McCain campaign plans more “aggressive” strategy in final month before pres. election

The WaPo reports that with four weeks to go before we head to the polls, Team McCain will launch a more aggressive strategy against Barack Obama, questioning his judgement, his fitness to lead, and his radical associations (via Memeo):

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain’s team has decided that its emphasis on the senator’s biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan’s campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

This is welcome news, obviously, but is it coming too late in the game? One of the problems with McCain and his campaign is that he allowed the media narrative on Obama (which is that Obama is supposedly this “humble” and “honest” guy who really does believe in “raising the bar” of political discussion, in part, by bringing all voices to the table) to go unchallenged for way too long. Now, any aggressive attacks on Obama and his associations with Ayers, etc, may be viewed as “mean-spirited” and “vicious” attacks against “Mr. All-American” by people who don’t know anything more about Obama that what the liberal media tells them. Especially when you consider the king of the liberal media, the NYT, has finally joined the “let’s write about Obama and Bill Ayers” bandwagon … yet they took a plastic spoon to dig when a digger derrick was what was really needed, and as a result, they treated Obama’s relationship with Ayers as though it was comparable to “two ships passing in the night.” This is absolutely outrageous, and just one more example of how so many in the mainstream media have completely whitewashed any questionable ties Obama has with controversial figures, including his mentor – Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in hopes that they’ll be able to carry him to victory next month.

This NYT report will be picked up by many other news outlets and will be treated as the be-all-end-all of the story on Obama and Ayers when, as the evil Stanley Kurtz has proved, it most certainly is not. You know there’s more than a ring of truth to what Kurtz has reported about Obama and Ayers, especially when you consider the lengths Obama’s national HQ in Chicago went to in an effort to try and silence Kurtz.

Yep, I’m happy to see Gov. Sarah Barracuda go on the attack against Obama as she did yesterday and today, questioning his judgement over comments Obama made about our troops last year, as well as pointing out that Obama and Bill Ayers are not just casual acquaintances, but yet and still I wonder if it will be effective at this point. McCain’s been so busy trying to paint himself as a “bipartisan” kind of guy that he’s ignored times when it would be perfectly acceptable to be a partisan because sometimes – heck, oftentimes – being a partisan is the right thing to do, especially when you are on the correct side of an issue.

The Tuesday night debate will be a townhall-style format, which favors McCain – but it’s a debate that tends to lend itself to being more intimate and as a result there’s less of a chance to be able to successfully go for the jugular because the average Joes sitting in the room asking the questions are naturally going be sympathetic to the candidate being attacked. So I don’t look for McCain himself to be too aggressive Tuesday. But the debate after that, which will be over domestic and economic policy, we may see the McCain we see when he’s been counted out. Maybe we’ll see that in stump speeches and interviews as well. I hope so, anyway.

In the meantime, the campaign needs to continue with the aggressive attack ads, keep Sarah Barracuda out front and center, and make sure Mc is pointed and specific in talking about Obama’s record, his associations, his role and his party’s role in the economic crisis we face today, what he’s said about our troops and the missions they are fighting, and what we could expect from an Obama as CIC. With four weeks to go, it’s a long shot but I’ve got enough fight in me left to say it ain’t over til’ it’s over, and until we know who wins on Nov. 4th, none of us – nor the McCain campaign – should give up the good fight. There’s too much at stake to throw in the towel.

It’s gonna be an uphill battle, especially with the mediots in the tank for Obama, but fight we must.

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