WaPo: McCain plans to abandon talk on the economy, focus entirely on personal attacks.

[Occam Bandage]

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan's campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

More horseshit at link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27018572/

[AlCzervik]

1. The Hate talk express.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

20. That's very good!

[AlCzervik]

24. well i'm sure it's not new but it seems entirely appropriate. :-)

[TransitJohn]

2. Wow! Who saw this coming?

It's completely out of the blue! :sarcasm:

[onefreespiritedchick]

8. Yeah, I've been dreading this...

We all knew it was going to happen.

[Hutzpa]

31. Oh snap !

Maverick McGaffe is on his way....


:hide:

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. "McCain operatives busy searching for deeper gutter, details at 11".

[treestar]

4. Now I'm starting to think he wants to lose

[sad sally]

18. It's the same old same old Republican playbook

after they've screwed up everything (and this time they've REALLY screwed up the Country), they hand it back to the dreaded Democrats to fix things. Yes, they do want to lose.

[silverweb]

5. Just what people DON'T want.

This is going to backfire on the reTHUGs in a big, big way.

Go for it guys. You've got nothing but exaggerations and lies, and everyone will know what slime you really are.

[rvablue]

22. I totally agree with you....let them go for it

because it's not going to work.

Don't know where you watched the debate, but I watched on CNN and they had that little voter meter at the bottom of the screen.

Every time Palin started being nasty the lines dropped way down -- and more so for woman than for men.

Wright, Ayers, blah blah blah have already been hashed out in the primary. It's old news and people losing homes, going bankrupt, losing jobs, losing their way of life only want to hear how someone is going to change their lives for the better.

[silverweb]

26. I didn't watch, but heard about the voter meter.

All the Dems have to do when reTHUGs attack is say:

"See? There they go again with the negative smears and false personal attacks because they have nothing else. They don't have any ideas or answers for job loss, the mortgage crisis, health care costs, (hot issue du jour, etc, etc), so they're slinging mud instead. Well, here's our plan to help you with (issue)...."

[Marsala]

25. Negative campaigning does work

Negative personal attacks, on the other hand, tend to backfire. Especially when they are all months old.

[silverweb]

27. And that's the point.

There's nothing they can throw at Obama or Biden that isn't old, old debunked news.

[Metric System]

6. Well this would explain Palin's attack today. This isn't exactly the type of campaign McCain had

said he would run. But, hey, it's Obama's fault for not agreeing to joint town hall meetings (isn't that the excuse McCain used a few weeks ago?).

[No Elephants]

35. Yes, but it made no sense to me then, either.

[Ikonoklast]

7. But the teetering economy WILL NOT GO AWAY

And people that haven't been directly affected are getting pretty scared that this downturn could turn into a disaster and take them down with it.

It will look desperate on the part of McCant to ignore the huge problem everyone can plainly see for themselves.

His campaign is dead already. What we are seeing is the twitching of a cooling corpse.

[Cha]

14. Kinda like when he cancelled the Debate with Obama

and ran around like a chicken on exlax?

Only to come to the debate anyway? Should have shown up at Letterman's, too..instead of babysitting palin on Couric's interview.

[asjr]

9. McCain has been carrying himself by his

POW image for years and years. Most of us realize that. That is all he has. He just may melt down in the next debate or town hall meeting. I don't see him holding his temper in check for much longer. And I really have to question the minds of those who support him. They must be illusional also.

[Scurrilous]

10. Yeah, go negative...

...because it worked so well against him in the primaries.:crazy:

[bevoette]

11. so? BRING IT!

worked so well in the past

[MarianJack]

12. WOW, What a Shock!

I always knew that the promise od "a respectful campaign" was horseshit (to use one of McSame's favorite debate responses).

PEACE! (That is, starting on 11/5/08)

[alsame]

13. Stupid move - people are not going to forget about the economy

in the next month. You can show Rev Wright 24/7 but that's not going to help anyone pay their bills.

[JBoy]

15. Was McCain actually talking about the economy? Must have missed it...

[kenny blankenship]

16. A pure "Disqualification" strategy of smear and innuendo - but that's always the Republican way

[TheDonkey]

17. "It's the distractions, Stupid"

McCain's new slogan. This is bad news for Obama and America. Will take some great campaigning to thwart McTroll's last hail mary offensive.

[Schulzz]

19. I think it is easy to counter negative attacks in a crisis,

when people see you as the better candidate to fix it. He will just appear desperate.

[bunnies]

21. And Obama will take the high road & make them look like asses for attacking him.

Is that how McCain plans to help Americans having problem with paying for heat and gas? Its getting pretty frigging cold up here (north) already. Obama knows that people want solutions, not bullshit.

[theothersnippywshrub]

23. McCain's campaign announced on September 2 that they would not win if the election was about issues.

"This election is not about issues," said Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/mccain_manager_this_election_i.html

[NC_Nurse]

28. Negativity isn't going to save them now. No vision, no solutions...just mud.

Not a good idea. But let them dig a deeper hole. Whatever.

They got nothing.

[Whalestoe]

29. Does anyone believe this:

"The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. appears to be off limits after McCain condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that linked Obama to his former pastor, saying, "Unfortunately, all I can do is, in as visible a way as possible, disassociate myself from that kind of campaigning."

[McPainsBrain]

30. Can you guys blame him?

I mean look at me. I'm not very big. Complex thought processes are beyond my abilities. I had to use my built in thesaurus to construct the previous sentence. And this one. And that one.

I was in Vietnam.

Vote for me.

[nsd]

32. Good. I hope he does.

People are sick of this shit. They're going to see right through it. The economy is what they care about. If McCain goes this route, he's going to turn an Obama victory into an Obama landslide.

[No Elephants]

33. I hope all the Dem strategists have read the Rolling Stone article on McCain. Ayers

and Wright are not running. McCain is.

[OmahaBlueDog]

34. A few things

1. If the campaign is saying this, it may well be misdirection
2. Even if it's true, I can't see Barack not being prepared for this
3. This is all old news, so I suspect media and voter reaction will be "why are you bringing this up now?"
4. Both McSame and Palin have plenty of gutter fodder if we want to get down in the pig pen and sling mud
5. The last time the economy was in the crapper, they tried this on Bill Clinton. Who won?

[Occam Bandage]

36. kick