The Obama Strikes Back

By William Rabbe on 08/21/2008

By William Rabbe Having been lambasted by the McCain camp as an out of touch, race-card-playing celebu-tante, Barack Obama is fighting back this week -- and pragmatic Democrats who worried that Obama's "above the fray" non-responsive approach would doom his candidacy are sighing with relief. The cardinal rule of negative campaigning is: "when attacked, attack back," -- or perhaps better summarized by veteran democratic strategist, Paul Begala: "it's hard for your opponent to say bad things about you when your fist is in his mouth." The most classic victims of "refuse-to-fight-back-syndrome" are Michael Dukakis in 1988 and John Kerry in... MORE »