I haven't posted for a while, but I had a thought to share...
Without belaboring the point, I do think the weakness of the Obama campaign, if there is one, has been the air game - TV ads. The thing about the McCain ads has been that they are so outrageous that they get people talking about them, whether they are accurate or (usually) not.
Anyone who knows about the media and public opinion research (and I know about as much as anyone who's studied it in grad school, for better or worse) has heard an axiom that goes something like: "The media can't tell you what to think, but they can tell you what to think about." In other words, the media can't tell you what to think about when McCain lies his ass off in a TV ad, by they can (and do) talk about it, and it saturates into the mainstream. That's why McCain's "Celebrity" attacks were so effective, no matter how much eye-rolling they prompted among the educated class.
That said, the long and short of it is this: Obama needs (OK, I say "needs" but really, what do I know?) something stronger, something that hits hard and direct, something visceral. To that end, something like this:
Ad: LIAR
For years, John McCain has called himself a "maverick." But do mavericks lie to the American people just to get elected?
Senator McCain, you know your running mate supported the Bridge to Nowhere. Why not tell the truth?
You know that under Governor Palin, Alaska received more earmarks per capita than any other state, and yet you still claim she's a reformer.
And Senator, how can you say with a straight face that you'll clean up Washington when your campaign is run by lobbyists?
Did you really think the American people wouldn't catch on?
(B.O. voiceover)
End.
Anyway, just throwing this out there for minds that surely can improve on it.