In 2004, at least twice a week I would bury my face in my hands at the ham-handedness of the Kerry campaign.

Whatever the outcome, Barack is in it to win it. Smart, savvy, and heads-up fighting. I'm proud he's going to be our candidate. Really proud.

I Loved it! Without being in the least uncivil, Obama very elegantly tossed the ball back in McCain's court, suggesting McCain ought to spend less time tearing down his opponent and more time promoting himself as a presidential candidate. If Obama is "rubber" McCain certainly seems to be "glue" this year. Everything he tries to slam Obamaa ricochets off the intended victim and sticks to him.

This is not to say I think Obama can or should sit back and relax. On the contrary, I hope he stays vigilant, campaigns hard, keeps hitting back hard and assumes nothing between now and November. Yes nasty campaign tricks work, but they don't work nearly as well whent the target responds effectively and shoots back some arrows of his own, something Gore and Kerry notably failed to do when hit by the same slime.

I'm happy we FINALLY have a candidate who is so eloquent and adept at verbal self-defense as Obama appears to be, and exposes slimy nonsense for what it is without getting overtly nasty himself.

Obama '08! Keep up the good work, Barack!

McCain uses Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins in a political attack ad in 5, 4, 3, 2....

Over at the Carpetbagger Report: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16385.html

Pssst--John McCain has a problem telling the truth. Pass it on. . .

It's frustrating and amusing that the same posters who call Obama arrogant are the ones who have all the answers about how to win a presidential election and what everyone else is thinking. You got people posing as Sigmund Freud and presidential advisers and yet it's Obama's who is arrogant.

In all this talk and psychobabble about the republican slime machine and how it manipulates the electorate and how it did in Gore and Kerry the one thing that is being left out is that Obama is not Gore or Kerry. As savaged as those guys were by GOP sleazeballs and the media, both of them threw as much dirt on their graves as the republicans and the media. To hear these ramblings you would think that the candidates are the equivalent of constants in a science project and that the media, and republican smear tactics are the variables. It's completely wrong to discount the candidates as having any impact on the election. I'm as cynical as the next person when it comes to the collective wisdom of the American electorate but I refused to believe that the merit of the candidate means nothing in an election. Obama's best bet is to run the campaign that has got him to this point and leave all the worrying about the correct way to respond to the media and republican attacks to Salon posters.

The reason these vacant negative ads are run is because they work. Lots and lots of November's voters are unengaged right now, and these ads are all that sneak into the consciousness. The emotional message being sent -- Obama is shallow; Obama is elitist; Obama is arrogant; Obama is all show; Obama is a deceiver -- all of which invoke negative feelings, are received and retained whereas the substantive messages are not.

This is BAD for Obama.

"Undecided" voters are the ones who will swing the election. Who are undecided voters? Who could still be undecided after the record length campaign and record media coverage of this presidential cycle? Well, truly, only the disengaged and the apathetic, and perhaps also the downright stupid. Those folks are the ones who are susceptible to such ads. Those ads will influence these voters, even make up their minds, before they ever cast an eye or ear toward a substantive issue. And *poof!*, just like that, an army of anti-Obama voters is created.

The best thing Obama has going for him is his own appeal to the disengaged, unaware and stupid. After all, his emotional appeal is "I'm for change," and "I'll give you hope," which are vacuuous, inherently meaningless sentiments equal to the content of the McCain ads. So at least there are competing messages being direct toward Those Who Should Not Vote, But Will. And whichever set of emotional messages makes the greatest subconscious impact with the sleepwalkers might just decide this election.

Something along the lines of "I realize that Senator McCain has had 40 years in the spotlight, during which our nation has made great strides, and he might resent having somebody with new ideas coming along to challenge his dominance, but I think it's petty of him to try to diminish me in order to accomplish his own goals as well as unkind to use these women who are trying to put their lives back together after serious personal problems in political attacks".

That emphasizes McCain's age, his arrogance, and his desire for power - while making it seem unkind of him to strike these women when they are down.

that this contest is looking less like a presidential election and more like a referendum on whether or not America will tolerate an African-American President.

Re: "Every minute that the McCain camp talks about Obama is a minute they don't talk about McCain. Now, is this a good or bad thing for either candidate?"

Good for both.

Barak Obama gains from being shown in front of US troops.

John McCain gains because the less Americans see and hear from him, the better off he is.

Every minute that the McCain camp talks about Obama is a minute they don't talk about McCain. Now, is this a good or bad thing for either candidate?

McCain seems, with these latest ads, to be violating the core principle of campaigning: don't give your opponent free face time. His ads have shown Obama playing basketball with wildly cheering U.S. troops in Kuwait and then being greeted by rapturous crowds in Berlin.

The short answer to the question McCain is asking is: yes, we do want (and deserve) a national leader who inspires admiration and commands respect at home and around the world.

The Real McCain that is being revealed in the latter days of the current campaign is a vindictive, angry man of disheveled appearance and disorganized mind. This we do not want for our next president.