What Obama Should Do

In a recent softball interview on MSNBC's Countdown, Keitho didn't so much ask Barack questions as he did solicit campaign advice. He asked when Barack was going to get angry and say, "Enough!"

Barack Obama is getting angrier. He's getting more pointed, more snarky, and veering away from what appeals about him. Obama conveys that he's above the usual political fray. The new dishonest Barack is killing the "hope" and "change" ideals for which he stood.

Political ads are historically distortive and inaccurate. Henry Clay was brutal against Andrew Jackson, portraying him as a simian fool. Abraham Lincoln's opponents compared him to Satan.

John McCain rode the Straight Talk Express in 2000, and the press loved him. And he lost. McCain saw himself in fourth place early in the Republican primaries, and he got a little more Machiavellian with his tactics. Mitt Romney tried to engage McCain on his dishonest tactics, and he lost. He looked like a whiner.

Obama didn't engage in anything Hillary Clinton threw at him. Plagairism? He laughed it off. Lack of experience? Let's focus on judgment.

McCain's ads against Obama have been playfully misleading. But Obama saw the Palin bounce and overreacted, leading to a bigger Palin bounce. Now he's telling his followers to get in people's faces, and putting out race-baiting ads. I don't see how he's going to sway independents by appealing to the desires of the left-wingers who are angry all the time.

What is McCain doing for the righties? He gave them Sarah Palin. That's all he has to do. Republicans know Bush has not been a good president, they know their six years of controlling Congress yielded a higher deficit. Everyone knows McCain will be different than Bush, just not as different as Obama would be.

It all comes down to the debates, and Obama can hammer McCain with specifics, what he will specifically do versus what McCain has not specifically said he would do. But Obama, master speaker, needs to keep the sunny optimism about him. He's complemented Reagan a few times, and he can follow Reagan's lead. Talk about what's good about America, what's good about the American people. Then he can address what he will do to make people's lives better, stregthen the economy, and restore our standing in the world.

And quit taking campaign advice from the DailyKos crowd.