The RNC's first negative ad against Obama

Ian C

A gentle start. These will get stronger and stronger and there is a vast amount of material he Obama (and Hillary) have made available.

Ganpat Ram

What is truly depressing about Obama is that he is no genius but a mediocre Chicago politico whose pretensions it should be very easy to deflate.

He is no Napoleon. Only, his enemies have behaved like jackasses.

Hillary put up a game fight late in the play; but she blew her chances by huge early blunders.

McCain is much much worse.

McCain has had and has now opportunities galore for hurting Obama severely, opportunities screaming at him to use them. The old fellow passes by unseeing.

I will be very surprised now if McCain shows any bite at all in this election. He could easily win if he showed some common sense and imagination, but he seems robbed of both just when he needs them most.

Obama is actually a very weak candidate.

His background in Black Power politics - taking as his spiritual mentor of over 20 years a preacher in the habit of screaming "God Damn America!" and lionising extreme Muslim fanatics like Farrakhan and Gaddafi - that is an incredible asset for McCain. He should be hitting Obama on that repeatedly, pointing out to the public that a man with such a background is unfit for public office. Instead he has shied away from the topic, saying he is going to fight a campaign of "respect" and "ideas". What a gratuitous gift for Obama that stance is ! Like every confidence trickster of course Obama flourishes on those who do not question his dubious past. McCain is going to have to "respect" President Obama, at this rate.

McCain should go to Arnold Schwarzenegger for a few lessons on how to win elections in a year when the Republicans have become unpopular.

Apart from emphasizing Obama's Black Power background, McCain has to:

1. restate forcefully his credentials as a centrist. He needs to tell the conservatives plainly and in the hearing of the whole nation - I am not a conventional Republican, but very much a non-partisan centrist guy. You are going to have to live with that, because Obama would be much much worse.

2. cease talking about free trade in a year when Americans think they are in danger of losing jobs because of foreign competition.

3. stress his commitment to doing all it takes with government aid to boost the economy and jobs and healthcare.

All this will shoot McCain's poll numbers up among working-class Democrats and independents, and put him ahead of Obama, ho has only a very small lead despite incessant press sycphancy toward hm. It will make Obama seem like a loser and take the smirk off his face and that of his appalling sneering supporters.

Wake up and fight, McCain !

Now is the time for a couple of inspiring speeches - one to the conservatives to stress your centrist credentials; the other to the working class to tell them you are on their side in fighting for jobs.

Big speeches, with huge publicity.

Get going, you old jackass ! Are you sleeping, you and your idiot advisers?

Verity

Ganpat Ram - I don't know whether you're in the US or Britain (or India), but the electoral trail in the US is a long one. There is such a thing as keeping one's powder dry, and wise,unimpetuous older heads do this well.

We will see the McCain team turn up the temperature bit by bit.

I do not think Obama is inevitable, or even almost inevitable. He has a noisy cheerleading section, but it's not enough to win an election, given how many people in the party he has already offended.

I also think there is much more to come out about this individual. Perhaps not as juicy as we'd like, but I think there will be a drip, drip, drip of negatives that will stick.

I'm not at all discouraged.