McCain Backs Up The Dump Truck
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Did anyone with even half of a brain not see this coming? You can put your hand down, Gov. Palin.
With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain’s team has decided that its emphasis on the senator’s biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan’s campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.
“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
John McCain has thrown an entire mountain of mud at Sen. Obama so far this campaign and it has all added up to Fail so far. As the McCain campaign goes 100% negative in its advertising, it’s no coincidence that they are retreating from states like Michigan and now pouring in their resources to states they should be winning like North Carolina and Indiana. And their resources are becoming increasingly limited – forcing them to have to make choices of which fronts to fight on – a dilemma reminiscent of Al Gore’s fatal decision to contest Florida over Ohio in 2000. Sen. Obama is not facing that sort of resource allocation problem. He has the money (although sending him more can’t hurt) to storm multiple beaches D-Day style rather than a narrow defense of previous Democrats.
Furthermore, this election is about serious stuff. The one time period John McCain has lead in this race was when the contest was consumed by triviality like pigs and their choice of lipstick. The congress just passed a $700 billion bailout in order to try and stave off a Depression-era style run on banks and credit. In the month of September, on average 5,333 Americans lost their jobs every day. Like with Franklin Roosevelt 70+ years ago, the nation is looking for a steady hand to guide us through the approaching storm – not a photo op obsessed drama queen and his wind-up doll lackey incapable of independent thought.
The weapons of distraction the McCain campaign is likely to use are the topics that are well worn red herrings of the conservative blogosphere. We’ve been over the Rev. Wright “story”, the Tony Rezko “story”, and the laughable William Ayers “story”. For over a year now the right and their allies in the media (most notably Fox, but the other networks are often accessories to the crime) have tried to tear down Sen. Obama as a far-left radical black nationalist who is corrupt and oh yeah did we mention he’s black. Sen. Obama has been able to defy the caricature by being Sen. Obama. When America sees and hears him and his family, the stereotype fades away to show the reality. When John McCain rudely refused to look him in the eye and wailed about Obama being naive and uncertain, America listened to what Sen. Obama actually said and found him far more authentic than the erratic John McCain.
We should remember that the McCain campaign laughably said they were forced to use this ad about Tony Rezko (as if they hadn’t planned to use it along) and it had exactly zero effect on the election in any way. Why? The reality doesn’t match up.
McCain is going to throw mud. It is what Republicans do when elections come down to crunch time. In 2006 we heard from the right that Americans should give their lives to prevent Nancy Pelosi from becoming speaker and in the next month we are likely to hear all sorts of smears about Sen. Obama, his wife, and the rest of their family. We’ll hear the smears from John McCain, the screechings of Sarah Palin, Republican operatives and the media.
Then Barack Obama will talk, the caricature will be forced to do battle with the reality and lose, and America will understand we live in a serious time on the edge of the precipice and we need a steady hand to lead us. In all likelihood, even though the steady hand is a young black one with a funny name, we’re ready as a nation to finally get serious about the future and not give a hoot.
13 Responses to “McCain Backs Up The Dump Truck”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
James Carville will again pretend McCain has too much honor to support the stormfrontian ads
It worked the last couple of times, in generals I mean.
One bad omen: I had a dream last night that Obama won the election. Usually when I dream of someone winning a thing, they lose. I dreamt of Kerry winning in 2004, I dreamt of England winning the World Cup in 1998 (the final was against Poland in a mountain range for some reason).
So he was lying about running a respectful campaign. Imagine my surprise.
So he was lying about running a respectful campaign.
That might be one of Obama’s best avenues of response. Start an ad with tape of McCain promising a respectful campaign, then ask, “Whatever happened to that guy? I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”
You aren’t really suggesting that Sen. Obama’s campaign is any more “respectful” are you? Negative ads work. Everyone knows it. Everyone does it.
You aren’t really suggesting that Sen. Obama’s campaign is any more “respectful” are you?
I am.
Well, actually it’s more of a declaration or an observation than a suggestion, but other than that, yes.
Some days the entertainment on this site is outstanding. Whatever you guys are smoking you should pass it around.
From the October 2 Boston Globe:
“While most polls show that voters believe John McCain is running a more negative campaign than Barack Obama, a new count out today suggests they are running nearly equal numbers of negative TV ads in local markets.
Nielsen Media Research says that from June 3, when the Democratic primaries ended, through Sept. 7, the most recent reporting period, the McCain campaign ran 76,238 negative ads against Obama, and the Obama campaign placed 75,246 negative commercials against McCain.
Viewers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have been barraged by the most negative spots, Nielsen said.
McCain’s most-aired negative ads criticized Obama on taxes, spending, and foreign oil and domestic drilling. Obama’s went after McCain on the economy, the Iraq war, and the housing crisis.”
Did the Globe’s analysis include counting how many times each candidate was telling the truth?
Didn’t think so.
You seem to be setting up “negative” and “respectful” as opposites, Hedley. Why is that?
Negative ads can still be respectful. McCain’s ad regarding Obama’s vote on the sex education bill was not respectful. Has Obama run an analogous ad to that horrible, misleading McCain ad, Hedley?
No? OK then. Get a clue.
I still see the Harvey Korman character in “Blazing Saddles” every time Hedley posts.
And you guys are right. There is a major difference between “negative” and “disrespectful.” Hedley’s problem is that McCain gives us so much more ammo to be “negative” about, without being “disrespectful.”
Political ads tend to come in two types. Those that praise your candidate and those which criticize the other. I prefer to use the word “critical” rather than “negative” when describing the latter type. I find calling ads “negative” makes them too easy to just dismiss (“Oh, it’s just a negative ad.”) when the criticisms the ad makes may be quite legitimate.
In any event, the real question should be: When McCain and Obama have criticized each other in their ads, who has been more truthful?
[...] by McCain’s “newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character”. Oliver Willis writes: “Did anyone with even half of a brain not see this coming?…McCain is going to [...]