Comments on: Obama’s Quiet Anti-McCain Campaign http://donklephant.com/2008/08/21/obamas-quiet-anti-mccain-campaign/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:33:07 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Alan Stewart Carl http://donklephant.com/2008/08/21/obamas-quiet-anti-mccain-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-413765 Alan Stewart Carl Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:42:53 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6997#comment-413765 Ed -- in no way did I justify McCain's tactics. Just pointing out that Obama is hiiting back. I don't expect Obama to not attack and I don't hold it against him that he's running some negative spots. However, all his talk about unity and a new kind of politics does put him in a bind. But it is a bind of his own making and not one I or anyone else is manufacturing. You can't win the presidency without resorting to politics as usual. Obama would have been smart to never pretend that he could. Ed — in no way did I justify McCain’s tactics. Just pointing out that Obama is hiiting back. I don’t expect Obama to not attack and I don’t hold it against him that he’s running some negative spots. However, all his talk about unity and a new kind of politics does put him in a bind. But it is a bind of his own making and not one I or anyone else is manufacturing. You can’t win the presidency without resorting to politics as usual. Obama would have been smart to never pretend that he could.

]]> By: ANewGuy http://donklephant.com/2008/08/21/obamas-quiet-anti-mccain-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-413718 ANewGuy Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:28:05 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6997#comment-413718 An anti-McCain campaign is what he needs, particularly when he has stories like this making their way across the pond. I mean, what does it say of a man's character, to go to his father's ancestral village, promise to provide them with aid to help the local school and orphanage, and <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23520981-details/Barack+Obama%27s+broken+promise+to+African+village/article.do" rel="nofollow">then three years since, fail to come through. Sen. Obama has some explaining to do.</a> An anti-McCain campaign is what he needs, particularly when he has stories like this making their way across the pond. I mean, what does it say of a man’s character, to go to his father’s ancestral village, promise to provide them with aid to help the local school and orphanage, and then three years since, fail to come through. Sen. Obama has some explaining to do.

]]> By: Ed in NJ http://donklephant.com/2008/08/21/obamas-quiet-anti-mccain-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-413717 Ed in NJ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:55:43 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6997#comment-413717 This post is a perfect example of the damn-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't quandary that Obama is in. Attack, and he's supposedly betraying his promise to run on the issues. Don't attack, and be defined as another weak Democrat unwilling to fight. The media and bloggers like you use the "politics as usual" line for any move Obama makes. It's very lazy analysis. Obama's message of change has nothing to do with his campaign tactics. It is about how he will lead, by not being beholden to special interests, lobbyists, and the inside-the-Beltway crowd. If the media (and you) had any guts, they would call out McCain for his total lack of a message, and the continuation of gutter politics at the country's expense instead of desperately trying to find examples of Obama's negative campaigning in order to justify McCain's tactics. This post is a perfect example of the damn-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t quandary that Obama is in. Attack, and he’s supposedly betraying his promise to run on the issues. Don’t attack, and be defined as another weak Democrat unwilling to fight.

The media and bloggers like you use the “politics as usual” line for any move Obama makes. It’s very lazy analysis. Obama’s message of change has nothing to do with his campaign tactics. It is about how he will lead, by not being beholden to special interests, lobbyists, and the inside-the-Beltway crowd. If the media (and you) had any guts, they would call out McCain for his total lack of a message, and the continuation of gutter politics at the country’s expense instead of desperately trying to find examples of Obama’s negative campaigning in order to justify McCain’s tactics.

]]> By: Grant Gould http://donklephant.com/2008/08/21/obamas-quiet-anti-mccain-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-413715 Grant Gould Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:41:59 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=6997#comment-413715 It might be strategic timing -- by going more publicly negative nearer the Republican convention, Obama could do a lot to take the air out of a McCain bounce. It might be strategic timing — by going more publicly negative nearer the Republican convention, Obama could do a lot to take the air out of a McCain bounce.

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