I am with this campaign because I see it make few mistakes.
I am further with this campaign because it understands that we will never be perfect and must always strive for improvement. Barack has told us that he wants to know when the campaign is doing something right and he wants to know when the campaign is doing something wrong. He has set a hallmark example for us with his courageous and patriotic opposition to the war in Iraq when it was not popular to oppose it. He does not want to be surrounded by "yes men;" conceiving his cabinet to be built like Lincoln's Team of Rivals.
When I returned to the blogosphere this evening, I watched the "Hometown" ad which is being run in North Carolina and Indiana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QDqScU1GsQ&eurl=http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGChNl
I find the meat of this ad to be negative on Hillary Clinton for being negative. To me, it uses a low road strategy to expose a low road strategy. Fortunately, I find this kind of response highly atypical for this campaign. I understand that there is much justifiable anger amongst supporters for deceptive smears. I understand that it is perceived that Hillary won Ohio and Pennsylvania due to the success of last minute targeted negative strategies. I understand that some believe Barack is not tough enough to fight in Washington. To me, that is the point; if I want somebody to stalemate our progress in Washington by fighting, I want Hillary Clinton. I have seen fight back strategies justified by some in this campaign with the claim that a redneck will never respect a dog that doesn't bite. I acknowledge rare empathy with this slogan. An example, in response to Hillary's last debate accusation of guilt by association with William Ayers, Barack stated that Bill Clinton's pardon of two weathermen on the last day of his presidency was more damning.
I overwhelmingly support this campaign for its high road commitment. If we make a tactical error, I believe it is our responsibility to voice support for the high road. From my bias, the Hometown ad is a mistake.
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