided to them, their psyche crosses that bridge to the safety of their beliefs. And the bridge that authenticated becomes irrelevent.
If that bridge was a factual lie (”I said Thanks, but No Thanks to that bridge.) no matter, presenting a fact based bridge back to the world of the fact-based becomes useless exercise.
They are again in the safety and comfort of their belief system, and that is all that matters to them.
Faith-based humans who are easy prey to the god-dealers and fable-pushers are just as easy and willing prey to the political and nationalistic LIE-Dealers so much at work in our nation’s media today.
Fervent Belief is NOT the answer.
It IS the problem which will destroy America.
I think I recall a troll say the same thing and complain that we were not focusing on issues.
However I never notice the GOP trolls getting all worked up about the issues, like why are we in Iraq when Osama is in Pakistan.
When the economy is discussed the trolls all point to bills passed during the Clinton years which deregulated business and for which Bill should get some blame.
But they always forget to mention that those where Republican ideas and were passed by a Republican House and Senate.
I bet that if Universal Health Care Passes every GOPer who fought against it tooth and nail but votes to pass Universal Health Care in the end because its the smart political thing to do will brag years later about passing the bill and how bipartisan they all were back in the day.
Yes Obama needs to stay above the fray ,however ,whats wrong with this kind of thing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjFrezxIMAQ
Visuals matter.
The Republicans understand this and are unfortunately masters
of manipulating emotions using backdrops and such.
(The cottage cheese in lime Jello was a rare exception.)
No, I am where the evacuees come to!
Matt:
Are you suggesting that this image is a fake?
http://thegoont.com/files/dino_fire.jpg
And this is a fraud?
http://www.avantnews.com/modul…..toryid=126
Someone needs to redo the old Obama/Paris Hilton ads exactly, but with Sarah Palin..
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!
The howls from the right will be priceless.
-G
I’ve been screaming for Dem 527s for weeks now. The more McCain lied and hired the Swift Boat gang — I knew it was time for Dem 527s to win this election — sad to say…but all of the lies and SwiftBoating seems to work in this country. And Obama does not know how to fight it or how to relate to the “common” man. There are times when eloquency in speech are not a plus.
I think Jane would be an excellent choice to get the right messages out. She can hit the right message with just enough snark — Mrs. Lying Lipstick won’t know what hit her.
“The Campaign to Nowhere”
of course
we must be creative too
as TYING McBUSH TO THE REAL BUSH
visually over and over and over again,and TALK about THE TWO OILMEN IN THE White House,next to 4.00$ GAS PUMPS
ARE YA BETTER OFF NOW THAN 8 YEARS AGO?
PUT SArah and her kids in the foreground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact that McCrazy picked this zealot witch from a state with a very small population that knows NOTHING to be a heartbeat away from the presidency doesn’t play well with me and shouldn’t play well with anyone with a brain.
The video is too honest for delicate Democratic sensibilities.
LETS NOT FORGET
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOL…..ust6.memo/
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
527’s aside…A new Obama ad aired last night here in Columbus, Ohio. It was totally focused on issues, with specific examples, that Obama will address. It. Was. Effective.
More please.
527s are not intended to preach to the choir.
and just imagine the Cult of Sarah explosion following the Redbook bio fluff piece being planned by Charlie Gibson, et. al.
Precisely! Make it a contest. Creative types would flock to it.
a huge picture of the hug
in front of OBAMAs next speech
I got a call last night from Obama’s campaign, looking for pledges of money (BTW, they’ll send you an envelope only if you given them a number). The caller said they’ve been getting a lot of people telling them that Obama needs to be more aggressive about hitting McCain. So it’s getting at least to the lower levels of their people.
My take on Palin: ask people if they’d want her as their mayor or governor. Ask them if they’d vote for her if she was actually the candidate for president, and McCain wasn’t on the ticket.
Ethics: I was doing our company-mandated annual review of our business conduct and ethics policy, and realized that if you took everything we’re told not to do, you’d have described most of the more prominent members of the GOP (and far too many of the Democrats in Congress also).
Want to see Obama brand McCain’s campaign as the “Campaign to Nowhere”
It has nothing to do with preaching to the choir. This VP pick should frighten the hell out of everyone.
