Sunday night musings

It's going to be an interesting week, but not because I give a damn what happens in Denver. The result is pre-ordained. They could do it by mail.

Next weekend should begin to tell the tale. The presumptive nominee has a lot of explaining to do, and his apparatus is so focused on the agenda this week that they're not in the loop about the weeks after. The Republicans intend to get inside his OODA loop, put him on the defensive, and squash him politically. It ought to be a lot of fun to watch.

Over at No Quarter, they explain the opening salvo of the general campaign. Basically, the Democratic Party didn't vet Barack H. Obama, so the Republican Party will.

The strength of the ad is its accuracy. Unlike the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s ads, there is no available counter-argument. Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. Obama’s political career was launched at Bill Ayers’ house. Obama did serve on the Woods Fund board with Ayers. The ad hits Obama hardest on his self-proclaimed good judgment. As law professor Steve Diamond states, Obama wasn’t just friends with Ayers, he wasn’t just a guy in the neighborhood, he was Obama’s benefactor for 20 years.

As an aside, I don't know that anyone ever proved that anything the Swift Boat veterans said was a lie. In this age of internet fact-checkers, it's tough to float a lie that survives. It's much easier to hope that no one notices an inconvenient truth.

In military operations, there is a place called the Assembly Area. It's a safe zone where a unit can organize, resupply, plan, rest, and prepare. Nearby is another place called the Line of Departure. That's the place from whence the attack begins. No Quarter carries the metaphor a bit further.

But there is a very strange air about Republican operatives. In the last three weeks, I’ve talked to real insiders in VA, GA, AL and here. They all remind me of a unit waiting to cross the line of departure on an attack. Quiet, determined, last cigarette, last “can of peaches out of the ration,” radio checks, confident. They all use the term “safely nominated” when referring to Obama. That is weird.

They can’t wait to start taking Barack apart on the issues the media chose to ignore up to this point. And when the attacks intensify Joe Biden’s foreign policy expertise won’t matter one whit.

My advise to the Democrats: You still have time to dump this guy and nominate someone respectable. Broker the convention.