It is paramount that Obama maintain his positive image...

[kentuck]

The opposition wants to tear him down. They want to plants seeds of doubt. Is he a Muslim? Can he be trusted? Does he have enough experience? Is he too liberal? Is his wife a racist? And so forth and so forth. Barack must dust those comments off his shoulder and continue to talk about the issues and not fall for the trap of getting down in the mud with the Republicans. If he does, he will lose. He must continue to remind the people that this is what they do every time. They want to make personal attacks and they want people to forget about the mess they have gotten us into. But the people are too smart to fall for it this time. Not this time.

[Cant trust em]

1. but don't let that get to the Kerry level of ignoring the swiftboat attacks.

it's a fine line.

[quantass]

2. EXACTLY!

[kentuck]

4. True, but his surrogates should be able to take care of that...

Obama needs to stay positive and presidential, in my opinion.

[quantass]

3. He has to fight back regardless...but do it with facts and umph!

[MindMatter]

5. Obama has a 60-90 day warm-up period

At least that is how it seems to me. On the face of it, he is the improbably candidate. Most people aren't going to take to him immediately because he is so much different than the others. And I'm not talking about the fact that he is black. That is either a problem for you or it isn't. No amount of time will allow a racist to come along.

What is drawing the huge crowds is that there are millions of us who have come to realize just how screwed up the establishment Democrats and Republicans have made this country. A person doesn't come to that view overnight, but there are 100,000,000 or more who are there now judging from Bush's low approval rating.

But what makes Obama different is that many of us have come to believe and trust that he is coming from a different place. Every challenger who has ever run for office talks about "it is time for a change". But he is talking about a very serious course shift for this country. It takes some time for people to internalize that and accept that. There are many who have completed that process -- the most politically-aware people. But the real problem Obama has is all the people who aren't really very interested in politics and citizenship. If they wait until the last week, as is their pattern, to really begin thinking about this, Obama loses.

We have to find a way to get these people involved and thinking 90 days before the election. I think that is doable, but it has to come on strong right at Labor Day. And if you follow the 90-day rule, it really starts in a big way at the convention. Those 30 days from mid-august to mid-September are critical, and the GOP will be getting a lot of the media during that time. Given the numbers Obama has drawn, I look for a series of huge events -- Portland-sized events -- rolling out from Denver and continuing right on top of the GOP convention.

[anonymous171]

6. Fight lies and attack his opponent on the issues, but no trivial smearing.

People are tired of swiftboats and smears. Now they just want to get stuff done.