The viability of McCain’s campaign at this point relies on two closely related elements:

1. Keep this a referendum on Barack Obama, thereby

2. Keeping the American people as far away as possible from McCain’s actual policy positions, with which they would, in the vast majority of cases, wildly disagree.

These are combined with an offensively mocking tone that would be shocking if they hadn’t done the same to John Kerry and Al Gore.

Here’s my suggestion to respond to both elements, and to the tone: The Committee to Pay Attention to John McCain, which could run ads like this:

McCain's latest CNN interview shows his desperation as he confronts the fact that the American people AND the Iraqi people want American combat troops out, ON A TIMELINE.  What to do?  Well, his latest rationality-challenged ploy is to insist that he would get the troops out quickly, too, because "they're winning."  And his claim that he'll withdraw troops soon is better than Obama's, because while Obama acknowledges that conditions may require a return (such as to prevent genocide), McCain's comes with a guarantee:

I guarantee you, after they withdraw under what we are doing, they'll never have to go back.

So am I missing something, or is McCain's "guarantee" no less than a stunning promise to ignore conditions on the ground?
In what fantasy world can McCain "guarantee" that nothing will ever again happen in Iraq that might require U.S. troops?  And which candidate is it who would rather play politics than tell Americans the truth?

Here's the link to the CNN interview; the "guarantee" comes at the end.

I have been a huge Obama supporter from day one.  Today I’m succumbing to that temptation every supporter has, I guess – the desire to impart campaign advice to your candidate, even when he and his team have run a brilliant campaign.  

The Washington Post today reported on the challenge of getting Obama’s process message across to working-class audiences.  
They quoted from his speech thusly:

"When we push back the special interests, when we unify the country, when we speak honestly with the American people about our challenges, there's nothing we can't accomplish, nothing we can't do," he said here. "When we unify the country, we will change our economy."

This is NOT a diary about how Clinton – or Obama – should concede now, or about how all the superdelegates should endorse now, or about how Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi should somehow figure out some way to make the fight between Clinton and Obama end today.  But it IS about how we begin the GE campaign now . . .