i remember people were wondering why president clinton and senator clinton weren't campaigning with sen. obama and thought that might be a problem. i think now that we're within a week of election day, the high profile rallies are more effective because they were used so sparingly. if hillary and bill were at every rally since the convention like most people expected them to be, the speech/rally in florida would not have the impact that it may have (it could push obama over the top with some of the undecideds still left).

should we also be looking out for claims (by both parties) of unscrupulous election day activities?

i've heard pundits on the teevee say that one of the reasons why sen. mccain was pushing so hard against the evil empire that is ACORN was that they were trying to set up a psychological connection between screwy elections processes and sen. obama. if the mccain campaign seeks to take this route, wouldn't they take that course earlier in the evening, say when the first returns from Virginia and Indiana come in?

also, i've also heard from the almighty punditry that the obama campaign has tons of lawyers on the ground (all the way to the county level) ready to protect ballots and point out any irregularities in tallying.

is it too early to start considering those aspects of the election? should we wait until next tuesday to visit these concepts?

the obama campaign message is "change we can believe in". from that message they are able to express how change would be good for america, how mccain does not represent change- in fact mccain represents more of the same- and how change can only come from the people. from the obama campaign message they are able to attack mccain and stay within message.

the mccain campaign message is "country first". from that message they express how senator mccain has always served his country honorably and will continue to serve his country without bowing to any party, special interest or the calls of power (at least how i've interpreted it). on the flip side, they attack sen. obama for not putting his country first and suggesting that he conceals his true intentions about change, he conceals his past, and he doesn't care about america has much as john mccain has.

unfortunately for the mccain campaign they subsequently abandonded their message of "country first" for a while and adopted something like "change you can trust" or something. but not having the ability to defend that message, they went back to the "country first" bit.

the mccain campaign does not have the ability to maintain the crux of their message and hammer it home because the adjacent attacks on obama that were once connected to the message have spiraled out of control into unbacked and blatant character attacks. there is an argument to be made the suggesting that sen. obama "pals around with terrorists and other extremists" and "might be a socialist" and "will tax you into obscurity" are derivative of mccain's "country first" message, but because we're losing sight of that message, everything mccain says about sen. obama appear to be character attacks with no basis in anything whatsoever. and when that happens, you can fill in the blank to why he makes those attacks and the obama campaign has done so: "change the subject off of the issues" "mccain has nothing left to say" "mccain can't present solutions".

this ad, in my opinion, is indicative of that strategy. sen. obama said in the ad that spreading the wealth around is good for everyone. the "joe the plumber(s)" in the ad decried raising taxes and increased spending. nowhere in the quote that sen. obama gave suggested increased spending or raised taxes. i suppose the mccain campaign is hoping people watching already "know" that sen. obama will raise your taxes and increase spending. they never give an argument. they simply say barack obama is a tax and spend socialist. is that wrapped in the "country first" message? no. those kinds of attacks don't serve him or his campaign well- and i'm pretty dang glad of that.

they used sen. biden's quote that barack obama will be tested in the first 6 months of his presidency and the response in the ad says "there doesn't have to be". there is no logical link between the prevention of a global crisis stemming from a mccain presidency. they just say "there doesn't have to be". which is the exact same thing i would say to sen. biden if i were in that room when he made that statement. but it doesn't give an argument or a semblance of an argument of WHY people should vote for mccain.

i think it is a weak ad, and the way i see it, we're in an international crisis right now. americans overwhelming trust sen. obama on the primary issue that has set the crisis (the economy) and americans overwhelming believe that sen. obama will best handle the crisis. so, i think that for mccain, he should've tried to make a stronger case with that ad. he totally missed the mark.

perhaps they feel that they are in a really good position to start leveraging their position on mccain in attempt to "bury" him by the end of tonight.

i still think it's too risky not to lower expectations still for the debate and concede that mccain might have a good debate and change some people's minds out there.

or bad cop/corrupt cop?

i think it would be harder. by going with william ayers (a white, liberal, "terrorist") the mccain campaign can paint sen. obama as the other without invoking the obviously racially tenuous topic of rev. wright.

if he released a television ad that ran in ohio, west virginia, pennsylvania and iowa, that would be an indication that the obama camp is worried about the ayers situation.

i agree that it would be good to see sen. obama pull a bait-and-switch on sen. mccain (goading him to bring up ayers and then snapping on him on something that will quiet any more inflammatory, incendiary, and incorrect associations about him and ayers).

and i don't think that sen. mccain has more flatuence issues than any other respected member of the senior community, and even if he did, it wouldn't automatically disqualify him from speaking his mind on the important issues that face our country.

by the way that sen. obama is practically goading him into bringing ayers, one wonders (hopes) that whatever retort sen. obama will deliver will be strong, memorable and will deafen the ridiculous claims put forth by the mccain campaign