I want to see Palin debate Madeline Albright…or be interviewed by her…
Speaking of 527’s and Swift Boaters I do not want T Boone getting any Federal money from Obama for his wind project. We should make it a point to punish the worst of the GOP liars at the very least no Government money why because they Lied about John Kerry.
Why because those morons thought a draft doger was the better choice to go after Ossama and we are still waiting!
Dishonest and Stupid is no place to invest. Sure T Boone is rich but do I trust him to make me money or do whats best for T Boone?
All the Swift Boaters should be frozen out of government contracts if Obama wins.
McCain has no principles and even less judgement.
-G
Enlist David Byrne to donate his music…anyone see the irony in using his body of work to counterbalance the MSM “talking heads” on the TeeVee?
Self-produced music videos.
Wisconsin is a battleground state. MsSane is pulling even with Obama and here’s the
excuse me while I pukehard hitting coverage of Palin:Palin’s glasses fuel and frame a fashion spectacle
his brain is barely functional imo
Reply @43 – Things Come Undone
I don’t believe ANY message about Sarah gets through to the “faith based.” First, we have to define the audience who I believe are the “independents.” Then define the issues: “economy” — she’s vulnerable. AK received more money from earmarks than any other state in the Union — over $500.00 per capita (see taxpayers for common sense) in 2008. “experience” — she’s vulnerable. “choice” — she’s vulnerable.
The campaign against Kerry focussed on “one issue” — his service. The campaign against McCain can focus on his voting record. He has missed 80% of the vote in 2008. Palin is vulnerable on the same issue. ENOUGH! We’ve had enough of people running for office who won’t stay to do the job for which they are being paid.
Independents understand a “something for nothing” mentality.
what they failed to mention,is they give her EXRAY VISION,and MIND READING powers…tru dat
………………………………………………………..”G”
This week’s mainstream coverage of the presidential horse-race has been dominated by a series of polls showing the McCain-Palin ticket with its first stable lead over Obama and Biden. Gallup’s tracking poll, USA Today and CBS News all show the Republicans with some kind of lead over the Democratic ticket. But, interestingly, all three polls were also conducted using a higher sampling of Republican voters than in July, raising a question of methodology.
In a year in which Democrats have a lead of 11 million registered voters over Republicans, and have been adding to that advantage through a robust field operation, are pollsters over-sampling Republicans?
Despite a raft of advantages in the electorate for Democrats, in September’s first Gallup tracking poll, an equal number of Republicans and Democrats were surveyed (including “leaners”) from Sept. 3-5, compared to a 10-point Democratic identification advantage two weeks ago. That partisan makeup of the polling pool resulted in a 5-point lead for McCain in Sept. 5 tracking poll. Meanwhile, the new CBS poll features a 6-point swing in partisan composition toward Republicans, which plays some role in the poll’s two-point lead for McCain. Finally, the latest USA Today poll, which claims a four-point edge for McCain, was arrived at after a 10-point swing in partisan makeup toward GOP respondents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..25158.html
I want some real polls and their methodologies for conducting the polls.
yup,i call bulllllllllllllkacky
i think you are just wrong on this. although i only have anecdotal evidence to the contrary. do you have any evidence to back up your claim?
Mornin’ Jane,
been fighting the urge to panic all week – but yeah, the disorganization factor gives me serious pause – sickening in that there is so much good stuff out there already
firedogs, we can do our small messaging part –
eg: Blue Texan’s abso-effing-lutely fabulous post from yesterday –
what-mccain-and-palin-dont-want-to-talk-about
Memorize it, use it every chance you get with family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.
about that good stuff, have been making gooper heads explode spreading this far and wide – simple but highly effective
http://www.obamataxcut.com
Several people commented about the waving flag image behind the speakers at the RNC induces a hypnotic affect which makes them more susceptible to what the speakers are spewing
Here’s my contribution:
♪♪♪ You can get all the lies you want
At the mcShame Restaurant! ♪♪♪
Our Motto: Unfit to Serve -28 hours per day
Serving Breakfast: 28 hrs per day, 375 days per year
i understand that but is this going to be an election of distractions or issues. Rome is burning and folks are worried about some silly distraction? I don’t get it
That is what I’m talking about..issues
Got yer flag right here !
