I realize that many of you are seeing Obama’s campaign as appearing weak and ineffective because he’s not fighting back – and he’s not, at least in the traditional way. But this is not your traditional politician – and you should have known that all along.

In my humble opinion, he’s fighting back in the best way possible: by ensuring that the McCain campaign has an endless supply of rope with which to hang itself. And in case you haven’t noticed, that noose grows tighter every day.

In the context of political timelines, Obama came out of nowhere and, in record time, captured the attention – and the imagination – of tens of millions, not only here but the world over. He became our party’s nominee not on the promise of same old/same old, but by offering hope and change – hope of a better tomorrow, and change in the way we go about achieving it.

I appreciate that those who are angry want to see the gloves come off. They want to see an outraged Obama lashing out at the lies, the deceit, the downright childishness of his opponent’s campaign, and smacking them down – good and hard. But the smack-down is there; you just have to know where to look. It is as subtle as it is devastating.

It’s said that you have to fight fire with fire. But when is the last time the firefighters in your neck of the woods showed up at a burning building with flame-throwers and gasoline? Obama has chosen to fight fire with water – and it works.

He stops mid-sentence to douse those pesky campfires McCain starts by rubbing two sticks together, and then goes about the business of speaking to the real issues voters are concerned about. And in so doing, he points out that while he’s addressing the concerns of a nation, McCain is busy addressing his one and only concern – the fact that that other guy is using the totally unfair tactic of addressing the concerns of a nation.

And the wheel goes ‘round and ‘round, and while McCain gets dizzier, Obama stands clear-headed on firm ground. You gotta like that.

It’s easy to compare Obama’s campaign strategy to that of Kerry, and find it wanting. It is also easy to take note of the fact that these are two different men, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses, who faced combat on completely different political fields.

While Kerry had to take on a president who was still popular, supported by those who still clung to the belief that victory in Iraq was just around the next corner, that economic hardship for the average American was a liberal scare tactic, that torture would never be condoned by a good Christian president, Obama takes on the reality of those now-debunked “truisms”, and the consequences Americans are living with, day-in and day-out, as a result of having believed what was spewed by the Republican spin-machine in the first place.

And he’s doing it extremely well. He’s not allowing himself to be baited into a fist-fight by his opponent; he’s allowing his opponent to wear himself out in the alley, bloodying himself by throwing punches at a brick wall. He’s not getting into the mud-pit with the pig; he’s just observing how dirty that pig is getting all of its own accord. He’s not dissin’ the bully on the block; he’s doing something much more effective - he's dismissing him as irrelevant.

In short, he’s not causing a train-wreck, knowing that if he does, he will be blamed for contributing to the ensuing destruction. He’s just standing back and watching it happen – in slow motion – an inevitable disaster in which he cannot be said to have had any part.

It’s one thing to hope your opponent’s grasping at the ultimate prize will be perceived as desperation. It is genius to allow him to grasp at straws, while you stand on the sidelines and smile like a cat – the one who swallowed the canary, while everyone else was looking the other way.

You don’t win the war by engaging in every battle, but by choosing your battles wisely and well. And you don’t win a presidency by promising hope and change, only to be seen as having abandoned all hope by refusing to stand up for the promise of change that put you in the running in the first place.

President Barack Hussein Obama. It has a nice ring to it. It sounds not only like hope and change, it sounds like victory won on sticking to your principles, instead of sticking it to the other guy - who, left to his own devices, is more than willing to stick it to himself.