Ignoring Palin would be a mistake akin to ignoring the Swiftboat attacks in 2004.

[onetwo]

What is now absolutely clear is that Palin is currently THE draw for this year's Repub ticket. She is completely overshadowing the candidacy of McCain.

In short, Sarah Palin and the idea of her in the White House has "gone viral." Like it or not, she will attract an enormous amount of attention whether Democrats purposely ignore her (as all but the 'librul bloggers' have done, anyway) or not.

If Dems choose not to engage her, Palin's ridiculousness will make it to the eyes and ears of voters unfiltered and unchallenged for the remainder of this campaign. Imagine yesterday's speech in expanded and polished form delivered over the course of the next 60 days -- this needs to be proactively nipped in the bud.

She needs to be taken on directly. The Bridge to Nowhere lie. The special needs BS. The denigration of community organizers. The lack of any plans or solutions (aka. "substance"). The avalanche of problems in her political past (Troopergate, AIP, etc).

After last night, the American public will be more receptive to hearing about her problems. There is so much material that the Dems cannot help but go on offense. They must.

[glowing]

1. I think they are feeling it good.. Biden is pushing her up and making his

expectations low.. Obama is going after McCain.

[lamp_shade]

3. ... as it should be. n/t

[depakid]

14. Precisely the OP's point

[Kittycat]

2. They're not ignoring her, they're just not taking the bait.

They've responded, and are continuing to respond. The media has caught on to the Palin faux outrage, and have begun calling their surrogates on it left and right.

[KittyWampus]

7. yup, and I expect a bunch of posters to now try and get DU to focus MORE on Palino

[katty]

4. agree-she is the 'star'-mc same can coast now...the Dems

need to seriously deconstruct her piece by lying piece-FAST.

[davepc]

5. Shes the bottom of the ticket. Why get in a debate with the bottom of the ticket?!

[oviedodem]

6. Think about it this way:

If the McCain campaign is going to shield her from the press and individual performances, the best thing is to ignore her. If she is not going to speak why bring her name up.

Now in the time that she is not speaking, she is not seen. If we are just pounding on McCain, by virtue of her not being around, we win the message.

It's the old "Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if there is no one there to hear it"?

[blm]

8. You are revising history - swifts WERE answered and countered directly. Corpmedia REFUSED mic time

to vets countering the swifts, and even refused to broadcast Kerry's own speech attacking the swifts and his challenge to Bush to stop hiding behind the lies of swifts and publicly debate their services during Vietnam.

The networks were supposed to air Kerry's Aug19, 2004 speech to the Firefighters Convention, but they all refused to do so after they received the prepared remarks, and few news networks even reported the speech happened.

[samuraiguppy]

9. the fundies

won't vote for her. not with the knocked up daughter--it is against everything they believe in. They are acting supportive pulically--ut on election day they will stay home or vote Obama. Trust me--no fundie worth their salt would vote for her with all her scandals and trashy family.

[yardwork]

15. Welcome to DU! I think that a lot of fundies will vote for her, but only because of abortion.

There's a group of people in this country so brainwashed, they vote on the single issue of abortion. Pro-choice? They can't vote for you or they'll go to hell. They believe this.

Anti-abortion? You could be satan himself and they'll vote for you.

Fortunately their numbers are smaller than the media would have us believe. They are lost to all sense and decency. We shouldn't waste our time worrying about them, but focus on the swing voters.

[Sensitivity]

10. Someone MUST EXPOSE HER or the Republic fairytale will play with "common folk"

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. She will atrract right-wing fundies...

Who weren't going to vote for us anyway and who won't be swayed by any argument we can make. Of course she's a friggin' liar and a crooked politician. Did that stop them from voting for Bush?

Did you see Biden? Did he look like he was in panic mode? Did you hear Obama today, saying he's been called worse on the basketball court?

Calm down. Joe Biden, surrogates, and the blogosphere will dispatch this lighter-than-Dan-Quayle lightweight back to Alaska -- where she's probably blown any chance she might have had for a second term as governor.

[yardwork]

16. Palin needs to get blown back to Wasilla where she belongs.

[Alter Ego]

12. We will engage her, but we will do it deservedly and proportionally.

We should not overreact. Let Biden and surrogates deal with her. Obama needs to stay focused on his opponent--John McCain.

[Swede]

13. This is Biden's job.

Let Obama stay above the mudslinging.

[stolivodka]

17. Obama and/or Biden can't afford to give up their "good cop" advantage

..by taking this shrew on, themselves. What we are doing now -- viral attacks spreading from the internet to the MSM has got McCrap and his Muppet hiding from the media and looking weak and defensive to everyone in America. If Obama follows up, next week, with attacks by low-level party figures like Hillary, the McCain campaign will be reeling until the debates. After those, he's toast. Biggest landslide in history.

[harkowl]

18. Don't Ignore, but take the high road.

I agree that the dems need to attack Palin, but Obama and Biden are playing this correctly so far. They need to use surrogates, Clinton, Richards, etc...Obama certainly needs to address any lies or characterizations, but should not stoop to the level of the repubs in statements.

The key to success for Obama, will be to use negative ads against the entire McCain/Palin ticket and the whole failure of the last eight years.

Kerry defintely made a huge mistake in not responding to the swift boat ads, but those Kerry for a better America ads sucked, when Bush ran all those flip flopper ads. If the dems ever want to win, they need to play dirty pool like the repubs, but direct attacks on Palin will almost certainly backfire.