Boy this was a top notch article. Come on back when you've got something substantive and comprehensive.

One of the reasons Republicans are losing this year is this small-minded habit of seizing on 'gaffes,' as opposed to painting a larger narrative that lays out a positive vision for the country. Conservatives need to wrest control of the party away from the Rovian, narrow, juvenile attacks and back toward a fiscally responsible, ethical, pragmatic approach. The alternative is to lose our voice in political life for a very long time.

I don't know where commentor meglar is coming from. The NYT et al are giving all sorts of column inches to the Palin wardrobe story, and ignoring anything negative re Obama/Biden, but it is the Republicans who are 'small-minded'? Re 'juvenile attacks', the only ads I see on TV from Obama are those comparing McCain to Bush. This positive and a vision for the future? Commentor #2 seems to be a sarcastic twit with nothing to add.

Everyone seems to know what McCain has to do to win this election, including meglar. He's too passive, he's to aggressive, he's too nice, he's too mean, he needs to focus on issues, he needs to let Obama have it, blah, blah, blah... In the meantime, The One... just shows up on time and reads his speeches and keeps looking "cool" because the media are in the tank for him. Don't you get it? The fix is in as far as MSM is concerned and they are already acting like The One has won the election.

John McCain has been doing himself and the Republican party a great disservice with his stump speech and interviewing strategy. People want to hear what his vision is for the future and how he would get us there. This is serious stuff and he's still talking in sound bites and snarley comments. Obama is cleaning McCain's clock on substance, and McCain has no one to blame but himself.

Obama is the Gaffe. He is the poorest excuse for a Presidential candidate in the history of the United States. He has no meaningful experience; what little experience he does have is with radical individuals and groups. It's certainly questionable whether is is even an American...his culture and beliefs are radically Leftist. He may even be a communist given the little we know about this man. He must be defeated !!!!!!

Wow, talk about your small-minded hate filled posts. Anyone who believes that Obama is a terrorist friend or calls him a muslin as an insinuation that he is un-American (theres a lot of very American Muslims out there who should be outraged at the republican party for making their religion an insult) should be ashamed, you "my friends" are what is wrong with our wonderful, diverse, and equal country.

American politics has ALWAYS been rife with half-truths, lies, and statements that are outright slanderous. The problem with McCain using (twisting?) Barack and Biden's so-called "gaffes" as his foundational argument is that 1), every time he blathers something, those annoying 'facts' come up that knock the wind out of the argument, and 2), the blather is unequivocally out-of-touch with what voters say they need to hear to determine their vote. No matter how many times you repeat a lie, it will never become the truth, and McCain just looks silly. By the way, those hateful, inflammatory comments by the odd "fringe" person at McCain-Palin rallies have apparently stopped. Yet another "tactic" by McCain & Co. that blew up in their face...?