Advice From A Man Without Honor

Robert Novak's rules of politics aren't exactly a secret, but....

• If you can't win honorably, win dishonorably.

With Sen. Barack Obama moving ahead of Sen. John McCain in our latest Electoral College rundown, the private Republican view is that the focus must be on Obama in the coming campaign for McCain to win. A positive campaign will lose, and the spotlight on Obama must be harsher for McCain to have a chance.

It's no particular surprise when the loser in a political battle resorts to gutter tactics, but it's unseemly to urge gutter tactics... isn't it?

• If lying about what your opponent says helps you win dishonorably, go for it!

Obama has made a rare political mistake in seeming to say it is more important for the population to learn Spanish than for immigrants to learn English. The English language issue is an important one, especially with white middle-income voters, which is Obama's potentially fatal weak spot.

As any honest person could tell you, Obama didn't say that. He indicated that you don't need to worry about mandating the use of English. He instructed people that rather than worrying about whether somebody else learns English, they should focus on whether their own children speak Spanish (or another language). I'm sitting in a country right now where school kids are choosing to learn languages such as Russian, German and Spanish with an eye toward their economic future. Where's our eye?

And why isn't it "elitist" to brand "white middle-income voters" as xenophobic rubes who break out the pitchforks and torches any time somebody suggests that other nations, languages or cultures are important to our future?

• Any reason you can think of to vote Democrat, no matter how real, is imaginary

Former Sen. Phil Gramm is still McCain's close friend and adviser despite having told too much of the truth in public by saying we are a nation of whiners.

So stop whining about imaginary problems with the economy, already. You're harshing Novak's buzz.