MORE OF THE SAME?

Broadly speaking, I agree with Tim's cry for calm. Obama is hitting back. There's a lot of time left in the election. And the damn thing is still, despite all the movement of the past two weeks, basically tied. Obama has crushed his fundraising record this month, has an unbeatable ground game, and has registered an unimaginable number of new voters. The progressive 527s are reactivating. But all that said, I take issue with this bit:

Instead, Obama is making a simple case, one that he has been making for a while now: John McCain is George W. Bush. Each of his recent ads reflects this message. And look at his stump speeches and the remarks of his running mate, Joe Biden. Obama has carefully cultivated his campaign themes of change and reform since 2007, with specific examples of what that change would be, while forcefully demonstrating that John McCain represents more of the same. If Obama switched tactics now, no doubt the same folks criticizing him for his lack of reaction would criticize him for his lack of message discipline.

More of the same, in other words. It's really a terrible slogan. Voters may be dumb, but they're not idiots. John McCain is not George W. Bush. They know John McCain because he ran against George W. Bush in 1999. Because he was dismembered by George W. Bush in 2000. Because he spent a few years being a pain in George W. Bush's ass. Yes, as a Republican, McCain has often voted in accordance with the Republican agenda. But people matter. If a girl breaks up with me because I'm a jerk, and then goes and dates the incredibly dreamy Chris Hayes, one of her friends could say that we were both liberal journalists and that Chris is more of the same. But he isn't. He's a different person. And for most folks, that's enough. They get people better than they get policies and one glance at the stiff, worn, McCain is enough to register that he's not the glib, swaggering, George W. Bush.The problem with the "more of the same" charge is that it's a campaign against Bush, not McCain. At some point in the election, though, the Obama campaign needs to provide the reason to vote against John McCain -- a politician whom, lest we forget, ranked as one of the most popular in the country for most of this decade. Happily, McCain provided them with plenty of ammunition for a charge that's organic to his life and record: That he's out of touch. Doesn't get it. Too old, and too rich, for the world we live in. Thinks wealth starts at $5 million a year and has too many houses to even keep track. has voted to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, health care for kids, and every type of income assistance program that exists. The raw material exists, strewn across video clips and voting records. They just need to use it. Voters may not want more of the same, but they need to also be convinced that they don't want John McCain.