Responding to McUmbrage

At a campaign rally today, Obama said:

"Enough," Obama declared. "I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift Boat politics. Enough is enough.""We've got an energy crisis," Obama said at a campaign event where he had planned to focus entirely on education policy. "We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We've got two wars going on, veterans coming home not being cared for -- and this is what they want to talk about."You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate. It's not the Republican candidate. It's you, the American people. Because then we go another year, or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you."
...
"Our job is to just drum home, day after day, the facts. I still have faith that the truth will out in the end," Obama said. "We are going to hammer away at the fact that the stakes in this election are too high."Asking the assembled press corps to take notice, he said the McCain campaign is using the media all too well."The other side, they're not good at governing, but they're good at running campaigns. They're very good at understanding what piques the media's interest," Obama said. "This whole thing about lipstick, nobody actually believes that these folks are offended."Everybody knows it's cynical. Everybody knows it's insincere," Obama said. "The media knows it."

The media is doing its viewers and the country an enormous disservice by focusing on the ridiculous charges emanating daily out of the McCain camp. Frankly I'm not sure what the best course for Obama is- I think there's a lot to be said for keeping to the high road. Any descent into slinging mud back would probably backfire because it's so contrary to Obama's brand. I think there's a point to be made (and probably some good ads to be made) showing all of the ridiculous claims by the McCain camp and how their campaign shows that they're totally unserious about governing.