I get the sense Charlie came away from that interview impressed.

Of course Obama'd welcome it. McCain needs to go ballistic just once on national TV to put the final nail in has own coffin. If he doesn't provide the opportunity, Obama will just play it cool. Lose-lose for McSame, anyway: if he blows up he's toast, but Obama can outplay him on any topic at a more rational, less emotional level.

He just called McCain a wuss. If this is not responded to by McCain it will be fatal. If he takes the bait it will be fatal.

The Shark approves.

Obama has truly had his A-game on in these types of interviews of late. NBC again asked this morning: where is Palin?

It's a trap

The effort not to blow his top is taking a terrible toll on mercurial McCain. Go ahead and let rip with a profanity-laced tirade, John Sydney. You're losing anyway so you may as well just uncork. You'll feel much, much, better.

Of course he wants McCain to bring it up. He wanted Browkaw to bring it up. The Republicans know it's only potent as insinuation and rumor. So, don't hold your breath during the debate waiting on it. Of course, Obama could jump the gun and confront McCain about the whisper campaign.

-Your 527s and Swift Boaters have been insinuating all kinds of things, John, about William Ayers and me. Is there anything that you'd want to ask me?
-Well, no. I've insisted from the start that I don't approve of these kinds of things.

And the balloon deflates.

Look, Obama knows, just as McCain does, that the sort of accusations that he and Palin are making in front of friendly crowds or in television ads with dark music, don't hold up very well to any sort of scrutiny. The Ayers stuff in particular is basically silly and if either McCain or Palin had to make the statement in front of somebody who would actually challenge their logic, he (McCain) is the one that would end up looking stupid.

The whole Ayers gambit only has power in a crowd full of brain dead right wingers. No one else buys it or even cares and they know it. Why would they ever give such a half-assed accusation any exposure in any other context?

I have been saying for months that the Rovian play for Obama would be to subtly yet persistently call McCain a pussy. Call the Republicans cowards for being afraid of a bunch of cave dwellers without an airforce. Call him yellow bellied for hiding behind his women to make his attacks. Let the world know that McCain has a bully's toughness, all bluster until he's stood up to.

It would have to be done subtly, but Obama could figure it out.

I'm glad that with four weeks to go though, he was given an opportunity to in effect call him a punk-assed bitch in public. And that is exactly what Obama just did.

In this sense, McCain's right. Obama didn't make it in Chicago politics without learning a trick or two.

It could be great fun, but I think this may be the biggest mistake Obama has made. He is in great shape to win without it; this is just doubling down. If Obama just takes it or hems and haws and lets McCain talk all over him, its a horse race again. He can't just count on McCain to go insaniac, bigot,... McCain could get mad and be focused.

Don't bother calling me a panty waist or concern troll.

I am an Obama fan but this view of Obama as Ali and some holy prophet and savior that you see here is quite grating.

He is just a politician. So far he has proved to be good one. I hope he is the next President.

either an explosion or – as i've written elsewhere – mcsame will reach into his pocket, pull out some ball bearings, and start mumbling (even more incoherently than ususal) something about "strawberries."
all same same.

Gregor, did you mean Allah? I'm not sure if your calling him a god or a boxer?
Either way I strongly disagree with you. Obama is just saying what a president needs to do. Be calm and reassuring in times of crisis. Not erratic like McDoofus or Shifty like Bush.

I voted for Hillary in the primaries because I thought she had better experience and because I thought she was tougher than Barack. Two things changed my mind. Obama's speach on race in Philadelphia just blew me away (Clinton's behavior in contrast pissed me off), and the second was Ryan Lazza's (sp) piece in the New Yorker. At the time Obama's folks thought it came off as a hit piece on Obama, but they were wrong. Obama came across as one tough son of bitch in that piece, and I took greater comfort in believing that he could take on the Republican machine. Our trust has been vindicated in the general election. Sure Barack gives good speach, but I take comfort in the fact that he is one hell of a shrewd politician and pretty ruthless in his own, disarming way. He's got his own style, but he's a lot like Bill Clinton in that way. He is no pussy. Come to think of it, he has a lot in common with Hillary too.

It could be great fun, but I think this may be the biggest mistake Obama has made.

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard this over the course of Obama's campaign, I'd be in pretty good shape to weather the recession. At this point, I suspect that he knows what he's doing.

Cooler heads are prevailing this time around. Let's stay above it all. Minimize it by ignoring it. Then when we win, jail all the bitches!

We're not gonna to take it anymore!

but this view of Obama as Ali and some holy prophet and savior that you see here is quite grating

I honestly don't know what you are trying to address here gregor. I don't see anything in this post that could be characterized that way and I don't think I have ever seen Steve post anything that would resemble the kind of worshipful pose you are describing. Can you give us some examples of what is bothering you?

Stay tuned next Wednesday. I'm sure part of Obama's debate prep is going to be testing lines -- and attitudes -- for bringing up this issue.

McCain was flown off the burning deck of the Forrestal while his fellow sailors were fighting the fire.

I guarantee you that Obama had an Ayers response crafted and ready Tuesday night, and is disappointed McCain didn't raise it.

Obama would love to tell an audience of 60 million who Ayers is. That since 1970 Ayers, who *turned himself in to the FBI and was released due to lack of evidence*, became a professor at the pretigious U of Chicago and a volunteer advocate for children's education. That in the 1980s and 1990s Ayers was a respectable member of a community of Republicans and Democrats working together for education, and that his associates included leaders from both parties throughout the city.

