Maybe he should consult with those “Funny or Die” guys…. If they could work with the more experienced election ad people… Then he should get a couple psychologists/behavioral researchers on board. O needs some some young, innovative film-makers with fresh ideas.

One of the best ad's I've seen is the “Politics of Parsing” from Edwards against Hillary. It was simple and devastating. Just text and clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggO5yY7RAo

He should light some fire under the butt's of the communication people, no more lukewarm responses!

Maybe he should consult with those “Funny or Die” guys…. If they could work with the more experienced election ad people… Then he should get a couple psychologists/behavioral researchers on board. O needs some some young, innovative film-makers with fresh ideas.

One of the best ad's I've seen is the “Politics of Parsing” from Edwards against Hillary. It was simple and devastating. Just text and clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggO5yY7RAo

He should light some fire under the butt's of the communication people, no more lukewarm responses!

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/07/mccai...

The real guts of either candidate's campaign will not begin much before their respective conventions. Everything up to now has been establishing range and windage.

Center-left swing voters want change, but may not be willing to risk it with an inexperienced, until now, little known, candidate. McCain is looking to be an acceptable, bi-partisan, experienced candidate.

He is cashing in on his “Maverick” brand and taking away the “McBush” line of attack

Obama's comments about “America no longer being what it once was” is enough to drive the far right to the polls and vote against him.

“This cannot help:”

“Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”

-You mean positive like John McCain?

McCain's new TV ad is critical of Bush and Obama
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 6, 2008
RAPID CITY, S.D. – John McCain conceded in a new television commercial yesterday that “we're worse off than we were four years ago,” and said he is the candidate best positioned to usher in an era of change.

“Washington's broken. John McCain knows it,” says the commercial, which is implicitly critical of both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

It is unusual for a presidential candidate to part company with an administration of the same party, but McCain has little choice, with public opinion polls showing the public is eager for change after eight years of the Bush administration.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/print...

This cannot help:

Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”

“When presidential candidates answer questions from children about why they want the job, most will give an answer that uplifts the child and the candidate. Not Barack Obama. At a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked the Democrat why he wants to be President — and he told her that America has gone downhill:

“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”

Sound familiar? Michelle Obama sounded similar themes earlier in the campaign:

“Sometimes it’s easier to hold onto your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your ignorance. That’s America.”

“Let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”

Everyone feels that we can improve ourselves, but we don’t usually cast it in terms of the country no longer being what it once was. Coming from the Obamas, that doesn’t even make sense. They have talked about how difficult it was to break through barriers, not without some justification, to reach this point in their lives and American history.

Doesn’t that speak to the point that we continue to grow and to learn? And if not, which “good old days” did Obama mean? The 1980s? I doubt it, and if he means the Clinton era, then why did he run against Hillary in the first place?

Once again, Obama got off the teleprompter and put his foot directly in his mouth. He’s not selling Hope, he’s selling Despair, and himself as the snake oil that will cure us of all our ills.”

::

We're never past that, RonnieB.

Never.

Perhaps his vacation is perfectly timed.

As to the criticism of Barack, I was just talking to a (white, former Hillary-supporting) co-worker about this very thing. Barack has got to dispatch his people much faster. McCain is throwing all the mud, which means that he's driving the media cycles. And the media are glad to have it that way, because it makes a horse race of what should be a horse vs. donkey race. On the one hand, it's low-brow and shameful the way the McCain is allowing his campaign to be run. But on the other hand, the common voter is much less high-minded and much more low-brow than ever before. This is a fight and the voters (and the media) are the judges. And if they see that one fighter is doing all the punching–even if the punches aren't landing–they're gonna give the fight to the aggressor. Barack cannot afford to let McCain be the aggressor.

It's time to take the fight to McCain. Not a dirty fight, but a tactical one where he is the obvious aggressor; where all of his blows are decisive; and where he strikes fear with his ever move. He can't worry about hurting McCain or being seen as the big, Black predator. We're past that.

This is for all of our futures. And he's gotta start fighting like that's what at stake.