He's spent to last 9 months criticizing Washington. In doing so, he's painted the Democrat's with the same brush. The performance of Democratic leadership since the 2006 election hasn't helped either.

His attacks on the WJC admin and praise of Reagan isn't going to help either!

McCain went through a nasty campaign with Bush and he learned or he's going down again.

Obama switching tactics has the disadvantage of backfiring as people may feel they still don't know him... 'I thought he gave uplifting speeches'...  I think the campaign should have switched once they felt the nomination was secure.  JMO but they coasted and they have used up quite a bit of time.

I will keep saying... voters are disgusted with BOTH parties.  This Dem Congress has passed the least legislation in 20 years.  I'm not convinces us v them is going to work.

And who is going to see it as genuine and authentic, coming now?  It's craven political posturing and he's going to get it all thrown back in his face by a gleeful GOP, which will paint him as someone America can't trust because he has no idea what he thinks or believes from day to day or week to week.

In looking over his past races, he's never had to define himself or to offer up a laundry list of specifics in policy-speak.  All he had to do was destroy his opponents with personal attacks in the Primary and then coast to an easy win on Election Day.  That's how the Chicago system is set up, it's what he and Axelrod know and, Lord help them, fully expected would happen this time around.

But John McCain isn't Alan Keyes or any other Chicago pol.  

So now, what you have is the Democrat flailing away from a position of weakness as he falls further in the Polls.  And, not being known for his ability to carry it off in the home stretch even with an underfunded opponent getting hammered in the Press, he'll have to do so now going up against a well-oiled, well-practiced, ruthless machine that KNOWS how to win elections.

And how fired up are the Republicans?  They can see the Finish Line and the celebratory champagne whereas, several months ago, they had resigned themselves to certain defeat.

I don't anticipate a post-Convention bounce for Barack although I do for McCain.  As I wrote recently, once people link his POW experience with actual pictures and powerful footage, he'll be a much more difficult candidate.

Its a disasterous strategy, because it sends the message to every voter who has doubts about Obama (including those who are inclined to support Obama anyway) that they are racist -- Weisberg presents Obama as so obvious that only a racist would even have doubts.

This kind of thinking makes the voters focus on the legitimate reasons to have doubts -- race probably plays a role in how intense those doubts are, but there is no question that those doubts aer legitimate.   And once they confirm the fact that their doubts are legitimate, they will actually look for more legitimate reasons to doubt Obama, in order to justify those doubts even more.

Glenn Greenwald hits the mark again:

Since Pelosi and Reid took over Congress... It has done nothing to reverse the radical executive power theories and has done much to institutionalize them. If there is one predominant trait of the Congress over the past several years, it has been a willingness to grant every item on the the President's wish list regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in control.

And after the Obama campaign and the media spent the last year painting the Clintons as the power hungry leaders of the entrenched party machine, we are seeing that the truth is just the opposite:

The most entrenched establishment spokespeople are cheering the selection of Joe Biden because, in their minds, that selection confirms the most important fact for them: that in this election, the prevailing orthodoxies of our political system won't be meaningfully challenged.

...

Ever since it became clear that Obama would be the likely nominee, the political establishment has been demanding of him more and more proof that his "change" rhetoric is just that -- rhetoric, and not anything meant as a genuine threat to the prevailing order of things. Obama, arguably out of political necessity, has repeatedly obliged, eagerly trying to offer proof that he is no threat to them, and the Biden selection is but the latest step in that campaign of reassurance.

But I am certainly in agreement with your description of Obama.  However, we're not supposed to be talking like that.  

The Chicago DNC has extended further its long arm to encourage the quieting by its attitudes, where possible, of wrong thoughts in even this favorite forum, but if they succeed (because of Toobin and others watching the blogs?), then it's not the TalkLeft I knew (last words inspired by Barack).

I hope that warning was an aberration but am not encouraged.  With the treatment of Clark, whose PAC THEME and website name were taken for VP night but he was told there was no need for him at the convention, I hardly will be a supportive poster for the sacred week.  

  It's not Hillary who must move supporters toward Obama; it's Obama who must do something to CAUSE the movement toward him, and that does not include pranks like the 3am cellphone call, the timing of which was more important to ObamaTeam than the promise to supporters of timely  notice.

  That also doesn't include the carefully placed statements that Clinton was never under consideration for VP (even when knowing 11-15% of Democrats are "Undecided" and are mostly older women) and it was not the hiring of Patty Solis-Doyle to manage the VP-to-be's campaign and staffing that showed early on he would not be considering Clinton or he was considering her but would stick her with someone she had fired, who would then report to Obama.

  All these things show a mindset that is not focused on unity but resentment and payback despite all the pretty words about unity.  Not even everyday courtesy or respectful treatment.  THIS will affect the convention this week, and it's OBAMA who must change that.  He has taught his followers to blame Clinton ever since the lie of the Kenya photo and the 60 minutes statements, and he continues to this day and they love to do it.

  Maybe the Denver bloggers and reporters might even be interested in the whys of "the protesters" who are long-time Democrats but w/o the money and time or passes for the convention but who will be voting in November.

  What Obama missed was the easy and landslide win he would have had with the duo ticket.  That Clinton has decided against the roll-call (as opposed to history of these things in the last decades)  may seem a 'victory' for the DNC (when they telegraphed they'd blame his loss on her), but it won't be unless Obama does anything to cause any faith in him or reason to support him beyond the fact he's A Democrat.  With the way he's handled things, the outlook is not good.  

  Only he can change that.  It was not a good start by nixing short speaking slots for people like Clark or Rangel or even Sharpton, who electrified the convention in 2004, but doesn't fit into ObamaWorld, apparently.