How to go sharply negative without looking like you're going negative.

[Buzz Clik]

Going negative is tricky against a wildly popular candidate because the possibility for backlash is real. However, with a languishing campaign, something needs to be done to draw a contrast with your opponent and to hopefully entice him to make a mistake.

Here's the road map:

1. Accuse your candidate of putting forward empty rhetoric with no issues. Flaunt one or two of your own fliers during campaign stops.
   
2. When your opponent responds to your taunting -- no matter how tame or how dispassionate his response -- immediately accuse him of going hard negative and betraying the Party.
   
3. When you respond, act very angry and use select words: "shame"; "core values"; accuse your opponent of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, pandering to special interests, and undermining the Party.

Is this a new strategy, unique to 2008? Hardly. Newt Gingrich implored aspiring Republican candidates in 1994 and 1996 to use these tactics against their opponents -- especially Democratic incumbents. This style was perfected by Karl Rove in 2000 and 2002. I would imagine that Karl Rove yesterday sent the Clinton campaign a bill for royalties when she accused Obama of taking his approach "right out of Karl Rove's playbook."