THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR MCCAIN!!!

First thing this morning, I had "Morning Joe" (unfortunately) on MSNBC on the TV, and I had to listen to these idiots, Mike Barnicle especially, carry on about how Obama's poll results have gone down because the more people turn to the race the more they want details, answers, information, and Obama just has no "specificity" in his campaign. Barnicle carried on and on about "specificity."

Nothing of course was said about McCain. HOW ABOUT ASKING FOR SOME GODDAMN FUCKING SPECIFICITY FROM MCCAIN???!!!

I want to know the names of everyone who contributed.

Is there a way to find out?

Ah shit - you can't find out who it is. Dammit I want to know -

I love the fact that the Obama campaign rather quickly responded to this with a response ad actually coming from the candidate himself. And it treats McCain's/the wingers' attacks as silly and out of touch with the concerns of today's voters. And it them talks about the positives Obama will bring, closing with yet another image of McCain and his BFF. I hope they air it in more than just Ohio.

Seriously, it took a lot of balls for the campaign to actually include an image of Ayers and called him a "radical". Actually, it doesn't take a lot of balls - it's just common sense. Haven't seen stuff like this from the Dems in a while. I like.

McCain is going to have to come out and denounce this ad, which will effectively neutralize it. And I like the idea of talking about the billionaire pharma guy in the context of health care.

Folks, if we want to be able to fight this shit, Obama and Biden are going to need MONEY.

Donate if you can.

The key is to attack the financial backers and out them for their obvious self-interest. Like Boone Pickens four years ago - an oil man financing a smear campaign against Kerry to keep Big Oil friendly Bush in the White House.

Now you have Big Pharm Harold Simmons financing a smear against Obama that has nothing to do with the election on hand, but John McCain will keep the broken healthcare system in place, which allowed Mr. Simmons to make his billions.

Expose the blatant self-interest of these people and use them to attack McCain.

This would be the PERFECT time to unleash a health care attack. Seniors having to choose between prescription medication or food and Harold Simmons is running attack ads for John McCain in order to get McCain elected and keep the status quo.

That is how you hit back.

The Dems should run adds identifying every one of the donors to these smear campaigns, and a few more ads listing every indicted GOP pol and operative. Unfortunately, Dems still may not know how to fight back effectively. (That's a problem for people who are fundametally decent. The GOP suffers no such impairment.) It took Dems forever to figure out what they were up against. By now it should be obvious - they have to fight fire with napalm, and seriously kick some GOP ass.

Where is health care as an issue? Does Obama believe it to be a loser for him to talk about? There is a great article in today's Toledo Blade that details how insurance companies run interference challenging orders by doctors for their patients forcing less expensive, secondary options. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080825/NEWS32/106232154

"Slimy"?! Nothing incorrect about the ad. The "vicious" truth hurts but Obama has around 20 years with Ayers--who he worked for, who helped launch his political career, and much more. Ayers is not, as Obama lied, just someone who lived in the neighborhood. Maybe not a friend but definitely not a stranger.

It's pretty damn perverse that health insurance companies rather you die because it is better for their bottom line, and will look for any way possible not to cover you.

"When you signed up for our insurance policy you stated that you hadn't had any medical tests within the last year. However our records show that you did in fact have your blood pressure checked as part of a routine doctors visit only three months before coming here. Since you lied on the form, our contract is null and void. You're uninsured and on your own. Sure you can sue us, but it will take years and years and we have so much more money than you you're out of luck sucker."

Matthew Weaver, I am much handsomer than you.

How do I know? I know.

Time for some Dem 527s to unleash some fury of their own. I sure hope Obama's attempts to quash any 527s on our side doesn't end up being the big mistake of the campaign.

I am waiting for the general election to commence to donate more money to Senator Obama. I highly doubt that McCain will denounce anything that comes out from here on. What did he say about Corsi's book... we have to have a sense of humor ... or something like that.

I think it is a big mistake to pretend these ads don't work. It sucks but they do. The Obama camp will have to be incredibly vigilant in 'catching these fouls' so they are 'outs' instead of 'base hite' or 'home runs'. Sucks that anyone can just hit a ball on the field anytime, anywhere...

The American Issues Project is still a 501(c)4, right? How is this not illegal?

Time to resurrect a famous Ad: Where's The Beef? and use it against McCain. And ask the public: If you can only run negative Ads against your opponent, what's that say about what you have to offer the American public.

Let's pay close attention, friends, to what both Obama and McCain say that's specific in their speeches. Not just slogans and/or shallow talking points.

I love this video piece, Chris Matthews getting a pledge from McCain to denounce vicious 527 attacks....this needs to be run in the battleground states - purchase time IMMEDIATELY after the Ayers attack Ad....and ask, Senator, is this still your position? Or did it change when Karl Rove's chief deputy became your campaign director? It's time to stop the dirty divisive politics here and now, and talk about the real issues! (that would be my
tag line to it)......

The Ayers ad is the begining of an unprecedented series of attack ads that will parade before the American people Obama's cavalcade of bizarre friends and political backers -- also including Jeremiah Wright (whose tell-all book comes out in October), Otis Moss III, James Meeks, Tony Rezko, Father Pfleger, Muslim cousin Raila Odinga, and Michelle herself.

A problem for Obama is that McCain's dubious connections are boring types with little good video.