The Week After

The conventions are over, and the campaigns are in high gear (except for Sarah Palin who has been sent to her room to do her homework). The other three each had a 30+ minute interview on the morning talk shows: McCain with Bob Schieffer, who did not challenge him in a softball interview; Biden with Tom Brokow and Obama with George Stephanopolis, both of whom were tough challengers. And both handled it well, especially Biden who was more forceful than Obama. Biden was especially good at explaining why the surge was only one reason violence is down in Iraq.

Re Richard's post: that report about Hillary not taking on Sarah might be right, but unless it came from the campaign, I'd be suspicious that it's a Rovian attempt to control the news and sew dissent among the Democrats. We'll know tomorrow, when she campaigns in Florida.

I like this from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog >http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/<. Using Sarah Palin's hockey methphor, he says her role is to be the player who provides game-changing agitation that arouses her own team while provoking the other side to a counterattack. He explains that in hockey it's always the guy who hits back that winds up in the penalty box. "Democrats would be smart to understand her as such, and I see a lot of reaction that doesn't seem to grasp what Palin is doing and the value she's providing. I see a lot of Democrats taking a lot of bait." [i.e., She attacks, Democrats hit back, then they claim sexism, demeaning to small town mayors, elitism, blah blah blah.]

Biden and Obama themselves have not taken the bait, it's mostly the surrogates, the bloggers, and the media itself. The correct response is, as Biden did yesterday, to name the behavior, even to comment that she's good at that tactic, and then shift back to the issues and to linking McCain with Bush.

Although the polls have tightened as they reflect the RNC bounce, Obama still holds a slight lead. That's good news. But it's going to be very tight.

Ralph