Richard, I'm not completely rejecting your idea about the dedication of time to McCain, but I have an alternative strategy, specifically for Iraq. McCain has used his personal story as a secondary factor to reframe the debate, but mostly he has gotten the media and public to buy into the idea that the surge is why violence is reduced in Iraq, and the debate is now just about the surge --- which is McCain's ground. Rather than trying to disarm McCain's personal story, change the story around which we debate Iraq. There are two million Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, mostly Syria and Jordan. Their lives are very hard and the host countries are strained. Yesterday, Obama endorsed Biden's call for $1 billion in reconstruction aid for Georgia. How about Obama calls for $1 billion for Iraqi refugees. The Republicans will try to knock it down because the refugee problem makes Iraq look like a failure, but if Obama and the rest of us can make the media talk about the idea, now we're debating a subject that points up the failure and we're on our ground instead of MCain's.

And who knows, being wildly optimistic, maybe we can even get some help for the refugees. I do think the Republicans will fight it at every turn like they have so far, because to admit there's a problem means admitting Iraq went badly, but if we at least try...

The Raven's Blog: May the Better Bird Win
http://www.ravensblog.net

I am a swing voter - I can't decide whether to vote for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney. I think the caller who was worried a McBush love-fest at the dem convention would drive annoyed progressives to vote for neither has a very good point. I think large numbers of us protest voting is a serious issue, but I don't think Richard's strategy would be the thing to tip me overboard. I think the number of protest votes lost would be tiny compared to the moron votes gained.

I think my fellow Clout listeners are largely missing the point. McCain using compliments from democrats in his ads is a totally different thing than Obama validating his service in a major speech. It would annoy the hell out of me, but the point is that Obama will gain credibility with a certain audience that might otherwise tune him out if he doesn't say something they can identify with. It doesn't have to be about McCain being heroic for being tortured (which by the way is not torture by the Bush administration definition), it could be all about how Obama loves Jesus and America and the flag, as long as it speaks to those who otherwise won't listen.

I won't be watching, but another strategy could be to validate us Nader voters if he wants our votes back. I think the sucking up to the other kind of swing voters would be more effective because there are more of them, and us Nader voters aren't that easily manipulated.