But others say that Obama will only help the GOP by attacking Palin and that he should try to relegate her to the campaign's margins, where his own running mate, Joe Biden, now seems to be residing.
Moreover, some said, attacking a charismatic woman too harshly could backfire. They worry that it would play directly into the Republican strategy of courting female voters and portraying Palin as a middle-class mom under fire from the left and the establishment media. At the same time, they fear it could cloud Obama's carefully honed image as a post-partisan politician.
"The Obama campaign should stick to their message and not overreact to Palin," said one Democratic strategist, adding that accusing Palin of being a liar is "a long way from their core brand and shows that they haven't found the answer of how to deal with her."
Democratic consultant Eric Jaye, who works with candidates in Michigan, a working-class state that Republicans believe is now more in play because of Palin, said that the Obama campaign needs to be "very careful not to turn Sarah Palin into a working-class heroine."
Obama aides said this week that the campaign's position remains strong in key battleground states and that its formidable get-out-the-vote operation will carry it to victory despite the Palin buzz.
Campaign manager David Plouffe dismissed Palin's potency so far, saying she had been relying on scripted speeches and was doing little more than energizing the GOP's core conservative base.
"The question is: Over time, day after day, week after week in these last eight weeks, you know, how does that take hold with the swing voters, and what does that really mean to their field operation?" Plouffe said. "And, you know, do they have the architecture and the infrastructure to really take advantage of it?"
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peter.wallsten@latimes.com
janet.hook@latimes.com
Times staff writers Dan Morain and Noam N. Levey contributed to this report.
