Max Boot in the LA Times:

How can you tell if a political party is brain-dead? Easy. It spends an entire campaign denouncing the incumbent as a smarmy, good-for-nothing liar, rather than outlining its own agenda. The Republicans tried it against Bill Clinton in 1996, the Democrats tried it against George W. Bush in 2004, and now in Britain the Conservatives are trying it, with equal lack of success, against Tony Blair.

Such a tactic is beguiling because, to True Believers, the other side's triumphs are never on the up and up; they must be the result of hoodwinking the hapless electorate. The problem with this approach was pointed out to me by a political strategist last week: "Voters think all politicians are liars. So telling them that someone is a particularly effective liar doesn't work."

It's time to get scary. It's time for the Conservatives to start talking about what's wrong with Liberal divide-and-conquer methods and say what they would do differently. It's time to get over the fear of not winning over the comfortable client communities the Liberals have been servicing. Face it, they're not going to vote for you anyway.

The Liberals are corrupt -- this message has penetrated the populace's conciousness. There's no need for them to keep banging on the point. They should treat it as self-evident and concentrate their message on what they'll do differently. And some people will be scared. That's a good thing!