At a news conference in Chicago today he was asked about his vulnerability to "Swiftboating" attacks if he was the Democratic nominee in November. His reply amounted to the claim that the Clinton campaign has done intensive research on him for the last year and so they've already found and used whatever there is to be found.
He therefore assumes that Republican attacks on him will be based on "research" as its commonly understood. But of course the point of the Swiftboat attacks on John Kerry was that that they were either grotesque extrapolations from seemingly incidental facts or just made up completely.
What Obama needs to be ready for is not some new version of Hillary Clinton's criticisms of his voting record, but a Jakarta Madrassah Students for Truth, which will peddle claims that he was at an extremist Madrassah during his days in Indonesia. Of course, John McCain will "denounce" such tactics, in that same sanctimonious way he praised Mitt Romney last night while having lied about Romney's position on the Iraqi surge just a couple of weeks ago.
Thankfully there's still plenty of time for Obama to prepare. But first he needs to see the need to prepare.
UPDATE: Not that Democrats should be so rude, but John McCain's military record, minus the POW experience, is far from glorious.
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