McCain is going to use his service record to deflect any attacks in this area and the press is going to let him get away with it every time. It won't matter if Obama is right. Barack's campaign needs to take a new road or find a way to level the playing field in this area. Maybe bringing up the overwhelming support he (and Hillary, too) has among servicemen in Iraq and Iraqi war vets will do this.

 Obama made remarks on the stump last week that Afghanistan was lost  partly because our Arabic Translators were all in Iraq. Obama obviously  doesn't know that Arabic is NOT spoken in Afghanistan at ALL. He should be challenged to state Exactly what languages are spoken. That his foreign policy expertise is sorely lacking is a no brainer.  He should be seriously challenged on his distortions in creating puffed up Kennedy history to further his own image.

Kennedy met Krustchev without preparation, and was accompanied to Russsia by Dr. Feelgood who was at the ready with his injections of celebrity amphetamine. Dr. Jacobson was later  in a pack of trouble with the law. Jacobson was responsible for hooking Eddie Fisher [and others]
with his amphetamine/vitamin shots. Kennedy's debacle with Mr. K. was a lesson he couldn't forget.

The  Cuban Missile crisis, and the Bay of Pigs were other debacles arising from Kennedy's inexperience.

With young voters who have no sense of the past these distortions work if unchallenged by historical fact. Obama is puffing up his ability to lead ala Kennedy, and making facts out of total untruths.

There is a lot to challenge, and if McCain can't get first rate strategy advice on how to differentiate himself and expose Obama's weaknesses, he will lose.

 He should also demand inquiry into BO's thin Bio and exaggerated claims of experience where almost none exist. His behavior on his own Chairmanship of European Affairs where he convened nothing and did less need to be called out. When last asked, BO said, "Well, I was spending my time preparing to run for Pres."  ?????

He has been allowed to get away with "it was boneheaded" when confronted with his dirty dealings with crook/donor Tony Rezko. And calling a reporter "sweetie", "I'll get to you later" should Never be tolerated.

The kind of advice McCain is getting is a loser.
Lacking inquiry,challenge, and aggressive fact seeking with an experienced and resilient campaign team against Obama is a serious mistake.

They have been after him for being "naive" and are trying to paint him as too exotic and inexperienced.

They have him talking endlessly about continuing the same economic policies as Bush (don't know if you noticed, but over 70% of the population says the country is on the wrong track.  this is big).

And the 100 years.  You can say he meant it as in a non-combat role all you want, but it still hurts him.  First, Iraq isn't Korea.  The war is still going.  People are still dying.  So he is saying that he isn't ending that at all, and that once the killing is eventually over (if it ever is, the army will still be there for 100 years.  You have the democrats talking about a phased, measured withdrawal vs McCain's "Stay the course, we'll win eventually".  That is Bush 3rd term to a friggen T.

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 8:48PM BST 24/05/2008

He speaks with an accent as thick as treacle, he has a confederate flag for a bedspread and one of his close friends played Cooter in the Dukes of Hazzard, the ultimate tribute to redneck America.
But Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a self-described "Scots-Irish hillbilly", may just be the man to make Barack Obama's White House dreams come true.

The Democratic presidential frontrunner suffered another landslide defeat to Hillary Clinton last week in the Kentucky primary, further proof of his failure to win over working class white voters in the Appalachian mountain region, whose support he will need if he is to beat Republican John McCain in November's election.

Mr Obama has lost the hill country vote to Mrs Clinton by wide margins in a swathe of states from the Carolinas, north through Virginia and West Virginia and into Pennsylvania and Ohio, all key election swing states.

As the Democratic Party's leading strategist on rural affairs, Mr Saunders believes Mr Obama should ignore those who say a black man can never woo what he calls the "Bubba" vote, when a little light barn dancing might do the trick.

"I think it's a bunch of crap," he told The Sunday Telegraph with characteristic relish. "People ask: 'What do you say to these people who won't vote for a black man'. I say: 'To hell with them'. They are going to vote for a Republicans anyway."

Instead, Mr Saudners says that if Obama is to win, he will need to emulate Mark Warner and Jim Webb, white Democrats who won senate seats in Virginia, the gateway to the South.

Mr Saunders - nichnamed Mudcat because he enjoys fishing the mudflats near his home in Roanoke - ran both of those campaigns.