Obama could have asked McCain: one of your key supporters is Ambassador Annenberg, whose charity chose Bill Ayers and myself as board members. Are you saying your supporter, Ambassador Annenberg, is a friend of terrorists? Are you saying that all these dozens of people who have worked with this man are terrorists?

Look, NONE of us have endorsed the views Ayers expressed in the 1960s. But he wasn't talking about those views in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of us didn't even know about his past -- all we knew was who he was then.

But, Sen McCain, if you think we should be talking about past associations, then it is fair game that we talk about yours, too.

Questioning his fortitude, perhaps.

Questioning his manhood for sure. Especially with Sarah, and now Cindy, carrying his water in this regard.

Michael7843853 on October 9, 2008 at 9:22 AM:

McCain could get mad and be focused.

Obama is very smart and runs a methodical campaign. 1st debate, McCain was aggressive and he shrugged it off - 2nd one Obama hit back a bit more, so I could see him saving up his offense for the 3rd. It's like he's feeling out his opponent. Also, McCain is clearly petulant and short tempered - and easy mark for the end of campaign debate.

Let McCain be McCain!
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/10/let-mccain-be-mccain.html

Ayers "became a professor at the pretigious U of Chicago"

Nope. He's a professor at the U of IL- Chicago.

I guarantee you that Obama had an Ayers response crafted and ready Tuesday night, and is disappointed McCain didn't raise it.

"I don't think Senator McCain's associations with G. Gordon Liddy - a convicted felon who has, on his radio show, had a serious discussion of the best methods of shooting federal officers - disqualifies him for public office. Look - if we all were responsible for the actions of everyone we've ever met, no one in this country could qualify for dogcatcher, let alone president. I suggest to Senator McCain - I haven't brought up Liddy before this moment, and if he'll agree with me I won't bring it up again - I'd like to make an agreement, right here and now, with Senator McCain that neither Liddy nor Ayres, for all their despicable pasts, have any bearing on the job either of us would do as president, and that it's beneath the dignity of the office, and the needs of the times, to make this election about this nonsense. Enough."

That's what I'd say. But Obama would say it better.

trbtx: "McCain was flown off the burning deck of the Forrestal while his fellow sailors were fighting the fire."

Okay, please, that's enough. You either don't know what you're talking about, or you're purposely distorting the story.

After the exlosion and fire aboard the USS Forrestal in July 1967, then-CMDR John McCain and most of the surviving pilots of the USS Forrestal were transfered to other aircraft carriers, and they were subsequently sent back into action over North Vietnam. That is a non-debatable fact.

There are clearly a lot of things for which Sen. McCain should be held to account. The Forrestal tragedy certainly isn't one of them. All you do by trafficking in such malevolent innuendo is lower yourself to the GOP's level. Please don't go there.

This is absolutely a tactical move on O's part. I'm sure he'spolishing an eviscerating response. Does McCain want to go there? Of course not. But if O will ratchet up the macho meter a bit McCain will eventually blow a gasket. POW! And I don't mean P. O. W.

The funny thing is that Obama can force McCain to go there at the next debate. Obama can simply say, directly to McCain: "I've noticed you've had your women folk talking trash about me. Is there something you yourself want to say to my face?"

What can McCain do at that point?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBzpCQy7Giw

Palin and McCain are very Bitter and SAD people. No chemistry, no vision for the future. Blaaaaaaaa blaaaaa blaaaa, it's all BLAAA with them. We are already sick of McCreepy and Caribou Barbie.

I cannot for the life of me understand why Obama hasn't thrown the AIP thing back in Palin's teeth. It would demolish her. It would be the bitch slap heard round the world.

It's pretty depressing to read the Democratic blogs every day and see better material than what Obama's professional campaign staff come up with. He should fire his oppo research people and put Yglesias or Kos on the payroll.

This is just another example of the superiority of networked, P2P organization over traditional hierarchical organization.

"After the exlosion and fire aboard the USS Forrestal in July 1967, then-CMDR John McCain and most of the surviving pilots of the USS Forrestal were transfered to other aircraft carriers, and they were subsequently sent back into action over North Vietnam. That is a non-debatable fact."

From the Rolling Stone article on John McCain. I think I trust their facts more than yours.

"McCain displayed little of Hope's valor. Although he would soon regale The New York Times with tales of the heroism of the brave enlisted men who "stayed to help the pilots fight the fire," McCain took no part in dousing the flames himself. After going belowdecks and briefly helping sailors who were frantically trying to unload bombs from an elevator to the flight deck, McCain retreated to the safety of the "ready room," where off-duty pilots spent their noncombat hours talking trash and playing poker. There, McCain watched the conflagration unfold on the room's closed-circuit television — bearing distant witness to the valiant self-sacrifice of others who died trying to save the ship, pushing jets into the sea to keep their bombs from exploding on deck.

As the ship burned, McCain took a moment to mourn his misfortune; his combat career appeared to be going up in smoke. "This distressed me considerably," he recalls in Faith of My Fathers. "I feared my ambitions were among the casualties in the calamity that had claimed the Forrestal."

The fire blazed late into the night. The following morning, while oxygen-masked rescue workers toiled to recover bodies from the lower decks, McCain was making fast friends with R.W. "Johnny" Apple of The New York Times, who had arrived by helicopter to cover the deadliest Naval calamity since the Second World War. The son of admiralty surviving a near-death experience certainly made for good copy, and McCain colorfully recounted how he had saved his skin. But when Apple and other reporters left the ship, the story took an even stranger turn: McCain left with them. As the heroic crew of the Forrestal mourned its fallen brothers and the broken ship limped toward the Philippines for repairs, McCain zipped off to Saigon for what he recalls as "some welcome R&R.""