The always thoughtful Peter Lawler argues that going on character offense isn’t the way for McCain to turn things around: he needs rather just to make the substantive case on Obama’s radical views and the meaning of an Obama presidency and a very liberal congress.

I almost always agree with Peter, but on this one I say: all of the above. Voters need to be reminded what McCain offers (to the extent that McCain knows what that is), and they need to be reminded that they don’t know Barack Obama and shown just what it is they don’t know–in personal and in policy terms. These aims are not in conflict.