I said this on another post recently but it bears repeating: If someone punches you, kick their ass! It's the American way and any candidate who doesn't demonstrate this will never get elected by the American people. It's why the repubs can get away with ignorant policy with a tough guy exterior. If people think you're a punk they're not gonna vote for you. Ways to make them think you're a punk is to let someone keep hitting you without hitting them back. Think back to every presidential election you can and while fighting back wasn't the only reason a certain candidate won, not fighting back was definitely the reason some candidates (Kerry, Gore, Carter come to mind) lost. If your campaign is looking like Milhouse standing there with Nelson beating the crap out of you, then you're gonna lose. Even if it isn't your personality you still have to kick the bully in the nuts and throw dirt in his face at least once so people know you'll fight back and defend yourself.

Media-wise, I would guess, the Democratic Party is only deploying 1-2% of its available resources.

That may not be enough; ya gotta want it baby!

Post-NAFTA, post-FISA, post-drilling, post-Cheney energy bill, post-"universal" healthcare, what's left to fight for?

Abortion impeachment and judges? That's just half hour of pilates for Pelosi.

Couch strategists unite! We must rout the enemy with our fearless spewing of unsolicited campaign advice into the blogosphere. David Plouffe must heed our roar or face the consequences of only marginal advantage in the polls. Some may remain mute while Obama's foolish generals send him to the slaughter but not us. We feel every weak poll, every false note, every media critique like a knife in the gut. We care not that it's only August, that VPs have not been selected, that conventions have not been held, that everyone in the friggin' country is on vacation except for diehards like us. We demand that Obama immediately eviscerate McCain with harsh attacks which we are confident will not turn off anyone who happens to lack our partisan rage. We know what those cowardly advisers do not: McCain must be smashed with a blunt hammer. We salute our own wisdom and courage, and we have already prepared our "I told you so's" for what we know, in our infinite second-guessing, will certainly be another Democratic loss. Listen to us, goddammit!

loki redux is right...

Jesus God-damn tap-dancing Christ he's right.

Obama sucks!

gotalife makes some good points!

What about AyeRezkOdinga?!?!?

Michelle Obama hunts, kills, and field dresses young white children!

John McCain smells like my grandfather's socks!

How the f#ck does Glenn Beck still have a show?!?

Wait... I think I'm doing this wrong...

Once again, I have to add that our media is helping enormously to keep this a close and shifting race. If you're so worried about polls and numbers, remember, if the collective result of underinflated tires can make a statistical difference in our oil consumption, so does the generally bad and biased reporting on our so-called news media.

Sure, we have to mobilize. Sure, Obama needs to get out there and fight harder - however he decides to do it - and his surrogates need to stop stammering and yammering and letting the real issues go right over their heads. Maybe we do need more outspoken and dominant speakers to be out there fighting the good fight. But the media controls who they speak to and who they offer the microphone to. The media is controlling the message at least as much as the candidates. In fact, the McCain camp knows who is controlling the message and are pulling all the right strings to get their guttersnipe messages heard over and over again.

But it's far from over, and it's definitely not time to panic. McCain could tank quickly at any point. He could drop like a bowling ball from the leaning tower. So could Obama, for that matter. It doesn't take much. But going crazy over these day to day issues is one good way to go insane.

I had more to say here: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/08/what-bob-said-what-obama-shoul.php for what it's worth. Something about wearing our grown-up pants, you know?

New ad from Obama.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/5/222736/9012/146/563266

I'm sure it won't be hard-hitting enough for the crowd here at Fight Club.

Awesome.

Hmmm. Jason, not sure who that "awesome" is directed towards.

Don't know if it's possible to think my original post was "awesome" and that somebody's mocking post was "sweet." Then again, I may not have my sarcasm radar up and running yet.

I'm opening myself up to ridicule from folks like gasket, but I have gotten shivers now and then mostly because of flashbacks spariking similar feelings that I had when Al Gore and John Kerry were taken into the alley and kicked and clubbed while taking that Democratic high toad, and subsequently being humiliated especially in the end when W slipped into office. Where are the Bill Clintons and James Carvilles? Maybe Hillary was willing to beat down McCain and the Republicans in a ruthless way that Obama is not.

I see Genghis's point completely and try to have faith that team Obama knows what the hell they're doing much more than we "couch strategists" do. My thought is that they have a great rope-a-dope strategy and are letting McCain's incompetent and out of touch campaign blow money and define themselves with their Karl Rove strategy as a continuation, in more ways than one, as more of the same and another Bush term. This is from the NYT's report on Obama's birthday:

"Of Mr. McCain, he said that “he brought in a team that is very adept at this kind of politics. This politics has been successful in the last two elections in terms of getting people elected. It has not been successful in governing or bringing the country together to tackle big problems. So we are in a constant internal debate about how we respond to this.”

Regarding himself and his own team, “we’re not always perfect,” he acknowledged. “You make mistakes, sometimes you get caught up in the adrenaline of the process.”

There are, he went on, clear differences between him and Mr. McCain on issues such as taxes, energy and health care. But “my sense was that last week wasn’t about any of that stuff,” he said. “It was all about seeing if they can slap on to me a certain caricature that will help carry them through the election.”"

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/a-busy-birthday-for-obama/#more-5804

With such a huge opening for Democrats this year, I think that perhaps by waiting until the debates to let the sheer weight of McCain's and the Republicans' weakness help collapse them and then beat them when they're down with some kick in the stomache Carville-style pummeling or perhaps some Obama cool wit-hopefully is what will happen.