It is a fundamental rule of politics: If you don’t define yourself, you will be defined by your opponent. Barack Obama’s charisma and inspirational message may have his supporters fainting in the aisles but his bio and voting records are a blank slate for Republicans to fill, if Obama gets the nomination, which appears increasingly likely.
Norquist trotted out a lie that worked well against John Kerry in 2004 — that Obama’s Senate voting record was more liberal than, say, Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist Independent or the liberal Democrats Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer.
Republicans noise-machiners met recently to develop lines of attacks against Obama. In yesterday’s London Sunday Times, Grover Norquist, who once compared the U.S. government to something he’d like to drown in a bathtub, previewed other lines of attack:

Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “Barack Obama has been able to create his own image and introduce himself to voters, but the swing voters in a general election are not paying attention yet. He is open to being defined as a leftwing, corrupt Chicago politician.”

And then Norquist trotted out a lie that worked well against John Kerry in 2004 — that Obama has the “most liberal” voting record in the Senate, putting him to the left of, say, Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist Independent or the liberal Democrats Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer:

Obama has the voting record of a “hard-left” socialist, according to Norquist, from his time in the Illinois state legislature to the US Senate. He was recently judged by the nonpartisan National Journal to have the most liberal voting record in 2007 of any senator.

“It will be easy to portray him as even harder-left than Hillary,” said Norquist. “Hillary could lose the election, but Obama could collapse. People already know Hillary and she is not popular, but the disadvantage for Obama is that Republicans can teach people who don’t know him who he is.”

Roger Stone, a Republican operative with ties to Reagan era — and who was fired last year by N.Y State Senate Republicans after he left threatening messages on the phone of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s elderly father — trotted out more of the attacks developed at the strategy meeting on MSNBC’s “Tucker” show yesterday.

He used the word “liberal” repeatedly, of course, and focused on Obama’s unequivocal support for issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented aliens. The MSNBC transcript is unavailable at this hour, but here’s how Stone framed the issue on his website, stonezone.com:

However, it was not until Governor Spitzer proposed giving New York State Drivers Licenses to illegal immigrants that his political popularity hit rock-bottom – a condition from which he has still not recovered.

Hillary Clinton had the good political sense to abandon Spitzer’s position, even if she did so inartfully. Barack Obama, on the other hand, drank the Kool-Aid.

There is no better issue to demonstrate the naivete of Senator Obama and his National Security views. Fifteen of Nineteen 9/11 hijackers had 38 drivers licenses between them. These licenses were used to rent cars and trucks, secure hotel rooms and to obtain passage on the fateful air carriers the day America was attacked.

Obama, like Spitzer, will argue that giving licenses to illegals will actually improve security – a position which defies the facts. If John McCain needs a wedge issue to demonstrate his superior grasp of National Security issues and Senator Obama’s lack of serious credentials to be President – this is it.

Of course, none of the 9/11 hijackers were here illegally, and all carried valid passports issued by their home countries, all of which were U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia.

Update: After I wrote the above, I found this report at the Politico about the meeting, which was held here in Los Angeles last Saturday:

The RNC’s “winter retreat” for major donors at Los Angeles’ Beverly Wilshire Hotel featured such party stalwarts as Karl Rove, RNC chairman Robert Duncan, former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, as well as some Hollywood types, including Dave Berg, a segment producer and “political director” for “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

The meeting opened with a Powerpoint presentation:

The first [slide] called for pointing out what the GOP views as a seeming incongruity between Obama and the mantle of commander in chief. The second point harkened back to Obama’s days in the Illinois state Senate, noting how his “pattern of voting ‘present’ offers many openings to question his candidacy.” The third offered hope to the GOP faithful that “we can be confident in a campaign about issues.” A fourth bullet point relayed how “undisciplined messaging carries great risk,” while the fifth and final attack point stressed, “His greatest weakness is inexperience. He is not ready to be commander in chief. He is not ready to be president.”