They're not going to be any worse than Clinton. And, once Clinton is treated like the no-chance dead-ender she in fact is and is shuttled off the national stage, the focus will be rightfully on the general election, and issues like McCain's woeful misunderstanding of Iran and Al Qaeda today will resonate that much more.

... will go at each other.

Obama is too liberal, too young, and too inexperienced.

McCain is so old he is losing his marbles, he is so stupid he is Bush III, fucks lobbyists when he is not in bed with the Keating Five, gets Al Quaida confused with Albuquerque and may bomb the wrong one if woken at 3:00 a.m.

Every election is that way.

For every time they bring up Wright, we show the "bomb bomb bomb Iran" clip.

For every time they say he's too liberal, we say McCain is running for Bush's third term.

For every time they say he's too young and inexperienced, we hammer home the point that McCain's 73.

For every time they highlight McCain's trump card, that he's a war hero, we highlight Obama's - speeches in front of tens of thousands of people.

they think they can just say "boogidee boogidee boo!" again and everyone will jump in line...

Dare I say it - Not This Time!!

Whoever wins the nomination will have to play dirty, and I'll cheer them on. Jeremiah Wright? Check out what Glenn Greenwald's been writing about some of the wacko preachers whose support McCain says he's proud to have. Inexperience? Point out exactly what kind of corrupt, old-politics record McCain's "experience" consists of -- and particularly, show what a "flip-flopper" he is when comparing what he said in the 2000 campaign to what he's saying now. Toughness? I'm sure some of McCain's fellow former POW's will be happy to do a Swift Boat number.

McCain may be a pretty decent guy for a Republican, but he's still a Republican, and he has tied himself irrevocably to Bush's policies. In so doing, he's sacrificed any claim to integrity or courage he ever had. Either Obama or Clinton will have to have the guts to go after him on this, or they'll lose. People love to claim they don't like dirty politics, but their votes generally go to the candidate with the best attacks.

Most Americans understand that if the Republicans get in office again we're all fucked.

Of course they'll use dirty tricks. That will just confirm what everybody already knows.

The real issue that will create difficulties for the GOP is that they have such a limited view of the world and what's important in it. Because of their dysfunctions, they can only appreciate and accentuate certain things without alienating their own base (27% of the population give or take). The American Public, on the other hand, has had enough of the GOP. We thought they were like us, but now that we see the aftermath they've left us after 7+ years of control, we see they're not like US at all. All they want to do is continue to send our sons and daughters to die while their sons and daughters never volunteer for anything but good deals on vacation packages to exotic places. All they want to do is continue to extract every last cent they can from the middle and lower classes while making sure they, themselves, continue not to pay taxes on income made by playing games with other people's (and now the U.S. treasury's) money. Everything they do to say, "McCain will be the ideal president because he's just like US" will drive people away from McCain. Everything thing they do to say, Obama will be a terrible president because he's not like US at all will just leave the public saying, "Thank God!" All the GOP has to sell is itself and nobody's in the mood to buy. They'll be even less in the mood after $4.00+/gallon gas this summer and a steadily-deepening recession.

"i'm not bush, and mccain is."

that should do it. otoh, the wise, kind, generous, brave and reverent american electorate twice elected bush, and not forgetting tricky dicky, can't be trusted to see the force of this argument.

so i'm hoping bho has a fall-back plan. maybe he has convinced that blonde dolly lobbyist to tell all in the fall?

How wonky was that explanation? Maybe a pro could shave down that word count from 11 to 5 or so.

For example, the American public will hear a lot about how National Journal ranked Obama the most liberal member of the Senate in its annual survey published this year, an assessment of voting records that is hard to refute without sounding wonky.

"...clumsy rhetoric from Clinton supporters such as Geraldine Ferraro who have helped to make race a divisive issue." Wow. I guess that Ferraro and other Clinton supporters have a lot to answer for. Race was such a friendly, unifying issue before they started doing their dirty work.

While we're distributing blame, could we throw just a tiny bit toward Obama's supporter's and campaign advisor's who have been using "Clinton is a racist" as a rallying cry for the last 2 months? I think they bear just a little bit of responsibility for "making race a divisive issue".

Unfortunately for Democrats, McCain is NOT Bush. He has a reputation as a moderate, a very good reputation among voter's, he is smart and well-read and can actually hold a conversation that doesn't involve cue-cards. We won't be fighting Bush this election, which may be a good thing, given that the last two times we went up against him, he won.

...is outmoded, and outdated, and some what overrated. But I don't believe for a single second that Obama will not be up at full operational readiness at all times to respond to it. There are going to be some nukes thrown Obama's way, some more poisonous fallout as well, but Barack Obama's campaign, is far from going lost and under, in the mirey murk, of some insane Republican hell.