Many people have been saying for the past few weeks (myself included) that Barack Obama needs to stand up for himself a little bit more, and strongly counter the negative attacks coming from John McCain. I have also suggested (and I'm not alone in this one either) that Obama needs to start actually taking the fight to McCain, by painting a picture of McCain for America to see -- to counteract who the McCain campaign would like you to believe John McCain is.

Because I have been beating this drum myself, I have to give credit where credit is due for the changes in campaign style Obama (and his supporters) have shown in the past few days (pretty much since Obama got back from vacation). The media hasn't quite caught up to this change, but they'll have a hard time ignoring it during the upcoming convention. Because from what I've seen this week, Obama's convention is going to go after John McCain with some gusto.

This is crucial, because of the mistake John Kerry made the last time around. During the 2004 Democratic convention, Kerry apparently told all the speakers to tone down their anti-Bush rhetoric, so as to not be seen attacking a sitting president in a time of war. Which gave us the past four years of President Bush.

Fears have been voiced that Obama was setting himself up to make the same mistake. His whole "high-road" style campaign seemed to suggest that the same "positive-only" filter Kerry used would also be applied to speakers this year. But I think Obama got the message while on vacation. The gloves may be coming off. And not a moment too soon, in my opinion.

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There was a news item today about a group of college presidents who have signed on to an effort to "rethink" the drinking age in America. While not explicitly calling for lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, these collegiate leaders are urging legislators to at least consider the idea of letting states lower the de facto national drinking age.

When you stop and think about it, the drinking age doesn't make a whole lot of sense. On his eighteenth birthday, Joe American can sign a legal contract, buy a house, sign a mortgage, get married, serve on a jury, vote in an election, and join the military -- all without a parent or guardian's signature. Because now Joe is considered a legal adult, having reached the age of majority. If Joe commits a crime after turning 18, he will be tried as an adult. If Joe serves on a jury, he can be one of twelve voices that condemns a murderer to death. If Joe joins the Army and is shipped off to war, he can kill enemy soldiers and/or get killed himself (or get horribly maimed) in service to his country.

In other words, society has determined that Joe is now a rational adult member of society, with all the benefits, freedoms, and responsibilities which are a part of that adulthood. Except that Joe can't legally buy a beer. Even after he's served in a foreign war and been horribly maimed as a result -- still no (legal) beer for Joe until he turns 21.

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I don't usually comment on sports, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. I'm no professional sports guy, nor do I play one on the web.

But I have to say, NBC's coverage of the Olympics has so far been pretty dull. Now, I only watch what's on during primetime, and I haven't even seen all of that, but so far we've been subjected to an entire week of swimming, beach volleyball, and gymnastics. From what I'm seeing, the Olympics has shrunk and could now call itself "The International Swim Meet, The International Beach Volleyball/Voyeurism Competition, and The China/U.S. Gymnastics Head-To-Head Match."

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What you want
Baby, I got
What you need
Do you know I got it?
All I'm askin'
Is for a little respect

--Aretha Franklin, "Respect"

So it's official -- Hillary Clinton's name will be formally introduced for a roll-call vote at the Democratic Convention. She will be given her due respect, as will her supporters. Will this be enough for her voters to (finally) come around to supporting Barack Obama, or will the all-but-admitted fact that she's not going to be the vice presidential nominee further embitter the Hillary die-hards? In other words, is this going to be a good thing or a bad thing for Obama? Only time will tell, unfortunately.

My guess is that it's going to turn out fine for Barack Obama. The stage-managed nature of modern political conventions means that it will likely be handled about as well as it could be. The media, of course, will be beating the drums of "Oh, look how disorganized Democrats are," as usual, but by the end of the convention it's going to be pretty hard to reconcile that with 80,000 people cheering their heads off for Obama's acceptance speech. That's a video image that a lot of people are going to see, and they'll see a party united behind their candidate.

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[Due to copyright restrictions, I cannot display this photo here at ChrisWeigant.com. Please check out the photo in question over at the Huffington Post.]

We haven't done a photo caption contest here in far too long, and this one just begged for it. What exactly is Bush saying? Picture a word balloon above him, and what would you put in it?

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The situation in Georgia is a tough and complex issue for America. About the only good news is that the press may be forced to ask the two presidential candidates some (gasp!) actual questions about actual real-world issues. But apart from pressuring the mainstream media into committing an act of journalism, there are really no good options in Georgia for the United States at this point.

A quick review of the background and current status is in order first, before we get to what it means for John McCain and Barack Obama (and, to a lesser extent, George Bush). Georgia used to be a part of the Soviet Union. Joe Stalin was a Georgian, for instance. When the U.S.S.R. broke up, Georgia declared its independence and became a country. Parts of Georgia, for various ethnic and demographic reasons, wanted to be either their own independent countries, or part of Russia. That's what the current fight is about.

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If you're sick of politics, and don't want to read another single thing about it before Election Day, then you should just skip this column. I recommend taking Opus' advice in this situation, personally.

For the rest of us wonks, before I get to examining Bradley v. Obama, today I'd like to remind everyone that August polls don't mean a whole lot. I'd be saying that no matter who was ahead, mind you. Because I think we all need a reminder that not everyone is like us (quick test: do you know who Mark Penn is? Or David Axelrod?).

Because if you really look at the polls, you'll soon notice that about a third of America just isn't paying all that much attention.

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I have to assume if you're reading this that you're sick of the Olympics already. Wow, that was fast. Is NBC's coverage going to be twice as bad as last time around, or will they go for the gold and make it four times as bad?

Ahem.

Sorry, I'm in a snarky mood today. So if you're allergic to snark, I'd suggest you go back to watching the Lichtensteinian athletes walk around the field. Or whatever's currently on....

Today's Friday Talking Points column is a bit more free-form than normal. Very quickly, we will award this week's prizes, and then get on to the heart of the matter -- trying to convince Barack Obama that it's time to get up off the mat, dust yourself off, and throw a few punches. Because although Obama has a commanding lead on the state-wide level, that lead could evaporate quickly under a barrage of slime and mud from the McCain camp. Democrats across the country are holding their collective breath, waiting to see whether Obama will wind up being another Kerry, or wind up being another Bill Clinton. Kerry famously "was above" responding to August attacks. Clinton had a War Room which responded forcefully to attacks (even the true ones -- remember the phrase "bimbo eruption" from the 1992 campaign?) immediately, and within the same news cycle. Kerry, of course, lost. Clinton won.

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Will tomorrow be the ultimate "take out the trash" day in the news? This charming term is an inside-the-Beltway phrase which refers to the propensity of politicians to announce things they'd rather not in the most dead and unnoticed news cycle of the week: late Friday, after the evening news has already aired on the East Coast. If the administration has some of what they consider "trash" news -- news that they don't want to draw a whole lot of attention to -- this is when they unveil it. Nobody's watching news on Friday night, and very few follow the news much over the weekend, which effectively buries the story.

But tomorrow night is not exactly a usual Friday night, as it will be the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. So will President Bush and the government of Iraq very quietly announce (while the party's going on in Beijing) that they have reached an agreement which sets a timeline for American combat troops to leave Iraq?

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It's time once again to take a look at the Electoral College math from state-level polling. Nationwide polls are not completely meaningless, but they are pretty irrelevant -- because that's not how we elect a president. You have to win enough states to get more than half the electoral votes in the Electoral College. While many would like to change this system, it's what we've got for the 2008 election, and so looking at the state-level polling is much more important to figure out where the race is right now, and what the trends are.

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