She understands that.

I think Glenn is NOT arguing that Dems copy the way Republicans attack. He is probably simply suggesting they attack the same way he does. By directly confronting their lies and with passion.

Nothing Glenn has said in the last two polls suggests to me that he wants Dems to engage in 7th grade personality bashing. Glenn may not want to toot his own horn, but we can: the dems should use Glenn as a model for attack.

The streaks of venality and rancor in the human character are strong.

We are not essentially good. When we speak of our "better selves", they're not just pretty words, it's a true bar that challenges us daily.

A goal of which we lose sight in our greed, our blood-lust, our pettiness. A human being is a hard and complex little critter.

Maybe we need more pretty words.

Can we "rise above" lest we need an "uprising"?

A human spirit hopes.

How do we tell the difference between what Americans really like/dislike and what the media says Americans like/dislike?

I suspect we have a case of the media tail wagging the public opinion dog.

This is just one more point in a stream of data showing that attacks work, and that the only response to attack is to attack back. It does not say how far the attack should go. Anything short of outright lies is OK by me, (but leave out pregnant daughters). Why not lie? It is not necessary and if you are a democrat, it will turn off your own supporters.

I'm a long-time Democrat (I've been voting since 1980) and, as I get older, I'm becoming more liberal, not less.

OMG, I am SO tired of my party's stupidity when it comes to elections. Just about EVERY recent presidential campaign, polls show the people support the Dems on the issues, yet most of the time, the Dems lose because the Republicans understand that people almost NEVER vote just on the issues, character and personality also matter, they always have. But my party's candidates resolutely stand, wobbling after being battered over the head on character/values/personality, whining about how the election ought to just be about issues, and they fail to take the fight to Republicans ALSO on personality/character. And then the Dems lose. It's sad. And I fear Obama is falling into the same trap.

I agree with Greenwald.

She needs to be made to speak for herself. She's got 2 months of media scrutiny and presidential level campaigning to go, and at some point she's going to have to demonstrate competence more than reading a speech written by somebody else. She may be all that the republicans say she is (I doubt it) but no reasonable voter is going to take their word for it. The more she talks, the more she says off her measured script, the better for the dems.

I like Obama's stated strategy. He should run against McCain and not Palin.

The question, "If you were to place a bet...," is not the same as putting your money where your mouth is.

On Intrade, with over $3million in the market, so far, Obama leads 54%-44%.

But the idea that Americans instinctively recoil from negativity or that there will be some sort of backlash against Republicans generally and Palin specifically because of how "negative" their convention speeches were is pure fantasy. Cultural tribalism and personality attacks of those sort work, especially when they're not aggressively engaged.

Only Rethuglicans can do this. If the Dems do, they are angry left partisans, and the village can't allow that! It really is a bit of a trap, especially with Turdy McRove just waiting for an "angry black" moment.
The corporate media has to be broken up to eliminate the narrative.

It is high time the O/B team infuse some passion and some facts into their rhetoric. Talk about the soaring national debt, record deficits, amounts of tax money being diverted to a useless war, 50 million left without health insurance (me being one of them).

Get some facts, and get pissed, and demand that the republican counterparts answer your charges, and don't back down until you do. Someone put that goddamn video of Campbell Brown in front of the Dems and repeat it ad nauseum.

Geezus K. Rist, how much easier can it be??

That these tactics would not have worked against Hillary. At least with that 10 percent slice that decides Presidential elections--another round of Clinton bashing, oh c'mon.......We shall see if it works against Obama.

Glenn,

If your poll numbers are an accurate reflection of sentiment, I'm afraid the electorate of our country is more stupid than my wildest imagination. While I agree with your main point that Dems need to punch back hard at the Repub attack machine, I thought Palin's performance was obnoxious and over the top and most saw that. Apparently, Americans love trash talk as much as we claim to despise it.

Americans deserve the leaders they elect. Too bad the rest of us have to suffer, too.

This is supposed to be Biden's job -- to stand up and say, curtly, "They're lying". I don't know which is harder for me to imagine, that he'll doo it at all or that he'll be brief and sound biteable.

wrote:

Only Rethuglicans can do this. If the Dems do, they are angry left partisans, and the village can't allow that! It really is a bit of a trap, especially with Turdy McRove just waiting for an "angry black" moment.

Yes, they will attack back, but you are still better off; in the US, you cannot look weak.

This from the WSJ/Washington Wire:

Sarah Palin’s speech to the convention Wednesday night energized conservatives, allayed concerns of some nervous party insiders – and inspired excited Republicans to donate a cool $1 million to the Republican National Committee’s effort to elect John McCain.

But....

UPDATE: Bloomberg reported that Palin’s speech was even better for Democrats–Barack Obama has raised $8 million since Wednesday’s speech. “Sarah Palin’s attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “And we fully expect John McCain’s attacks tonight to help us make our grassroots organization even stronger.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/04/donations-pour-in-to-rnc-after-palin-speech/?mod=googlenews_wsj

So perhaps the Democratic reaction is through their wallets. Now lets see what the DNC/Obama does with the money.