We help take up slack on John McCain

A think piece in Tuesday’s NY Times helped me understand the flurry of activity we’ve had in the last few days chasing John McCain in Miami and Tampa: We’re part of a smart strategy. Hey, I like it. Better than sitting around waiting for something to happen in two or three months when our nominee finally emerges.

The headline told the story: “Its candidates otherwise engaged, Democratic Party goes after McCain.”

Down in the detail you’ll learn that while Clinton and Obama have lots of money to spend on campaign ads, the Democratic Party is running close to empty – but spending that anyway on ads highlighting McCain’s vulnerability.

A quote from Howard Dean:

Speaking with reporters on Monday, the Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean, expressed urgency when he described deciding to run a party-sponsored advertisement against Mr. McCain. “I said look, it is time for us to get this done,” he said.

This explains why the DNC is asking for donations. Time to give a few bucks.

UPDATE: And here's a link to a view of the ad -- and a convenient place to donate.

So while the national Democratic Party is buying ad time, the Florida Democratic Party has leaped into action with a campaign to birddog McCain in the Sunshine state. I was part of a gang of about 20 Democratic activists who attracted a line of TV cameras Sunday afternoon outside the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, where McCain was with donors.

And we weren’t just standing there: we had signs and a 10-foot-tall mockup of “Economics for Dummies” – a great visual – to taunt McCain for admitting that economics is not his strong suit. (Not to mention geography, since he confuses Iran and Iraq.)

Congratulations to county party Chair Bret Berlin and Alejandro Miyar of the Florida Demcocratic Party for orchestrating this strong demo. Miyar was dashing off to Tampa for today’s McCain appearance on the topic of health care.

Meanwhile, those who turned on the Miami TV news Sunday evening saw reports about McCain that included decent coverage of our anti-McCain demos. Here’s a link to one on Channel 10.

And here's one on CBS4, with a fine quote from Shirley Alexiou, a super activist and vice president of the Democrats of South Dade Club:

"I don't want a president that doesn't know much about the economy."

I hope they're doing as well today over in Tampa, where in fact I know there are a lot of smart and active Democrats.