Over at The Field, Al Giordano makes two important points. First, McCain's attack ad is a play for free media -- it's only airing in three locations (edit, I left out PA: DC/NoVA, PA, and CO) with very small buys. It's entirely designed to derail the Obama campaign from its message.
Second, Al also points out that the backlash to McCain's ad is so fierce that the Obama campaign may not need to engage in tit-for-tat (so long as this stays as a chattering class issue). I'll let Al take over:
Note that the pushback is so far coming from a multitude of surrogates, bloggers and journalists, none of whom waited for orders from above to get out their blowtorches. To me, that's a more significant development than anything the Obama campaign itself does. That brings to mind another rule of life: do not shake a hornet's nest! Obama's gonna have to take a number behind everybody else that has lined up to throw knives on this one.
And now here's Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed proving Al's point. Each Senator devastates McCain in a different way, but just as importantly, they both speak to the strength and promise of Barack Obama.
© Jed Lewison