You’ll occasionally hear conservatives complaining, “We’ve got to get meaner, nastier, like the other side!” As a political strategy, that’s generally pretty foolish. Let Keith Olbermann sink in his bile. Conservatives candidates should get angry about genuine outrages of course, but otherwise, be cheerful, optimistic, and civil. In short, they should be like Scott Brown. From the Washington Post today:

Brown has called his effort “the politics of hope” and, like candidate Obama did, admonished campaign workers to maintain courtesies — at a Saturday stop in a call center in Worcester, he even complimented the “very respectful” behavior of the Democratic “trackers”, the fixtures of modern campaigning who record a candidate’s every move on video.