Like Kerry did? We need to hit back in such a way that McCain-Palin lose the automatic trust that they have been given.
New Blue Texan post ready upstairs.
Screaming for more 527’s is like pleading with Frodo to use the ring. “Use the ring Frodo so that we can defeat Sauron. Because our intentions are good we will defeat our enemies and not be corrupted. Use the ring Frodo”. I don’t want Frodo to use the ring even if it would guarantee a win.
Anyone who thinks that Obama should have been spending money on attack ads instead of investing in organizing the ground game are scaredy cats. Obama is running the kind of campaign that I can support. If you want to change politics get involved in grassroots campaigning. I have an Obama organizer in my county which is the first time ever that a presidential campaign has dispatched someone to my area. This is ground breaking and I think game changing. I watched V for Vendetta last night and got fired up about engaging the people rather than weaving more negative images around our opponents.
I agree we will not get the 30%ers. I admit that Sarah is motivating them something McCain was not doing before but the MSM and the polls were not taking that fact into account.
Now they are making a big deal out of the 30%ers being motivated but thats still 30%.
Going after Sarah on the issues is good. But lets not neglect the emotional this campaign either Dems are great at logic not so great on emotion.
Sarah is against teaching birth control in schools and has her teenage daughter sending her a grandchild.
Sarah made rape victims pay for their own rape exams!
Sarah thinks that women should be forced to have kids even if they were victims of rape ad incest.
Meanwhile McCain lies about Obama supporting teaching kids to recognize child abuse as teaching kids sex ed.
Granted that could have been the line McCain used when he met his much younger wife.
Anyway we can not ignore the emotional if we want to win and unlike McCain we are not desperate enough to lie about Sex ed, raising taxes, bridges to nowhere etc.
Nice!
“The Obama campaign shut the independent expenditure groups down earlier this year, so nobody is really going to have the staff and the research capabilities to be truly effective in this campaign cycle (they needed to start ramping up a year ago).”
Yes, I recall there was much wailing about that decision. IIRC, we told the campaign then they’d be sorry. And voila, we were right! Guess the big O’s not gonna be able to coast after all.
And i AM truly sorry: as the economy has weakened, I find I have a lot less money to give to anyone. I’ve even had to cut off my actblue donations.
Sorry Barack Obama campaign. next time, instead of turning your back on ytour most ardent supporters, listen to them.
Nowhere Man (John McCain):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHLjYBsl2zA
A number of good blogs have been done on the Sarah Baraccuda phenomenon and her lies are being catalogued and picked up to an extent by MSM in print and FDL has been on it.
An article that had a lot of resonance for me was the one on Steve Schmdit the Bush Rove operative who is now calling most of the shots and giving most of the orders for McDecrepit (and not because of his age but because of his makeup).
Here’s the prospect and what I think needs to be done.
The effort to make the “really bad Disney movie” of the hockey mom who has been as corrupt as it gets as governor of Alaska–1100 incriminating emails claiming exec privilege or “process” when she cc’d the self-proclaimed first dude, a pipeline that is most likely never going to get off paper and cost Alaska at least $500 million while it stays on paper, the per diems, the harassment of the Palin family towards Wooten, the distortion of everything out of Palin’s mouth–the tasering, (very bad judgement but not intentional abuse of the kid in an out of control anger situation, the lying of the Palin family in divorce court as outlined by Christy Smith yesterday, the idiocy of the Road and Bridge to Nowhere, with the road a vibrant waste of $25 million, the earmarks for things McCain has ridiculed for years as has Proxmire before him).
The game plan is being orchestrated by Steve Schmidt and under many names, cultural populism among them, it is what Steven Colbert has satirized as “truthiness.”
You distort anything in Obama or Biden’s past such as the sex education bill that had an opt out provision, was written to be “age appropriate” which would never been for kindergartners in a public school although in reality 5 year olds ask a lot of questions and some parents give them age appropriate answers and some parents don’t, and a lot of parents in this country need sex education they have never gotten and menstraul cycle education in particular themselves from varying economic backgrounds in my experience.
In other words they are going to lie writ large and it is a successful tactic Steve Schmidt and his staff deployed against McCain in 2000 and used in 2004.
