This is pretty asinine. Tonight's posts are starting to make me regret my recent TNR subscription. Between Mark Cuban, Michael Dukakis and Joe Trippi (2 losers and a millionaire moron) advising Obama how to beat McCain, and Mike Crowley referring to Wikipedia to find out what the Bush Doctrine is, the level of intellect in tonight's posts is easily rivaled by the National Enquirer and/or The Onion.

Trippi says Clinton's message didn't move anybody. Granted she turned herself more populist toward the end, but she got 18 million votes. Trippi's out of touch with reality and for the good of the candidates he may work for in the future, should retire.

What Barack needs is someone who knows something about conveying a message. When the drama around Palin's daughter and soon-to-be grandkid came out, Obama rightly said that stuff is off limits - and then proceeded to draw attention to the fact that his mother was only 18 when she had him out of wedlock. Was that necessary to mention? No. Obama's abortion ad against McCain rightly accuses McCain/Palin of wanting to make abortion illegal, but fails to stress that they want to make abortion illegal even in case of rape and incest, which would make that ad actually have an effect. And just tonight, when asked about Palin's experience as a small-town mayor, Obama rightly avoided knocking her experience, but then felt the need to say something along the lines of: we just yap in the Senate and mayor's are the ones doing real work. WTF?!?!

The answer to Obama's problems is pretty simple: develop a message, stick to it, and shut the hell up about giving everyone so many kudos and drawing negative attention to himself.

Wow.  First Dukakis, now Trippi.

What next?  Campaign advice from Harold Stassen?

Ridic, and McHetc...hatevr, wha cares?  Pretty fag, prolly, you? Very passionato.  Good, suck a dick, but whatever!  Prollem is: no wans an Elitest Black PRresident.  Finally, never, sorry!

MichLib, it is the Palin effect:  she even dumbs down the media.

by the way MICHLIB looks like a fake posting.  I'm jus sayin, crackers.

Oh, how did I forget to add Noam's pathetic posting about Track Palin to the list of absurdities tonight.

And, wth jd?

Little harsh, aren't we here, folks?  And go easy on Cuban, the guy is a great owner.

By the way, Harold Stassen has all kinds of experience in running for President, so why wouldn't he be a good source?  :)

What I don't like about the on-line version is the choppy, multi-category format they're using now.  The categories seem to overlap and it's hard to tell what belongs where.  

Mr Trippi -

Do you agree with Warren Buffett that John Edwards' contributors should bring a class action suit against Edwards for fraud? Or, failing that, Edwards should give them back their money?

Here's Buffett on CNBC:

BUFFETT: ...John Edwards essentially was soliciting money from people to further his ambitions for the presidency, and, you know, people sent him 50, $100, $200, and I would say that they sent it in while they were being misled by the person who was soliciting the money from them. And, you know, I think if I were Edwards, I might give up a haircut or two and refund at least, you know, the people that gave the 50 or $100, $200 items, because they-- if they had known the facts, they wouldn't have sent him the money, and he is the guy that didn't give them the facts. I mean, he knew that, in effect, he wouldn't be elected president. I mean, the story was out there during the campaign. He denied it, but it was out there. And, in fact, I've never heard of it, but it might be kind of interesting if somebody, some contributor, would bring a class-action suit on behalf of all these people who essentially were led to send money to a man under totally false circumstances, false pretenses, and where he knew it and didn't tell them the truth.

QUICK: Hm, that'd be ironic for a trial lawyer, to have a class-action lawsuit brought against him.

BUFFETT: I've seen a lot of class-action suits with less to it than this particular case. The facts are clear. I mean, he solicited money and he wasn't telling the truth to the people he was soliciting it from.

QUICK: How--have you had any discussions? I mean, obviously, you talked to a lot of people who are high ranked in the Democratic Party. Is that something that's been thrown around out there, or did you cook this up yourself?

BUFFETT: No, I don't think--I don't think I've heard of that. The--I don't talk to a lot of class-action lawyers, but I really think--I think those people were defrauded. They sent money under--with the person who was soliciting the money from them misinforming them even when the National Enquirer came out with it during his campaign, he kept soliciting money and saying it isn't true. I would think that they--it might be a pretty good class-action suit.

MichLib -- go easy on the contributors.  You learn a lot through failures. And Cuban is a billionaire with a "b".

