“This is what politicians do when they don’t have a record to run on,” Obama’s chief strategist says aboard the campaign plane Thursday.

Of Palin’s address: “There wasn’t one thing that she said about Obama or what he’s proposing that’s true.”

Adds: “For someone who makes the point that she’s not from Washington, she looks like she’d fit in very well there.”

Also hits back on Giulaini’s swipe at community organizing: “It may not pay the millions of dollars that Rudy gets for shilling for pharma, but it’s significant work.”

Listen to him here, and read more from TIME’s Jay Newton-Small.