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This, from Patrick Ruffini, is sound advice:
The Democrats were caught off-guard by the SBVT in 2004 because they learned wrong lessons from '88. Forcefully responding ("Bring. It. On.") was something of a meta-narrative for Kerry. But they forgot that response wasn't nearly enough, and done wrong, you can easily fall into traps your opponent carefully lays out. To control the agenda, you have to unleash new, original, unprovoked attacks.The media favors new narratives. If your whole frame is simply responding to the other guy's narratives, he controls the agenda, not you...it's about maintaining a 2-to-1 ratio of salable attacks to responses.The most important thing about a good attack is not the attack itself. It's baiting your opponent to respond the way you want him to respond, because only the things that come out of his mouth will ultimately stick.Obama seems to be falling into the trap of response-centrism. If only they could respond the right way, they figure, all will be well. But it won't be. Because the game they are playing is reactive. Instead of changing the subject off Palin by launching some explosive new attack on McCain, all they do is respond, respond, respond. And the story, day after day, is Democratic Presidential nominee responds to Republican Vice Presidential nominee. The optics of that stink for them.It's struck me that the wonderful little riffs Obama does on these controversies are sort of how you'd respond if the world were run by Daily Show viewers. Obama is sly and irreverent and mocking and even a little noble. The expectation appears to be that enough of these replies and the media will start constructing a story around the cruelty and hollowness of McCain's campaign. It is an incredibly weird way to approach an institution that is, at base, stupid, simple, hungry for constantly-changing narratives, and utterly and proudly amoral. It's not going to happen. The dynamic of this election is that the media covers conflict and the McCain campaign gets up each morning and gives them a new conflict to cover. The Obama campaign does not, and thus the McCain campaign sets the agenda.
