Terence Samuel, who as recently as 2005 was the congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, is now deputy editor of The Root.com, an online African-American opinion magazine owned by The Washington Post. He’s apparently very angry over the lipstick-on-pig controversy, since he’s authored an article saucily headlined “Slaughter the Pig: Team Obama needs to break out the knives and start rolling in the mud, too.” The quickie Internet ad bashing Obama for his lipstick-on-pig remarks is denounced by Samuel as “a quick and dirty piece of television remarkable for the jaw-dropping, breath-taking, head-shaking dishonesty on which is it based….It is now clear that the Republicans’ strategy for victory is not to discredit Obama’s views or his policy positions but to destroy the man himself.” Samuel proclaims that Democrats have been nothing but dignified in their campaigning and thinks Obama’s way too nice to win:

He’s getting hit over the head with a baseball bat and looking like he wants to file an amicus brief about it. It would be silly to count out the Obama strategists; they have defied every prediction and surpassed every expectation thus far. But watching the Obama response to the Sarah Palin frenzy, conjures up sad images of John Kerry, Al Gore, or, dare we say it, Michael Dukakis. Once again, we have Democratic dignity on display. They are taking the high road, constantly acknowledging John McCain’s honorable service to the nation and saying that Sarah Palin is a tough and talented politician. Meanwhile, on the low road and on their high horse, Republicans are making minced moose meat out of Obama.

Samuel is furious that Obama is losing ground, and laments that Obama is still talking gauzily about education and going on Letterman. Samuel concluded: “My suggestion for a Top 10 List: ‘Ten Reasons I’m Not Going to Get Punked by John McCain.’”