The Advice from Pollster

Lots of folks online and off are giving their “advice” to the Obama campaign on what they should be doing differently. Of the ones I have read recently, the following from pollster.com had be nodding more than most of the rest. It is worth reading the whole thing in detail. I quote only the major headings below.

50 Days to Go and Obama Hits Back (Softly)
(Steve Lombardo, pollster.com, 15 Sep 2008)

It is noon on Monday, September 15th and things are operating so quickly in the political world that major tactical–and sometimes strategic–campaign changes are happening in minutes (in previous campaigns they used to happen in hours or days). Welcome to politics in 2008. In accordance with the new world order here is our real-time read on what is happening:

1. Obama is hitting back, and the mere act of doing so says volumes.
2. But this Obama punch seems like a fairly weak body blow.
3. We are in a financial meltdown (as of right now the Dow is down 250 points) and Obama is focusing on lobbyists and McCain’s inability to email–this is political malpractice.
4. Negative political messages must tap into a pre-existing belief.
5. The Obama campaign has been seriously off-stride.
6. Obama needs to forget Palin and get back to the economy.