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Obama's Rhetoric Against McCain Gets More Heated

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The Washington Post

Published: August 7, 2008

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama released a television advertisement Wednesday that questions John McCain's claims to be a "maverick," and Obama charged in a campaign appearance that the Republican displays independence only when it suits him politically.

Obama aides said Democratic hand-wringing about polls showing that the presidential race remains tight had nothing to do with the volleys.

"We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV," spokesman Bill Burton said.

But the ad and the Democrat's rhetoric in Indiana appeared to up the ante in a campaign that took a distinct turn toward the negative last week.

"The price McCain paid for his party's nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position," Obama said in Elkhart. "That doesn't meet my definition of a maverick. You can't be a maverick when politically it's important for you but not a maverick when it doesn't work for you."

The parries came more than a week after his Republican opponent launched a string of increasingly personal attacks on Obama. McCain has said his rival would lose a war to win a campaign, hinted that Obama has a messiah complex and portrayed him as a celebrity comparable to Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.

Such attacks have raised worries among Democratic strategists - haunted by John Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 - that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character.

"Democrats are worried," said Tad Devine, a top strategist for Kerry who thinks Obama must stay on the high road. "If somebody attacks you," said one Democratic strategist, "you have to frame the attack: 'This is the same old politics, or better yet, the Bush-Rove politics,'" something Obama has done well.

"At the same time you do that, you have to counterattack. You don't want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough."

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