In the political battle for hearts and minds of the electorate there are two fundamental and critical prerequisites for winning an election. The nature of the candidate as well as that of consultants and strategists could make or break a campaign in a decisive way as to win or lose an election. As can be evidenced by recurring and unending Democratic presidential loses, Republicans seem to be often fortunate enough to be endowed with highly skilled operatives who would settle for nothing short of victory. They initiate at any cost strategic conditions for winning.  Unlike Democratic operatives and their candidates they don't just sit there and hope all will fine, the people will be on their side eventually, and therefore they can sit back and not go on the attack.  For the Barack Obama campaign to always be on the defensive and not initiate an attack---based on facts ofcourse---to put your opponents on the defensive is a pathetic strategic malpractice that flies in the face of tactical rationality.  For the Obama campagn I thus have a question: What is John McCain's biggest achilles hills?   The answer is simple, his association with George W. Bush which is a major hurdle between McCain and the White House.  And he is trying to neutralise that hurdle in his new campaign ad by opportunistically stating as follows: ".......We are worse of than we were four years ago." And then what does the Obama camp do? Nothing. They should have cut a commercial immediately strongly asserting that for all those years McCain was in cahoots with Bush. He voted with him 95-100% of the time. The administration that bungled Katrina,  that cut thrillions of dollars for rich, that brought us unnecessary war, etc,etc. I am merely citing the above as an example of a lot of treasure sitting there without being utilized by Democrats. And before we know it McCain will have successfully dissociated himself from George Bush.  If they lose this election Democrats should look for another line of work. 

In the  aftermath of the primaries Barack Obama has amassed quite a sizable Democratic following including a few Hillary supporters who feel content with the direction of the campaign and confident of the prospects of victory, come November.  However, following his overseas foray which has generally been deemed a success by most observers, he has had to endure increasingly more hard-edged John McCain attacks and smears that seem to have caught Barack off guard, and left him on the defensive without utilizing his leverage for a counter-attack he shoud have swiftly unleashed in the first place. With their attacks escalating, the Republicans seem to relish the possibility that here they are confronted with another "John Kerry", and are putting all bets on the likelihood that Obama, reminiscent of his Democratic predecessors, will not not rise to the occasion and fight fire with fire to neutralize Republican attacks.   Thus, with the unfolding reality of Barack's lack of stomach for a fight, given his peformance last week against McCain, there are heightening fears within the ranks of the Democratic Party that , indeed, Barack soon enough could prove to be another "John Kerry"as Republicans gleefully anticipate. Should these Democratic concerns be confirmed by the ensuing eventualities, then, disillusionment could set in and galvanize internal discontent within the Democratic Party, precipitating an "insurrection"against Obama in favor of Hillary Clinton. However, this is a hypothetical scenario that could be foreclosed entirely as a possibility only if the Dems are convinced that Barack Obama is ready to fight John McCain and his fellow Republican to the bitter end.