It's a strategic and tactical blunder.Obama has been pulled completely off message ("a new kind of candidate offering hope - a uniter.")
In attacking Palin, he becomes just another mean and desperate politician. Obama turned angry in his Denver speech and now he's turning just plain mean.
His whole campaign carries the stench of massive defeat. Don't be fooled by the "tight" polls. Obama's been told privately he's going to get his butt kicked on November 4th.
That is the only explanation for the panicked abandonment of his original strategy. The over-the-top smears and trashing of the GOP female Vice-Presidential pick is the clear sign of a loser.
There's too much downside to the risk of a massive backlash from a vicious attack on Palin unless you KNOW you're getting whipped.
You cannot "win the hearts of the undecided" by being a low-down, dirty, rotten son-of-a-bitch.
This election is effectively over so Obama apparently believes he has nothing to lose now in his campaign's collapse.
It's very obvious to a majority of Americans the attacks on Sarah Palin are completely beyond the pale in their depravity.
We're watching a trapped, dying animal lashing out in the throes of a last-gasp fight.
“This election is effectively over so Obama apparently believes he has nothing to lose now in his campaign’s collapse.”
It brings a new meaning to the Stephanoplous statement the weekend before the Dem Convention saying that Obama was down TWELVE POINTS in internal Dem polling he hasd seen, doesn’t it?