In a strongly worded email to supporters, Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe said last night’s Republican convention displayed “McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians” that lied, attacked, mocked, and insulted its way through a series of prime time speeches. Read the email - sent early this morning - below.

Friend –

I wasn’t planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw
what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a
response.

I saw John McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians.
They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for
being a part of this campaign.

But worst of all — and this deserves to be noted — they insulted
the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our
political process.

You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say,
everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when
we come together. Make a donation of $5 or more right now to remind
them.

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s
experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more
than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs
and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let’s clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch
politicians and their failed policies.

And it’s no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions
of people have found that by coming together in their local
communities they can change the course of history. That promise is
what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

(more…)

When Mitt Romney dropped out of the race, he dropped a line in his speech that didn’t sit well with Senator Barack Obama. Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference, Romney declared, “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”

When the Democratic co-frontrunner was asked by a reporter to comment on Romney’s decision to leave the race on a flight from New Orleans to Omaha, Obama demurred. “I don’t really have much of a reaction,” he said, fielding another question.

But when asked to respond to Governor Romney’s line that the Democrats would, in essence, surrender to terror, Obama opened up. “That’s the kind of poorly thought out comment that lead him to drop out,” Obama said. “It’s a classic attempt to appeal to people’s fears that will not work in this campaign. I think that’s part of the reason he was such an ineffefctive candidate.”

What did he mean by “poorly thought out?” Obama explained, “No Democrat has suggested we surrender to terrorism. Democrats have suggested that we start withdrawing out of Iraq so we can focus our attention on terrorism. But you know it’s a classic example of trying to conflate the war against real enemies with the failed strategy of the Bush Administration in Iraq. And it’s those sort of glib statements that I think got Romney consistently in trouble in this race.”

But will he miss Mitt on the stump? When talking about illegal immigration, Obama often jokes that if the U.S. were to round up illegal immigrants, they’d be spending resources catching busboys and those who work on Mitt Romney’s lawn. At a December town hall in New Hampshire, Obama said, “We’d clear out some of the prisons to make room for somebody who’s a housekeeper at Mitt Romney’s house. That was just a joke. I couldn’t resist. He’s an example of somebody who, ‘Oh, we gotta be real tough. But my lawn, you know, is important.’ “

And once at a pre-Halloween town hall in Iowa, Obama declared, “I am thinking about wearing a Mitt Romney mask, but it has two sides to it. It goes in both directions at once.”

John McCain made a public show of watching the Super Bowl on Mitt Romney’s territory Sunday night.

The Senator relaxed in the lounge of a downtown Boston hotel with his friends Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Lindsay Graham, and former Senator Phil Gramm. They ordered sliders, barbecue chicken pizza and chocolate chip cookies, and mingled with the traveling press.

Earlier, McCain stopped by an Irish bar to greet Patriots’ fans who had gathered to cheer on their home team. It was clearly a photo-op designed to reinforce the message that the Senator is in town, while the former governor of Massachusetts was nowhere to be found.

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OK, aside from the fact that they both happen to be running for President of the United States of America…
A: Even though the two disagree on the major issues and how to achieve solutions to America’s problems, they both agree on one thing - that there isn’t a lot of room between Hillary Clinton’s views and those of John McCain.

Just after Romney described McCain as “indistinguishable” from Clinton at a rally in Illinois, Obama asked a crowd of 20,000 Delawareans, “If John McCain is the nominee, then the Democratic Party has to ask itself, ‘Do you want a candidate who has similar policies to John McCain on the war in Iraq, or somebody who can offer a stark contrast?’

Obama continued, “When I’m the nominee, John McCain won’t be able to say that you were for this war in Iraq because I wasn’t. He won’t be able to say that I followed the Bush/Cheney doctrine in not talking to leaders we don’t like because I don’t. He won’t be able to say that I went along and gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran because I haven’t. He won’t be able to say that I was unclear about my position on torture because I’ve been absolutely clear we never torture in this country. I can offer a clear and clean break from the failed policies of George W. Bush. I won’t have to explain my votes in the past. The same is true on domestic policy.”

“We don’t need to have a Democratic nominee who is not clear about the kind of fight that we’re going into,” he said at the Wilmington rally.

But the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ saying isn’t exactly true here. Romney also accused McCain of being “indistinguishable” from Obama - something with which the senator from Illinois would surely disagree.

John McCain says Mitt Romney is responsible for the negative tone of campaigning in the last few days before the Florida primary.

The Senator, his wife Cindy, and Florida Governor Charlie Crist stopped by a St. Petersburg polling station this morning. McCain thanked Crist, and said his campaign had seen an uptick in support since the popular governor endorsed him Saturday.

Polls show McCain and Romney in a dead heat, and the sniping between them went on through the final hours of the campaign.
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John McCain is back on attack against Mitt Romney.

Earlier today, Romney compared the Senator to a liberal Democrat, citing McCain’s cap-and-trade proposal for reducing greenhouse gases, and his support of a comprehensive immigration bill that many conservatives think is amnesty.

McCain fought back, calling Romney a flip-flopper. It’s the same label he’s repeatedly used to mock Romney in the past.
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What’s the difference between a leader and a manager?

That’s the question posed to John McCain Friday at a press conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The Senator often says he’s the candidate to lead, not manage, the country– clearly a swipe at Mitt Romney.

Here’s what McCain had to say on the subject:
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John McCain has some new flyers out in South Carolina and Michigan, hitting Mitt Romney on taxes and abortion.

But McCain insists that what he’s doing is NOT negative campaigning. The Senator told reporters in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that the mailers are a general response to Romney’s attacks, rather than a specific response to a particular Romney ad.

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McCain’s mailers accuse Romney of supporting taxpayer funded abortions and raising taxes by $700 million when he was governor of Massachusetts.

John McCain called Mike Huckabee Thursday night to congratulate him for his upset victory in the Iowa caucuses.

McCain spoke to reporters and supporters in Manchester, NH as the caucus results become clear.
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McCain didn’t mention Mitt Romney by name last night. But the Senator has previously criticized Romney for running aggressive and misleading attack ads targeting Huckabee in Iowa and McCain in New Hampshire.

Romney’s defeat in Iowa could weaken him in New Hampshire, where Romney and McCain are running neck and neck.

John McCain is out with a new internet ad contrasting his foreign policy experience with Mitt Romney’s. (www.johnmccain.com/tvads)

The ad shows graphic images of explosions, bodies, and jihadists wearing masks and holding up rifles. It closes with the line, “Mitt Romney says the next president doesn’t need foreign policy experience.”

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McCain spoke to reporters in Concord, NH, shortly after the ad came out Tuesday.

Romney’s advertising has aggressively targeted McCain in recent weeks as the Senator’s poll numbers have climbed in New Hampshire. But after some mudslinging between the two candidates in recent days, McCain insisted he was done with the negative back and forth.