I am itching for a fight with John McCain (did you know he was a POW) and ever since last week, all I've fought was Sarah Palin. Sure there are broadsides that strike Palin and happen to also hit McCain as well, but we need to keep our eyes on the goal. John McCain is the one running for President. He is our common target. We need to refocus our attentions on McCain -- now.
Let's have our leader show us the way, via the New York Times:
There was no letup on Saturday, though. Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the country's first black president, criticized McCain and the Republicans for not discussing issues or offering an outline for the future at their convention, which ended on Thursday night.
"He's not offering much change, that's why you didn't hear much about his plans for the future this week," Obama said.
Also, the Republican'ts have no plans for the future, so it's rather difficult for them to advocate such plans at their convention. McCain is the top of the ticket, not Palin. Relegate her to vice-presidential-nominee-hiding-from-the-evil-media status.
Meteor Blades does one better with a release from Senator Barbara Boxer (my Senator) about McCain's acceptance speech on Thursday night. Read it -- she knows who the top target is.
And from Politico:
Clinton will continue to yoke McCain and Palin to President Bush on pocketbook issues. But sources say that Clinton, who supports abortion rights, isn’t likely to criticize the Alaska governor for her anti-abortion stance. She may, however, question Palin’s record on equal-pay issues.
At first when I read this, that old angst from the Democratic primary came upon me again. Bad habits are hard to break. But I see the beauty of the strategy now. Senator Hillary Clinton gets it. The target is McCain, because he's the top of their ticket.
Now, this is not to say that when Palin issues one of her feverishly orchestrated press releases or statements from her bunker or while hiding behind her teleprompter or pages and pages of speech text that we should not forcefully respond. Our incredibly savvy nominee does so himself, via Politico:
“I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change,” Obama said at a town hall meeting here. “And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you [have] been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on,” Obama continued. “I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear.”
h/t to skralyx who got to this lovely piece way before I did and whose diary is already on the Rec List.
Obama levels with the America people and he trusts us to make a good decision, when we are informed of the information. I'm counting on future press releases full of those lovely scans of Palin's handwriting on pages and pages of earmarks for Alaska during her time as mayor and governor. But when Obama attacks, he's a multi-tasker, again from the same Politico article:
Obama also took on McCain’s inner circle Saturday, saying the presence of former lobbyists at the highest tier of his campaign makes him incapable of meeting his pledge to shut down special interest influence.
“Suddenly, he’s the change agent,” Obama said of McCain. “He says, ‘I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days in Washington are over.’ Who’s he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?
“Who is it that he’s going to tell that change is coming?” Obama asked. “I mean, come on, they must think you’re stupid!”
Indeed!! I would also add that if McCain wants to inform Washington lobbyists that their days are over, he can do so by taking a few short steps to the offices of his own top campaign management and tell them himself right now. Obama ties things back to McCain, and that's what our strategy should be. Of course there are so many other tempting targets out there, but the only one that matters is McCain. Why did McCain concentrate so much on his "mavericky" credentials in his acceptance speech? Because he feels the identification slipping away, with each 72-year old step he takes toward Bush and the rest of the Republican't base.
And not to be outdone, we saw Biden go after McCain as well, with a h/t to Al Rodgers:
The Republican'ts have barely begun to hit Biden back, even though Joe's had a long Senate career, with plenty of items to mine about him. But why would this be? Because they at least realize that it wouldn't help define Obama and that Obama is the top of our ticket.
So, I say again. Get off Palin. She's not running for President, even if she's only a 72-year old heartbeat away. And again, I'm not saying that we shouldn't contradict her and that we shouldn't try to define her right now before the Republican'ts can. Of course we can and should do this. But she shouldn't be the main target here.
McCain wants Palin to do all the dirty work. Normally this would fall on Bush and Cheney, but they are tainted and would probably bring McCain down more than they would help him. So, what do they do? They bring in a fresh face to smack Obama around. That's her fracking job. Understand that and live with it. If you think it's Biden's job to wallop McCain and the Republican'ts every chance he gets, why do you think the other side would have a different strategy?
And while Palin attacks Barack, McCain gets to sit back and look pretty, as he tries to stay out of the fray. We can't let him do that. And when half the diaries here are devoted to Palin and how some business partner has tried to seal his divorce proceedings, or how her daughter is pregnant and why conservatives don't care, or how Palin is doing her best to skirt the law, we are taking our eyes off of McCain.
Let's refocus, now. We can challenge Palin and pivot back to McCain. Barack and Joe have already shown how they're very good at bringing any talk about personalities back to the topic of issues -- issues that matter most to Americans like the economy, health care, veterans benefits, social security, foreign policy, Oval Office judgment and temperament, education, science policy, climate change, etc.
The target is McCain. The conservative, right-wing Republican't base may vote for Palin (and she may bring them out in droves), but conservative Democrats and Independents will vote for McCain if they can be convinced. We advance our choice of Obama and Biden by attacking McCain not Sideshow Sarah. Let Palin make her choreographed speeches and "allow" only interviews to a few outlets. We can counter such trash, especially when the Republican'ts are too cowardly to bring her before the news media. But let's stay clear of the person. The more time we spend devoting our venom to Palin, the less of it goes to McCain.
Barack and Joe win this general election, and we win this general election if the conservative base turns out for Palin and McCain and the progressive base and Independents turn out for us. It's as simple as that. The only person on the GOP ticket who could possibly still attract Independent and Democratic votes is McCain. Attack McCain, and we assure our victory.