I think right now we need to keep the attacks on McCain primarily

[4themind]

This is an earth shaking choice IMO (I didn't expect it before a day ago), but that also means that the McCain campaign did little to nothing to prepare the "ground" work for her. That means that ,Mcain's group, and the MSM will desperately try to define her in the next two months, unlike McCain, Obama, and Biden who have all been campaigning for at least or over a year. Of everyone in the race, she's the one with the least name recognition, and the least amount of time to change that (this would not have been the case if the pick were romney for example)

One option is to go on the attack and define her first, but if we attack too aggressively, too soon, we run the risk of giving her the cheap ability to counterattack without having to define herself (but giving reassurance to skiterish Rethugs that she's a least a fighter if she does it effectively) In addition this could garner sympathy among independent women(or men too to be fair), and/or non-unified dems. The better option in my view is to let her work for it. Let's see her try and carry the water for McCain on his weakpoints. Let's see her prove her ability to be "presidential" (as the voters define).

Let's see her ability to prove to others that she can stand up to multiple foreign leaders, and have the command of the facts, and the ability to present that vision to the american people (I think obama has shown that). All the while we keep on attacking McCain, as Obama did so effectively last night. If she moves closer to McCain's ideas in his defense, it automatically puts her into the holes we already dug for McCain and we can keep digging them to fit her in as well, if she tries to show how she's a refutation of the attacks on McCain then we question their compatibility (this may not be entirely effective though depending on the issue)

Some might see this as too passive, but all the while we're hitting McCain's IDEAS, because as hillary asked, were "you" in the campaign for her,personally, or were "you" in it because of her time-tested ability to recognize and champion the ideas that "you" care about and can Palin offer that? The answer I think for the vast majority of hillary supporters will be no, so this choice while not helping obama's numbers may not siphon more off. But again we have to avoid appearances of sexism (I think the obama campaign has had quite a bit of practice in knowing to look out for this now) If she shows surprising strength then we unload the torrent towards the end, the ethics investigation (if it's still ongoing and is producing substance), the sexual harasser replacement that she hired in flace of the man she fired(poor vetting, although this may be a stretch). We let biden do the dismantling but while maintaining his charm and senatorial gravitas. And finally we use her female government peers among dems, and hillary to help clean away any bullying/"sexism" charges that come out.


I think the most realistic assessment is that this was a play for a sizable base of McCain's supporters, and some of that I don't think we can change, but this will add to McCain's numbers among undecideds rather than siphon off Obama support hopefully. The latter wish will be especially true if we can continue to draw away independent men(by attacking MCcain the way we have been now), and hope that their gambit for independent women(including some of the non-partisan "soccer moms") won't be taken in by her personal story.

[liberal N proud]

1. Her lack of experience doesn't need mention?

20 months as a governor qualifies her to be President?
Not knowing what the VP does makes her a viable candidate?
Under investigation?


No we need to hit her and hit her hard. Gender not withstanding.

[4themind]

3. Yeah that's one part I neglected to conclude

but I think we have to frame it so much as "see she's too inexperienced" because then the republicans say "well so is obama except he's running for president! She has executive experience obama has none!" I think what we should do instead is that whenever McCain brings up Obama's lack of experience we just point out the hypocrisy in McCain picking someone with so little experience when he was lambasting Obama's, this makes that line of attack even less effective than before, while Obama's team can attack with relative impunity to before

[DeepBlueC]

2. Boxer set the tone

By giving props to Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Olympia Snowe and wondering why he didn't pick one of the many qualified Republicans. I like that. You question her by alleging respect for others. That makes me snicker.

[4themind]

4. Good point , I didn't see that yet

the only answer to that would be that those two are relatively less anti-choice than Palin, which would push away many supporters of Hillary's causes

[goletian]

5. yes, focus on mccain. youre ABSOLUTELY right. this vp pick is doing precisely what he wanted...

its nothing but a diversion and a shot at dividing the dems AGAIN. everyone is falling for it. palins got nothin to offer his ticket ot the country, we can leave it at that. mccain is still calling the shots, and hes still the same as fuck-up george bush. make them OWN their mistakes for the last 8 years. dont let them distract us with new ones!!!!

[Undercurrent]

6. Exactly!

Our focus should be on Bush/McCain.