The Guardian view on a key week in the EU debate: Obama sends the right message | Editorial

The remain campaign has played two big cards this week. Britain's debate about Europe is now much more serious than before

Few things matter more in modern political campaigns than standing. A public figure or a party with standing gets a hearing, and thus potentially gets the public's vote. One without standing gets neither a hearing nor a vote. If your political opponent possesses standing, by contrast, the other side's most urgent task is to undermine it.

That, in essence, is what the Leave campaign is constantly trying to do to those who make the argument for Britain to remain in the European Union. By and large, the Remain campaign has more institutional and individual standing than Leave, as it proved so powerfully on Friday when Barack Obama joined the argument. That's why Leavers try to pull their opponents down, increasingly dismissing Remainers as hypocrites, scare merchants, peddlers of special interests or out of touch, while the substance of what they say is all too often waved away. True, Remainers are not always averse to similar tactics themselves at times, but the tendency to kick the player not the ball is more routinised on the Leave side. There has been far too much of this approach this week.