Keyser Soze Rules

Don't know how many McCain campaign HQ operatives actually went to bed last night thinking that Barack Obama had offended the dignity of Gov. Sarah Palin by comparing her to swine, but when they awoke this morning to ad nauseum coverage of Obama's comments, they must have grinned.

Media entities could have had an internal conversation along the lines of: "This is stupid; let's cover the education stuff." Instead, news outlets are either giving McCain evil-genuis points for turning a nothing into a something, or are calling out the McCain campaign for being mean and duplicitous, but in any event, voters on the periphery of the conversation only hear enough to hear the accusations anyway.

If this is the dynamic from here on out -- each day dominated by an outrageous accusation by the McCain campaign, and Obama forced to defend against each outrageous claim, well, Obama is probably going to lose. The story McCain is telling -- that Obama is scary and dangerous -- may well be the dominant storyline for the next 55 days. Obama's story is much simpler:  We want change. I am change. McCain is more of the same. He who gets to tell his story will win.
What can the Obama campaign do? Pray for a backlash? Ignore the national media and focus on how local newspapers, television stations and online concerns are covering the race?

There's no downside to applying the Keyser Soze rules -- go further than your opponent is willing to go. So long as you commit to this strategy 100%, it can work.

This is why, incidentally, that the Obama campaign wants Democratic 527s to come to their rescue.