i think they both bungled this one.

But nuclear disarmament is not the best means to exploit it in an ad.  To many people, they hear that as unilateral disarmament, not enemy disarmament.  Trying to get people to trust "the enemy" while at the same time scaring them about the potential of that enemy would not work very well.

One thing I've always liked about the Daisy ad is Johnson's slow monotone voice.  He sounds like somebody who isn't crazy enough to start a war, and also sober and tough enough to be ready to respond to one should it arise.  (Sadly, in fact, he gave us Vietnam and its surge... Uh, I mean escalation.)  That steady voice provided an implicit contrast to Goldwater's bellicose, confrontational style.  ("Extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice...")  If Obama can recreate that contrast, that would be an effective way to use this moment.

Well, Obama's whole candidacy is based on the premise that people are ready to turn the page.  If he's wrong about that, and what people really long for is to return to the good old days of the Cold War, oh well!

I honestly could not believe I saw actual Red-baiting from the McCain campaign though.

The reaction of the Obama campaign to this crisis, so at odds with our democratic allies and yet so bizarrely in sync with Moscow, doesn't merely raise questions about Senator Obama's judgment--it answers them.

I think my parents told me about this type of campaign once.

I think showing McCain for what he is would be very effective. As the Video on the recomended list points out McCain plans on recriting you for the wars coming. War is in his DNA. Having said this if Russia does something over the top then McCain will reap the "benefits" Rec

Georgia as a staging ground to do cross border attacks on Russia, similar to what they did with Iraq.

Russia isn't quite as naive and responded forcefully to these games.

Georgia made a huge mistake goading Russia repeatedly.

The US wanted Georgia to become a part of NATO something that Russia considered the ultimate insult.

Russia is taking care of the problem by taking back Georgia.

This is very sad for the people of that country that were very pro-Bush and pro-American. Now Georgia wonders why the US is backing down.

This whole situation was stupid. And Bush/McCain policy of poking sticks at Russia was NOT smart. Like I said Russia is not naive.

that this will play exactly the opposite.  Putin is a stone player, and I'm sure McCain's looking to promote the idea that Obama's too inexperienced and naive to deal with him.  Look at Bush, who seems to honestly believe that his personal friendship with Putin ensures good faith.  Which is horseshit, Putin plays Bush like a fiddle.

Plus, the Obama camp's statement clumsily linking the crisis to their current theme of McCain's ties to lobbyists was profoundly misguided.  It was playing politics with a major international crisis.

I want him to get off his ass, come back from Hawaii, and rise to this occasion like the statesman I know he is.