Of all the strange little rituals of modern campaigns, the “interested parties memo” must be one of the weirdest. Typically presented as a strategic memo from the campaign manager or top strategist, these dispatches are usually a press release by another name. On Friday Obama campaign manager David Plouffe dropped one, rebuffing politicos and reporters obsessed with the Palin/St. Paul Bounce, and arguing instead that this is the first day of the rest of our lives:

Today is the first day of the rest of the campaign, and today we are releasing two new ads that go directly at the fundamental issue in this race: John McCain is out of touch with the American people and unable to address the challenges facing the country in the 21st century and bring about real change…With both conventions and the vice-presidential selections behind us, the campaign is now heading into the final stretch…

John McCain has shown that he is willing to go into the gutter to win this election. His campaign has become nothing but a series of smears, lies, and cynical attempts to distract from the issues that matter to the American people. But as Barack Obama said earlier this week “enough is enough.” (emphasis added)

He also slams McCain via rhetorical questions:

Can we really expect change from a Senator who supported the Bush policies 90 percent of the time? … And can we really expect change from a candidate whose campaign is being run by some of the most powerful corporate lobbyists in Washington?… no matter how many times McCain and Governor Palin use the word “change” or try to reinvent their own records, one thing stays the same: the fact that when it comes to the economy, education, Iraq, or the special interests’ stranglehold on Washington, they both are stubborn defenders of the past eight years and they both promise more of the same.

These policy attacks will still fall short for many armchair Obama strategists, because they don’t cut to core character issues. While the Obama campaign is finally referring to McCain’s lies as lies — a breakthrough! — the lingering questions are why is McCain lying and what does it say about his character? The answers lead far from the happy talk of post-partisanship and 9/11 unity forums. McCain is lying because, like President George W. Bush, he does not respect the democratic process of open debate or the American people’s ability to see through the deceit. He thinks he can get away with it for 54 more days. As Obama has said, McCain must think Americans are “stupid.” If you accept that premise, then McCain is an elitist with contempt for the people and American democracy itself. That reflects the wrong character for assuming the presidency, a basic conclusion worth stating directly for all the “interested parties” out there.