In your world everything is bad for Obama.

had to jump on McCain's comments; it plays into too many narratives for them not to (e.g. forgetfulness, elitism, etc.) just as a careless comment about Israel or America would play into narratives about Obama (remember how they tried to twist Obama's "constant sore" comment).

I am also concerned as to whether Obama hurts his brand by bringing up McCain's houses himself; it seems though that the media would have ignored surrogates if Obama didn't bring it up.  I thought McCain would hurt his brand by using that "rather lose a war to win a campaign" line himself but his favorable numbers weren't hurt and he cut into Obama's lead.  So perhaps Obama won't take a hit for going "negative."

It's completely fair game though I think McCain may have bit too hard with Rezko.  Thomas Keating will be introduced to the American population very soon.

I am very disappointed. This can't be the best Obama can do. I think McCains hit back was more damaging from the sound bit perspective with the Rezko thing.

Also, yes, Obama should have his surrogates do the attack, will he stays clean and on-message. Notice that the McCain hit back was by a campaign official.

And now Obama and Co. is chasing the wrong message. It shouldn't be that McCain is out of touch because he doesn't know how many houses he has (and BTW, the ad should have stopped at 4, because that's how many residences there are), but because if he were concerned for the plight of those trying to keep their 1 home, or with no home, he wouldn't dare say things like skip a vacation.

Being rich and not knowing how many homes you have doesn't make you out of touch, but callous expressions do. That's where they should have nailed him. But they missed ...as they have on every hit.

Look at the one they did on the economy. McCain was quick to knock that one down by saying the quotes were old. The way to have made that one stick would have been to have shown financial news that corresponds with McCains statements, or with quotes by Obama or finance and economics experts that were in disagreement with McCain's statements.

They really have to start doing a better job. They are sucking at the hits.

If I could afford to buy 7 houses, I would donate a lot of it to charity. Does that make me a better person than you? I think it does.

Celebrity and out of touch.

These are the Themes by which John McCain has decided that this campaign must and will be run.  For almost a month now, every word out of John McCains mouth has been that Obama is a rich elitist who doesn't understand the common man.

How many 'common men' own 6 or 7 or 10 houses?   Not many.   The few people I know that own more than one house can definitely tell you how many that they own.

Are you going to try and tell me that some poor working family living in some hollow in Eastern Tennessee is going to consider a man that owns 10 houses and a private jet to be one of them?  

You are correct that negative ads are not going to necessarily bring people to support Obama, but they could keep people from supporting McCain.  Negative ads are designed to kill votes, not move votes.

uprated for HR abuse