Ask John Kerry’s campaign! They just could not believe that they would have to defend Kerry’s military experience against the Swift Boat attacks. After all, Kerry was the candidate who was a combat veteran, running against someone whose sketchy military experience in the TX Air National Guard was most notable for his repeated absence and failure to fulfill his obligations. I doubt if the candidates want to see if ignoring attacks until it becomes a big problem works any better for them.

“his ability to make people think he agrees with them regardless of his actual opinion”

it is a good point to bring up. iwas reading this at mansizedtarget.wordpress
he is quoting steven sailer

“First, more than anybody else in recent politics, Obama has internalized the rule in all the self-help books on how to win arguments: Restate your opponent’s argument respectfully to show you understand it. Since most people assume their rival disagrees with them only because he is too stupid to understand their reasons, this instantly disarms much opposition. Indeed, Obama’s intelligence and verbal skills allow him often to summarize his opponents’ ideas better than they could themselves.

What his opponents don’t realize is that, although Obama is more than smart enough to grasp their logic, he just doesn’t care about what they care about.”

John McCain’s campaign called on Barack Obama Tuesday to condemn a comment from one of his Senate supporters that the presumptive Republican nominee, a naval aviator during the Vietnam War, “was a fighter pilot who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit.”

But is there necessarily a collision? I’m not sure. Why can’t they both be labeled as “straight talkers” with different ideas. The point is that they are upront with their ideas and proposals. They don’t do things like refuse to suggest to real and specific Social Security reforms and just suggest a vague “commission” to figure it out at some point.

Of course McCain will not use all of that narrative against Obama himself. He’ll certainly use the calculating, prevaricating, and liberal parts. I’m sure the RNC, talk radio, Fox News, and no small number of IEs will be more than happy to fill in the gaps.

Now, let’s go ahead and nominate the man and get the party united around the correct candidate!

That is why everything that Clinton says is viewed through the lens of “well, she is a cold, calculating politician, of course she would say that!” Meanwhile, everything Obama says is “fresh and new, direct and inspirational!” Of course, this isn’t always actually true. But those personality labels do not go away very easily. That is also why McCain has a persistant label of being a maverick and a straight shooter.

And I’m not so sure about the GOP narrative that you suggest against Obama. That may be the narrative used by talk radio, but that won’t come from McCain’s camp directly. And if anyone too close to McCain uses those attacks, it will be time to play another round in the game of repudiation.

And yes, Obama is perceived to be less political than Clinton. The Clintons certainly have the reputation of saying what needs to be said in a given situation. Thats why they’ve been successful in a hostile environment. Obama does not yet have this reputation, but he will. The GOP narrative against him in the general election will be “Who is this Barack (Hussein) Obama and what do we really know about him?” (answer: an ambitious, calculating, prevaricating unpatriotic black (maybe even Muslim) liberal). He’s not a Muslim, nor is he unpatriotic (though he seems intent on allowing for that possibility), but he is the rest of those things. My current goal is simply to suggest that, while perception is usually more important, perception is not permanent. The perception that Obama is a straight shooter is a huge reason he is where he is today. John McCain also has that reputation, and I think we are all in agreement that it is undeserved.

I think Obama is a better speaker than even JFK, and is probably on par with RFK. A silver tongue isn’t everything, but it sure is admirable in a leader, in my opinion. Of course, after the guy we’ve had for the last 8 years, it will be nice just to have someone who can form whole sentences.