Here's my advice: Tie McCain to CHENEY and tie Palin to Bush.  The narrative goes like this.  Like Dick Cheney, McCain is a crotchety and unstable old man who may or may not die at any moment, but will make sure we start some wars.  Like George W. Bush, Palin is a cocky and intellectually lazy Christianist who we can be lulled into thinking would be fun to have  a beer with, but would then suddenly have all this power, abuse the power, bully her political enemies, and fuck up the country.

I doubt that that class gets certified.  Numerosity wouldn't be an issue, and joinder would be impractical, but I don't think there's enough to meet the typicality factor.  Too many donors would have too many different issues such that certification would be unwarranted.

Just my two cents.  

stgla - Fine, Cuban is a billionaire bonehead, whichever.

And yes, you can learn a lot through failures - which is why I eagerly await more posts from Howard Wolfson. But Joe Trippi has failed too much and too horribly and Dukakis is too far removed from the situation to be considered relevant.

Harold Stassen is dead.

Three pieces of advice: hit McCain hard; hit him again; then hit him again, and make sure you do it in front of large audiences. No more libraries and and visually unimpressive townhall meetings. This is the homestretch. Get back to your base, and fire them up. Give them another "Yes we can" or "fired up and ready to go." (How about a bunch of variations on "Had enough?") They want it. They feed on it, and you feed on them. It's time to gather as much energy and momentum as you can, for your supporters and for yourself. All in. Now. Don't look back, and don't flinch at anymore of this celebrity bullshit. Palin is the new media sensation. Let her have it. Concentrate on the ground war. Rally your troops and send them into battle.

Fire 'em up, that's the ticket. Better yet, get Palin to appear in Mad Dog Olbermann's padded cell.

Check out this latest performance-- be sure to turn on Mute so you can properly appreciate the facial expressions of the lunatic at the bar, leaning off the edge of his barstool as he raves:

www.msnbc.msn.com/.../26649407

teplukhin, no wonder you care about the facial expressions of the dissenter. As any Republicans who likes liars, instead of disliking W. Bush, you dislike whoever criticizes him. You sound a National Review fucked-up idiot.

Hmm, irony.

You're right, Tep, getting them fired up has worked so poorly over the last two years. He should just speak morosely about the end of times to small groups of angry PUMAs. That'll really drive up turnout.

I love your passion and admire your knowledge, but the predictable cynicism and glib one-liners about how awful Obama is at everything started to sound tired, and vastly overstated, months ago.

But wait! Isn't the Ocean ceasing its rise and the Earth beginning to heal?

Obama: continue to ignore most, if not all beltway advice.

You only need to do one thing, which you have done admirably well under enormous provocatiion and stress (you've been a much better advertisement for faith than the wacka-doodles on the other side):

BE YOURSELF

BE YOURSELF

BE YOURSELF

Actually MichLib,

What Obama said was his mother had him at 18, I believe that she and Obama Sr was already married when she had Obama?  

sleepy - it's not enough to be an "idiot" anymore? Your enemies have to "_f*cked-up_ idiots"?

Less is more, amigo

I agree with stgla. No need to be sarcastic, "just-the-facts" approach is enough:

 (1) "McCain is ready to be president the same way Dick Cheney is ready to be president. If you want to continue the same policies that got us into Iraq with no plan for what to do next, why not just nominate Cheney? McCain was the neocons 1st choice 8 years ago. Now even Bush has come around to the need to negotiate with Iran and North Korea, but McCain hasn't learned a thing. It's almost funny to hear McCain talk about "the Washington Establishment"; when it comes to foreign policy and fighting terrorism, the Neocons ARE the Washington Establishment - they have been for 8 years - and John McCain is their guy!"

(2) "Governor Palin is obviously different from George W. Bush in style and appeareance, but not in SUBSTANCE. A President IS what a president DOES in office. They both have campaigned with a lot of talk about reform, to distract us from their right-wing agenda. But there's not a dime's worth of difference between what President Bush would do if he had another four years, and what Gov. Palin would do if she were to take office as President."

Tep, please don't tell me you put an ounce of stock into this John Edwards class action lawsuit garbage. What kind of ridiculous standard would that set? If a candidate turns out to be an asshole, he has to return all of his donations? I hope you're only reading that with an incredulous chuckle.

ackyri - no lawyer here but I guess it turns on whether a candidate, unlike other recipients of financial investment, is under any kind of obligation to pursue in good faith the investment objectives laid out in his solicitation for funds. Not sure Edwards met that good faith requirement.