McCain Was Going to Pounce On Obama Either Way

Negative turn generates anger toward candidate

(NEWSER) - A new Obama campaign memo obtained by Time documents Republican disapproval of the McCain camp’s recent tactics. Some highlights:

• Pat Buchanan on the commercial juxtaposing Obama, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton: "Look, this is not an effective ad.”
• Ed Rollins: “John needs to be the deliberate, experienced veteran and not the grumpy old man.”

Among them: Obama is a bit like Bush, and he needs to strike back harder at Mac

(NEWSER) - Here are five things we learned in the wake of Barack Obama’s overseas trip, via John Heilemann in New York:

• Obama's got guts: The trip was “risky business, fraught with peril”—but we know now that he's willing to gamble if the potential payout is right.
• His team is great, but imperfect: The trip once again proved the organizational brilliance of his aides, but the non-visit of troops in Germany gave McCain ammo.

And yes, there's a Sarah Palin character

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's 2008 campaign is the subject of Hope!, a musical set to premiere Jan. 17 in Frankfurt. The production features musical-theater versions of the major players: Michelle, Hillary—looking quite young—John McCain and even Sarah Palin, who sings a solo surrounded by scantily clad dancers. Writer and composer Randall Hutchins, who is American, tells Der Spiegel he got the idea for the production "right at the start of Obama's electoral campaign. I found the atmosphere exciting and that was my inspiration." More»

McCain, Obama break with tradition and carry their negative campaigning into the election's final days

(NEWSER) - Both presidential candidates are bucking tradition and remaining on the offensive in the last days of the election—a time when campaigns usually back off and focus on positive messages, the Washington Post reports. Barack Obama is spinning Dick Cheney’s endorsement of John McCain as a troubling indication of a possible Bush redux, and McCain’s newest robocalls feature Hillary Clinton’s primary season attacks on Obama. More»

'Tinny and trivial' attacks are too small, and in any case too late, in momentous election

(NEWSER) - Any day now, John McCain will mock John Kerry for flip-flopping. Or maybe go with George H.W.’s “Read my lips, no new taxes,” pledge, even Eisenhower’s “I shall go to Korea.” What he won’t do is offer anything new, because all year he’s “seemed intent on fighting the last war, or rather, waging the last campaign,” Scot Lehigh writes in the Boston Globe. More»