I think the "anti-Iraq-war" message should be emphasized more

[4themind]

Honestly, I think this has been one of the biggest differences between the primary campaign and the fall campaign. Part of this may be due to differences in electorate concerns but I think it can still be a useful tool to define McCain as reckless and a "hip-shooter". This narrative is nice in that it's one the Bush shares as well. We need to not just link shared policies, but shared narratives between Bush and McCain as well IMO. To further reinforce that narrative, we can point out that he DIDN'T READ THE NIE ,as he's essentially admitted in survey's and in campaign appearances. They will counter by saying "well the NIE was B.S. anyway", we then counter by saying:

1.)It shows the lack of thirst for knowledge and on VERY important matters to our nation. A lack of intellectual curiosity, of seeking and considering ALL available information before making a judgment(whether it turned out to be true or not) It's reckless, and it's a recklessness that's been all too pervasive over the past 8 years. A nice soundbyte, "It'd be like if a new person were found to be falsifying their record,and you were the manager that hired him without reading it" Either way it's going to reflect badly on you

2.)you obviously didn't have the judgment to forsee what would happen (now whether you subscribe to whether he SHOULD have known or not (I think he should), it will at least shift hypocritical focus on his argument against Obama's judgment on the surge) Also, in addition to current defenses that I've read here about Obama's judgment against the surge, I'd also add that, the "judgment" that McCain showed on the surge was at best an attempted "correction" of a previously MISPLACED judgment about the number of troops that would be needed to get the job done (he has interviews on MTP before the war that I think attest to that IIRC)

McCain will counter with his "maverick" message, but I think it is pretty unrealistic ,at this point, to not expect McCain push back, and counter-narrative on all of Obama's contentions about him, the Obama campaign just needs to fight harder to push that back. Pointing out that McCain is TOO similar to bush, on TOO many issues (He's not an exact clone, no one is, but it's bad enough not to reward his party with 4 more years)

We can also emphasize that Mcain's focus on "listening to the generals' view on conditions on the ground" IGNORES what the Iraqi government wants to do. They want us out, if we stay there again regardless of what that government wants we are an occupying power(I believe that is what we are now, but McCain again has a quote where he says that we can't stay much longer than the elected Iraqi government wants us there IIRC) Now I admit this can be a gamble, the increased emphasis on this issue will also spur INTENSE pressuring from BushCo on Iraq to repudiate Obama's contentions, but I really think that Maliki's political fortunes do benefit from American withdrawal (helping to neuter the AL-Sadr wings)

The bottom line is, "not being swiftboated" doesn't mean spending all time responding to each claim the other side makes. They can shovel out the bullsh*t as fast as we can correct it, they have 527's funded by billionaires to do it, and while we spend time defending point by point, McCain keeps trying to appeal to independents with his relatively token "opposition" of republican leadership, and it could work to get him elected, if enough resources are not devoted to propping up Obama's own record, while directly tearing down McCain's record. I think we need to use the preponderance of screw-ups on McCain and Bush's record to just bury the republicans in their bullsh*t and be assured that the mountain will be too big for them to dig out from underneath. And by "we" I mean all democratic surrogates, the Obama campaign, and supporters of this campaign

*Apologies for misspellings/grammar, and the lack of links to back up some of these points but they ARE out there if a kind hearted soul could help me find them(as I have to head off to class now), heh