By now, no-one should assume that Barack Obama is a wimp. So why all the sturm und drang, Chicken Little wailing and swift boat predictions that dominate the media?

We’ve seen it before – John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, heck, even Al Gore – brilliant or at least viable candidates having their images skewered and reduced to quivering liberal bleeding hearts. Al Gore invented the internet; John Kerry was a coward who protested while his comrades were being killed; Michael Dukakis furloughed murderers and played make believe with a tank.

So why is this campaign different from all other campaigns?

Ok, dumb question. We all know the answer – the Republicans are a defunct brand. They’re a fast food restaurant with thumbs and fingers stuck in the burgers. They’re the emperors without any clothes. They’re George Bush – every last one of them, marching in lock step with the president for the past eight years as he’s destroyed the country, ran up the deficit, and made Ronald Reagon look like a Nobel prize winning physicist.

So what can the Republicans do to win? Well, it would help if they started by nominating an against the grain candidate who stood up against all of that bed wetting leadership. And they did that – almost to a T – and got the original maverick.

Slight problem – the Republicans can’t run on their record. Slight other problem – that’s exactly what McCain is doing.

Ok, take the surge. Take new Coke while you’re at it. No good if the old coke sucks.

How about ‘I’m against the tax cuts’. Na ah, not gonna’ go it. Now he’s for it.

Ok, well how about, ‘I’m going to run a clean campaign’. Na ah, not gonna’ do it.

If there’s anything that John McCain shouldn’t be doing, it’s running the campaign he’s running right now. You don’t have to run a low road campaign to have a shot at beating Barack Obama. But that’s what he’s doing.

In the process, he’s aligning himself with George Bush. The celebrity ad? Short term gain for long term pain. It will ultimately remind people that it was this kind of campaign that got them stuck with George Bush over Al Gore; and Bush again over John Kerry.

Is there any doubt that had either of those democratic candidates had won, the US would be better off now than it is? Come on. It wouldn’t be worse.

Here’s the kicker – if you think that Barack Obama isn’t storing up a slew of negative campaign ads to run in October, you’ve got to be kidding. October is going to be negative ad paradise for the Democrats. And, they’re not going to get slimed for it. All it will be seen as is hitting back.

And it will be done in a way that Obama couldn’t do against Hillary Clinton. She could hit him hard as the freshman who didn’t know his place. That wasn’t racist; it was fair game. He couldn’t hit her back as hard for a host of reasons, not to mention the least of which was that it went against his brand and he needed her supporters after he beat her.

But he can hit McCain back hard – and he will, especially on the issue of McCain’s temperament, his Achilles heal. Just wait for the quotes to come from fellow republicans who can’t stand him.

The worst thing for Obama would be to peak early – for all the negative ads against him, he’s solid neck in neck with the original maverick. The payback will come.