This article partially explains the Schmdit MO that you’re going to see in the next 53 or so days:
This will include a bell jar phenomenon where outside of the “debates” likely to be poorly handled by Brokaw and Gwenn Eiffel for example, where both McCain and Palin have no and I mean no opportunities to be asked any meaningful questions by voters or by press right up to the election and while there are meek articles on this in the last couple days, the press seems fine with this and the population of the US who votes is indifferent.
What’s the solution?
While Jane is perfectly correct that the Democratic 527s should not have been ended, there is still time for an effort with the help of donations and to be successful they don’t have to embelish the truth a scintilla–all they have to do is point out the lies forcefully and do crisp quick contrasts with the McCain campaign’s lies and the truth.
Bmaz had a very good idea about 3 weeks ago which involved mobilizing bloggers who are stars like Marcy and the rest here to call bullshit and have it advertised nationally and it could be quite effective, but it takes funding and organization and it won’t happen unfortunately. They would be paid by the campaign I believe in his scheme.
It certainly is happening on the blogs/in the blogosphere as Palin and McCain are exposed here, but I believe Bmaz meant to give it a national circulation platform the way McCain has hired so many Bushies to promulgate lies about Obama and to an extent in the coming weeks, Biden.
Have you seen Gina Gershon doing Palin…worth the watch and laugh
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..25522.html
The article on Steve Schmidt and the MO he deployed from Bush and the MO he will use in the next 53 days to ensure that McCain and Palin do no interviewws and answer no spontaneous questions from either voters or the press is here. Glenn Greenwald has done some excellent blogs and radio shows focusing on this, and I thought I linked it before:
An Adviser Molds a Tighter, More Aggressive McCain Campaign
I touched a lot bases in the post.
Which base are you specifically looking for?
The methodology describes a behavior pattern consistent with tons of empirical data.
Dr. Drew Westin made the definitive case for emotion based selection several years ago in The Political Brain.
As far as the religious stuff, it takes a Christian Nation to start a crusade, it takes a Jewish nation to lay claim to another’s land because their god gave it to them, and it takes the Koran to teach people that all nations must be ruled by Imams.
Crazy stuff to a rational person, but very much the history of Faith-Based Humanoids.
Drew Westin’s book is excellent and available in paperback/Kindle, and should be read by anyone interested in this election. It captures the playbook deployed by Steve Scmidt and the cultural populism where they use megalies to trash the other side and if the megalies are not refuted in the most aggressive way possible and showcased on a national stage, distorting personalities and making the election validate the distortion is exactly what always happens. It’s the major reason that the Democrats have only won the White House 3 times since LBJ.
The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation a>
Obama has a tough road to hoe. He’s already been called “uppidy” and if he gets too forceful with white opponents he will be called a disciple of his former pastor-I forget his name. Biden is the guy who should attack. He should say what Matt Damon is saying and more.
Best line: I need to know whether she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago. I need to know that, because she’s going to have the nuclear code.
I think he’s a voter, explaining his thoughts on the election, and it’s not his fault if some idiots think his opinion is more important than anyone else’s.
Howie Klein, imo, would be perfect to coordinate production of vids a la 527’s. It would probably be cheaper and Howie and his crew can make them go viral in a heartbeat. Donations going to one place would also make the operation more efficient.
Al Giordano has a few words on this whole issue:
1) A laundry list of not-quite-so-prescient predictions from some of the people who wrote off Obama last year.
2) Lazy people (or people whose paychecks come from media buys) don’t wanna hear this, but the ground game is and always will be king — and that’s what Obama’s whole focus has been on the past two years. If you really want to deliver a “knockout punch”, then start registering people to vote.
The McCain camp’s not reacting like they’re ahead. They wouldn’t be flailing around with desperate efforts to create phony issues if they were — they wouldn’t want to do anything that might risk their lead. The electoral map still favors Obama, especially where the hotly-contested states are concerned.
The electoral map still clearly favors Obama, but just as you said, one of the most meaningful ways to make a difference is to register voters. In many Southern states, there are still a significant percentage of unregistered voters, an in Georgia with 3 weeks to go, there are 600,000 African Americans still unregistered with the DNC vascillating on whether to spend any money for the Democratic candidate for Senate against an incumbant who votes with Bush 100% of the time.