Obama Team Ready for Mud

[cal04]

By Anne E. Kornblut
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/07/obama_team_ready_for_mud.html

NASHVILLE -- Barack Obama's advisers are usually cautious about managing expectations -- never predicting a landslide, always downplaying how well their candidate will do in the debates. But with just a few hours until the second presidential debate here on Tuesday night, some of them let a little confidence slip.

Robert Gibbs, wandering the media filing tent, described McCain as "generally very cranky" these days. Then he asked: "Which John McCain are we going to get tonight? Are we going to get the guy who yells at the kids to get off his lawn?" Alternately, Gibbs said, a sunnier version of the Republican candidate could show.

But that was not the McCain he was most excited to talk about. "He looks angry and desperate, so I assume we'll get angry and desperate," Gibbs said, adding that if he wants to go negative -- presumably more difficult in the town hall setting, in front of several dozen undecided and soft-leaning voters -- Obama is ready to match him. "If people want to get down in the mud, we're prepared to get dirty," he said.

[elocs]

1. Obama will not be the one to choose to drag the debate in the mud,

but it sounds like he is ready for it. He will keep his poise and cool and give Johnny a whupping.

[Phx_Dem]

2. I think it's a shot across the bow to let

McKeating know that if he chooses to go there, he might be sorry. I don't take that to mean that Obama will get in the mud with him -- I don't think he will -- but he isn't going to let McCain get away with spewing lies or character assassination.

[breadandwine]

3. The town hall style could be a problem.

They've got undecided voters in the audience. Anyone undecided at this point is a total idiot. The people in the audience will be asking ridiculous softball questions like, "Do you have a dog?" McCain could do very well in this format and wind up winning the debate with folksy one liners.

[Phx_Dem]

4. I keep hearing that McCain is great in town halls, but I

have yet to witness his greatness (although I've tried to see it). He looks stiff and uncomfortable -- which is how he always looks. He just doesn't seem to be comfortable in his own skin. Plus, he makes alot of gaffes in town halls ("bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and others), but the audience involvement is why I don't believe there will be any confrontation or temper explosions from McCain. Sadly, I think we'll have to wiat for the next debate for a possible erruption.

It's the visual picture I'm looking forward to. Short, stout, McGruff standing stiffly next to, and probably refusing to look at, Mr. tall lean and cool.