It might be true that the Obama campaign in North Dakota has reached the point of diminishing returns and will be put to better use in shoring up Wisconsin and Minnesota. But it is not good news that they are being transferred from offense to defense. That doesn’t mean it isn’t the smart strategy. It probably is.
The common wisdom is that the economic meltdown is helpful to Barack Obama and to the Democrats in general. But the fiasco opens up an opportunity for John McCain to do two important things. McCain can use the bailout plan to highlight his differences with George W. Bush and he can strike an outraged, populist tone to appeal to the people who have been victimized by his deregulatory policies. The Democrats have to be ready at every moment to wield a baseball bat to John McCain’s phony and hypocritical rhetoric. There must be no quarter, and no populist pitch that goes unanswered. John McCain must not be allowed to escape from the shadow of his voting record or his ironclad support for Bush’s economic policies. There is a real danger that McCain can turn this disaster to his advantage if we take our feet off his neck for even a second.
