Tactical Move of the Week
The Obama team is quick even when its candidate is caught flat-footed. Obama bobbled the Jim Johnson issue this week…but then the campaign did exactly what it needed to do (and more).
First they dumped Johnson. No arguing, defending or indecision. Bang, done.
Second, they launched a coordinated attack on McCain being “confused” about Iraq (McCain told Matt Lauer on the Today Show that he didn’t think that it was too important to get our troops home; rather, the more important issue was making sure that there were no more casualties). Four different surrogates used the word “confused” in their assessment of this statement. Joe Scarborough has been hammering this since 7:00 am, saying that the inference is that McCain is too old.
Scarborough is right, but the tactic is working because while most of today’s papers are focusing on the Johnson departure, all of the the cable networks have run the Obama slam on McCain.
The Obama team will not be lax like the Kerry campaign. They have learned from the Swift Boat attacks–team Kerry waited an unfathomable two weeks to respond–and will not wait even two minutes to respond.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.