Legal Commentary

Obama On Offense: McCain = Bush's Third Term

By Big Tent Democrat

Discussing the Left blog teeth gnashing over the Obama response to Sarah Palin, Patrick Ruffini gets at the misguided nature of the complaints:

The netroots is engaged in some spirited discussion about the lameness of Obama's responses to Palin. But the problem, and what I believe this . . . gets at, is that Democrats look at everything about negative politics through the prism of response rather than attack, defense rather than offense.

Michael Dukakis's failure to respond in 1988 has become something of a creation myth, spawning the legendary Clinton war room in 1992. Their job? Leave no attack unanswered. Except the Clinton War Room was about something else too. Attack.

(Emphasis supplied.) And attack on narratives is the point too. The GOP's tactical attacks have always meshed with its strategic goal of negatively branding the Dems as otherworldly, socialist, America haters. The Politics of Paranoia is the GOP game. But in 2008, the game should belong to the Democrats. Because of GEORGE W. BUSH. McCain = Bush's Third Term has to be the underlying theme of everything the Obama campaign does. I would only discuss Sarah Palin if it helped feed that theme. Otherwise, ignore her. (See also Ezra Klein's smart take on this.)

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 12, 2008 (boomark / email).