"You must respect our culture," he said. "If you show disrespect for rural culture, we ain't going to vote for you; it's just that simple. "He needs to go see Bubba and be himself. Mark Warner did it in 2000 and won in Virginia. Mark said clearly: 'I'm not from your culture, but your culture is cool and I'm having fun with it.'

"You could take Mark Warner to a barn dance and he might get up there and look stupid, but I tell you what: a lot of people liked him because they could tell that he was enjoying himself."

Mr Obama alienated many poor rural white voters with his ill-judged comments about how they are clinging to God and guns in times of economic hardship.

Mr Saunders believes it is not too late for Mr Obama to turn the corner, so long as he ignores "what I call the Metropolitan Opera wing of the party" - those Democrats who think that "down here we go to meetings at night and talk about who we're going to lynch, and which gay guy we're going to beat up."

He says winning the support of those white voters who once backed Ronald Reagan is vital to Mr Obama's hopes of victory over Mr McCain.

"Barack Obama is very capable of expanding the base with first time voters, particularly the young people," he said. "That's wonderful. But if we get a Reagan Democrat to come home, we get two votes because we just took one away from the Republicans and gave one to us."

His word is highly valued in Democrat circles: he was recently called in to brief Democrat senators, and has worked for John Edwards, the former candidate for the nomination who has recently endorsed Mr Obama. The likely nominee is now making overtures to him as well.

He says: "I'm the best Democratic rural strategist in America. I'm also the worst because I'm the only one." Mr Saunders thinks Obama must devote time, resources and a message that embraces his faith, respect for gun rights and tax breaks for companies that relocate in rural America, if he is to be successful.

"He's going to have to get the right message. He's going to have to be out in rural America so people can get to know him. He's going to have to put the resources in. If he does that, he's going to beat John McCain's ass. And you can quote me on that."

Mr Saunders also urges Mr Obama to resist what insiders say is now intensive lobbing by Bill Clinton to persuade Mr Obama to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

Because he handed Saint John the GOP Playbook & went to pontificate in a well-paid, easy job with the media so he can enjoy some time as a cheerleader.

There are 3 fundamental, basic, continuous plays in the GOP book: 1) guns, 2) god, 3) gays.  There are also 2 counterplays: pro-life & warmongering.

Sen. Obama is waffle-y (pun intended) & weasel-y on all 5.  His stance on guns will not work well in about 40 of the states; he is especially weak on handguns & his signatures on some forms turned in to anti-gun groups will sink him.

His stance on god is an absolute negative.  When the GOoPerz finish with the endless videotapes, everybody in the USA will think Rev. Wright was actually the Democratic Party nominee.

The Obama campaign will probably not ever be able to find a workable stance on gay, lesbian, bi-sexual & transgendered issues.  If the IL senator leans toward support for those groups, he will endanger his base in the AA communities, a large percentage of which have religious & cultural dislike for the GLBT folks.  If Sen. Obama leans away from marriage & civil unions & the intended, or hoped-for, local, state, federal tax benefits for such couples, there goes the mega-liberals & a lot of generally nice folks who want some sense of equity on these matters.  The wingnutz will spend $million$ on this issue & win it because about 70% of the USA public opposes the idea of same-sex unions.

If the Obama campaign leaves the abortion & Iraq war issues alone, it's likely Sen. McCain will also.  A touch on either issue, though, & the response will be precisely out of the George xliii rhetoric on both.  Right-to-life & down with Roe v. Wade will fill the media spaces as a purity issue with the GOP voters.  On the war, the first & foremost cry will be "cut & run" & it will play well because Sen. McCain will explain his "nuanced" stand simultaneous with the steady flow of regiments rotating home (already known to be in the works).  Also, the war hero image can be burnished here to a degree that will astonish Obama's supporters.

About 26% of the USA folks support Bu$hInc at the present time.  Exactly 100% of them will vote.  And Sen. McCain will pick up about another 10% who have sort of drifted away out of Bu$h fatigue.

In my opinion, Sen. Obama will not do as well as either V-P Gore or Sen. Kerry because Sen. McCain will win every state that George xliii won in 2004 & may also pick up one or two from NH, MI, MN, PA & Wi