Let it Bleed says be very afraid.
...Oh, for f***'s sake, guys. Timidity, coupled with attacks on... wait for it... Liberal corruption. That's the winning strategy? Ceding policy discussions to the NDP, while the CPC yammers on about Gomery? Are you kidding me? How exactly does that differ from the strategy which has been employed for the last, oh, year or so? And have the polls moved at all?
I finished reading Juggernaut by Susan Delacourt recently. If the Tories are truly afraid of going on the attack for risk of Stephen Harper being seen as angry then steal a page from the Liberal 2000 campaign. She showed in 2000 Ontario was done with PM Chretien. Candidates were getting serious blowback and people were saying they were voting for Paul Martin, not Jean Chretien (doesn't our PM wish he could go back to those days).
As far as I can tell Ontario much prefers Peter MacKay to Stephen Harper. Well give them the twofer. Besides Mr. MacKay pulls of the attacks with charm. Let Stephen Harper be above the fray but have others go hard, real hard. The Conservatives did not lose the last campaign because they attacked too hard. They lost because the Liberals ran a blistering attack ad and the Conservatives responded with....with....nothing! Do no rely on the NDP to do the dirty work. You don't have to have Stephen Harper's face in attack ads. But you must have attack ads. And plenty of them. And on way more than just Gomery.
