Barack Obama, please show us that you are no John Kerry. Or Al Gore. Or (fill in Democrat from the last 30 years).

This is not to say I don't think Gore, Kerry et al are not good men. They are. But they entered the Democratic cocoon (not to be confused with the cast of the movie Cocoon - more age appropriate for John McCain) once nominated by their party for the presidency, and sadly Obama is currently falling into the same trap. What do I mean by this? I mean when Gore was branded a liar and when Kerry was branded a traitor, there was no real defence of the candidates, and more importantly no counterattack.

George Bush was a cheerleader in high school. He ran multiple businesses into the ground, was bailed out by daddy, was a drunk for years, probably used cocaine, was arrested for drunk driving, went Awol on military service in the Alabama Air National Guard and had only the political experience of being governor of Texas for one and a half terms, the weakest state chief executive in this country (Texas' state constitution gives most of its powers to the lieutenant governor).

And yet Gore and Kerry could not find a way to portray this man as unworthy of the office he sought to inhabit, so he has gotten to inhabit it for eight long years, while the US has suffered through every disaster short of a plague of locusts descending upon the land.

Amazing.

Democrats were convinced then, and the Obama people seem to be convinced now, that if the people agree with you on most of the issues, you will win, so just ignore the attacks. Yet, as history has proven, as it did in 2000 and 2004, if the messenger is discredited, the message is no longer received by the public.

Republicans understand this. Democrats somehow still don't. Which brings me back to Obama. The past month has seen McCain and outside surrogates put a plan into action that the right has been slowly rolling out for at least a year now. To turn Obama into the "other", as Edward Said once put it in his celebrated work Orientalism.

Obama as Muslim. Obama in an ad with promiscuous, white female celebrities (which made Paris Hilton's mom, Kathy, a McCain donor, none to pleased). Obama as "cocky" and "arrogant" (see uppity). Obama as the one who injected race into the contest.

And suddenly, almost magically, McCain brings up the issue of affirmative action, reversing his previous position (I think that now brings him down to two consistent positions over the past decade) on a state ballot initiative in Arizona to now support ending this successful programme.

As with President Bush, responding should be child's play. First, senator Obama, defend yourself from these attacks - both conscious and subconscious - on your race. Run ads on your "American values", talk about your humble upbringing and don't be afraid to speak openly about your race and the challenges you have overcome. You are an American success story, and most Americans will respond to that.

Second, tell the truth about McCain's character. Under the banner of "John McCain: too dangerous to be president", introduce all manner of issues about McCain's character into this race - his willingness to race bait, his unbearable and volatile temper, his lack of knowledge about economics and his walking lockstep with President Bush on Iraq – and, without much prodding, Americans' concerns about McCain's age will fit neatly under this category.

Use some humorous ads, and some that are much more serious. But put the focus back where it should be: squarely on McCain's lack of character. If you don't (see Monday's Rasmussen poll where you have fallen behind for the first time), you may just find a way to do what Democrats have mastered over the past generation: snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.