Obama delivers tough talk

Probably not the right tone at this point:

He warned that the general election campaign could get ugly. "They're going to try to scare people. They're going to try to say that 'that Obama is a scary guy,' " he said. . . .
"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said. "Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans."

So, on the one hand, Obama accuses Republicans of trying "to scare people." On the other hand, he employs a metaphor of violence. The metaphor is hardly original -- it's the same sort of macho boasting that pipsqueak wimps like Paul Begala routinely employ. Boasting is seldom a harbinger of success. Ed Morrisey notes:

Obama not only doesn’t like a good brawl, he can’t even take an open-forum debate unless it takes place on the Home & Garden Channel at 2 am on a holiday weekend.

The GOP replies:

"Why is Barack Obama so negative? In the last 24 hours, he's completely abandoned his campaign’s call for 'new politics,' equating the election to a 'brawl' and promising to 'bring a gun,' " said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant. "It's clear Obama is going on the attack to distract from the fact that since winning the nomination, his friend and fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, was convicted, and his vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson, was forced to resign," Conant said.

Democrats are not yet panicking, but they have not yet realized what a weak candidate they've nominated. Give Obama another couple of weeks of gaffes and blunders, and watch his failure to catch fire in the polls. By the Fourth of July, the Dems will be sweating plenty.

UPDATE: Greg at Rhymes With Right notes that this kind of talk is a bit unexpected, coming from St. Obama of Assisi.

UPDATE II: Notice that Obama decides to ramp up the rhetoric even as lefty bloggers are predicting a right-wing rampage should Obama get elected. Expect the Netroots insanity to escalate in coming weeks, as it slowly dawns on them (a) Obama is a loser, and (b) they're doomed to another four years of a Republican president.

UPDATE III: Something I meant to note earlier, but it slipped my mind: The problem with Obama's threat of escalation is that it can't possibly work.

Obama is vulnerable to negative campaigning because (a) he's got a paper-thin resume, woefully short on national accomplishments, and (b) he's shown a habit of associating with radicals and other shady characters. He is manifestly not ready for the job of president, and the GOP attacks wll make that clear.

John McCain, on the other hand, is a war hero who has been in Congress for 25 years, and was the chief 2000 Republican primary opponent of the current president. His record is far from perfect, but it's already well-known, and it's unlikely that Team Obama will unearth any new scandal that could hurt McCain.