Tactical Suggestion:
How to Respond to McCain's Sleaze Offensive

Yet again, I think: go straight at 'em. Nothing cute, nothing flashy, nothing subtle. Something like:

John McCain and Sarah Palin are behind in the polls, and they've elected to start slinging mud. They are trying to smear Barack Obama and intend to continue doing so until the election. Such character assassination is ruining our democracy and creating division where there used to be unity. Vote against divisiveness; vote against the politics of personal destruction; vote against John McCain.

This could actually be a "teachable moment." It might be a good opportunity to go on the attack against Rovianism in general. Perhaps Obama could give a major speech--comparable to his speech on racism--about this very topic. If he could get people to start thinking about how destructive it is for campaigns to be decided on the basis of lies and smears, we might actually see an actual, deep, meaningful improvement in our politics.