They Only Attack You If It's Working ...

When the RNC started hitting Senate candidate Harold Ford (D-TN) for attending a Playboy Party, he cried fowl -- and his supporters called the ad "racist." Of course, the truth is that there is one way to know if an ad is working, and that is if your opponents attack you for using it. This is an important lesson to learn in politics: You're opponents attack you when your strategy is working. If your strategy is flawed, they will be content to let you keep doing it. But if it's hurting them, they will cry foul. The Ford ads were lethal to him because they destroy the "choir boy" image he was (up until that point), effectively portraying (in a state like TN, he needs it).

... Now, it has been my observation that very few "intellectual" pundits and journalists actually understand this concept. That's why I was so happy to read Rich Lowry's sagacious comments in the Corner. It is very clear that Lowry "gets it":

... it's my sense that that controversial RNC ad scored a direct hit in Tennessee. It forced Ford to say "I like football and I like women." There's nothing the least bit wrong with that. But it runs counter to the pious image he was cultivating with statements like, "I love Jesus, I can't help it" (from Newsweek). This is why the controversy over the Playboy party—absurd in isolation—has so hurt Ford. It makes him seem much less like the choir boy he's been running as ...