The Conversation Joe Biden Needs to Have With Barack Obama

It would be along these lines:



I have a fear, whether unfounded or not, that there are elements within the Obama Campaign that truly believe that if they run a high-minded campaign, that they will win.

They are so terribly wrong. If anybody is beatable in an election, it is John McCain, but he will not be beaten if Obama's campaign refuses to fight.

This is what Republicans say; these words were spoken by Republican Rep. Terry Everett of Alabama about John Murtha:

“And don’t talk to me about him being an ex-Marine. Lord, that was 40 years ago. A lot of stuff can happen in 40 years. Thank you for your service as being an ex-Marine, but that doesn’t mean you’re (not) an idiot, and he is,” Everett said of Murtha.

Look what the GOP did to Max Cleland in 2002: They directly attacked his wartime service. Cleland came home from Vietnam a triple-amputee, but that didn't deter the GOP smear machine.

That is how low they are going and in those words of Everett, is all the license that Obama needs to start ignoring the fact that McCain got out of the Hanoi Hilton 35 years ago. McCain has used his "I wuz a POW" line to cover up all of his misdeeds, from cheating on his first wife to persuading the Federal government to let a crook bring on the S&L crisis in the `80s to having a paid agent of a foreign government influence his campaign. (What, you thought it was an accident that John McCain is parroting the propaganda line of the Georgian government?)

Ask yourself what questions would be asked by the major newspapers if Barack Obama had a lobbyist for a foreign government as the national security expert of his campaign. Ask yourself what the stories would be like if it came out that Obama had cheated on his wife ten years ago.

They'd be all over him like a cheap suit. But not McCain, because he was a POW.

Ask yourself why Republicans get treated with kid gloves because they were in a war and Democrats do not. Ask yourself why Republicans demand that we treat their veterans with hands-off deference and why Republicans feel free to smear Democratic veterans.

And then ask yourself why the national press buys into this claptrap.

This election contest is going to be played by Chicago Rules and the sooner that the Obama Campaign absorbs that reality, the better.