If you wrestle a pig, lipstick or no lipstick, you both get dirty. But the pig might like it.

If you wrestle a pig, lipstick or no lipstick, you both get dirty.  But the pig might like it.

Barack Obama needs to stop playing into the hands of the McCain campaign.  Every moment spent commenting on the childish antics of McCain, and his loose cannon running mate, Palin, is a moment that the press will seize upon and use to define the "debate".  

The press only cares about eyeballs.  The only real numbers they are interested in are not the ones that decide whether people will be warm and fed 8 years from now, but the ones that will decide where their next handful of silver coins will come from.  The press is not going to protect the democracy,  Mr Obama.  Stop expecting them to grow a spine and act responsibly;  they won't.

Stop lending credibility to McCain by even commenting on his contemptous lies.  Focus on the issues.  Explain in detail how your tax plan would work.  Explain why the United States holds the same position in people's minds around the world as did the Soviet Union two decades ago. Explain to people, using small words, why it really, really matters to have the respect of your peers -- whether you are a superpower or a regular joe.

Dumb things down.  Be concrete.  Explain.

And ignore McCain.  Even his conservative brethren are about ready to smack him over the head with a shovel for making such an ass of himself.