Thursday, July 31, 2008
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John McCain Can "Win Ugly" if He Sticks With The Program ....
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
8:27 AM
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For the first time this general election cycle, John McCain is driving the message. The reason? There has finally been, I believe, a tacit admission that John McCain cannot win a beauty contest against Barack Obama -- but that he can "win ugly" -- as they say in football. Like it, or not, this assessment is valid. But it could be hard to swallow for McCain, a candidate who likes to be popular with the media, himself.
No doubt, this strategy is the result of the promotion of Rovian adviser Steve Schmidt. It will be decried as "negative," but as they say, "politics ain't beanbag." Rove managed to win two elections doing exactly what Schmidt is now attempting, and at the end of the day, it's merely a smart political strategy, which in my opinion is philosophically neutral. You play the hand you're dealt.
This strategy is similar to what happens when a football team decides they can't win a game against a glamorous quarterback -- unless they make the game "physical." Here's how it works; If your team has the flashy quarterback, you want the game to be about that. But if you're playing against that flashy quarterback, your strategy is to rough-him-up, and keep him off-balance -- so he never becomes comfortable in the pocket.
Of course, this will draw criticism -- which McCain should promptly ignore. You wouldn't criticize the Redskins for employing this strategy to beat the Cowboys, yet political candidates are often held to different standards. Still, according to the analogy, Obama is that dainty but flashy quarterback. McCain must put him on the ground in order to win. Fair enough.
Sadly, some Republican talking heads -- and former McCain advisers -- are criticizing this strategy. In my estimation, these folks should shut up. One piece of advice the McCain folks ought to adhere to is to simply not allow these naysayers to influence his team's message and strategy. It will be curious to see whether or not McCain, himself, will have the ability to stick with this strategy long enough to see it to work. If he gives into the criticism, in my estimation, he has lost.
Ironically, it is the air war that will allow McCain to defeat Obama. It is no coincidence that McCain's advertisements -- not the candidate's speeches or rhetoric -- that have been most successful at creating this narrative. Unlike the unexpurgated candidate, McCain's ads have finally settled on a general theme -- that Obama is out-of-touch. It is doubtful the candidate will be as disciplined as the ads.
Yesterday's ad portrayed Obama as a "celebrity" like Britney and Paris. This is a fine opening salvo, but it will only work if it is merely one facet of a larger narrative about Obama's image. If the McCain folks are smart, they will hit him today with an ad on the Ludacris rap. Clearly, this offensive rapper casts Obama as out-of-touch with most Americans. Critics who deride the "celebrity" ad as puerile are majoring in the minors. They should realize this one ad is merely part of a larger strategy. You can't make everyone happy with every message of the day, but the larger narrative is what matters.
This is not going to be pretty, but the election is going to be a referendum on Barack Obama, like it or not. The real question is whether or not McCain, himself, has the stomach to allow his team to run this sort of campaign. Winning will probably mean that he is viewed by the media as having "changed" and gone "negative."
McCain has often said he would rather "lose an election than lose a war." My question is whether he would rather lose an election than lose his popularity with the media elites. To beat Barack Obama, he can't have both.
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I am fine with them settling on a message, and personally, I think negative attacks are useful, because they do point out flaws. However, I agree with Ramesh at the Corner, and the adviser Marc Ambinder interviewed. His ads have come across as juvenile, but it isn't too late to really strike up a narrative about the hubris of Obama, McCain just needs one thing: better advertising.
http://seanfucious.blogspot.com |
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McCain's ads. I think people try to read more into them than is intended.
Just like the media and bloggers appear to have not noticed the great humor in McCain's stops at all things German while Obama was delivering his sermon in Berlin.
I think the GOP needs to highlight what is in this article more than anything:
"The few who have drilled down on his radical roots have tended to downplay or pooh-pooh them. Even skeptics have failed to connect the dots for fear of being called the dreaded "r" word.
But too much is at stake in this election to continue mincing words.
Both a historic banking crisis and 1970s-style stagflation loom over the economy. Democrats, who already control Congress, now threaten to filibuster-proof the Senate in what could be a watershed election for them — at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.
Those who care less about looking politically correct than preserving the free-market individualism that's made this country great have to start calling things by their proper name to avert long-term disaster."
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=3021373424 05551
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Obama must be beaten, but McCain has to eliminate the childish ads that don't think things through. Fox reported today that in checking FEC records, Paris Hilton's father and mother contributed the maximum to McCain's campaign. I have no problem with the McCain campaign beating Obama over the head that this isn't some popularity contest. Heck, the ad in which Tucker Carlson talks about a teenage crush and in which Dick Morris and some other serious ADULTS appear is excellent. But leave Paris Hilton and Britney Spears squarely in Obama's camp.
Paraphrasing a line from Sean Connery in "The Untouchables," I suggest that McCain decide "what he's prepared to do" to win the election. He doesn't need to go falsely negative, but he needs to start drawing the stark contrasts between them. This country doesn't need wholesale change; it needs improvement. Obama is advocating a substantial change in the American way of life.
Today, if I were McCain, I'd spend much of the day ripping Obama a new one for accusing McCain of racism. I'd demand of Obama proof of that charge, and I'd insist on an apology for even suggesting it. In that regard, neither McCain nor his surrogates have come close to making fun of Obama's name or skin color. McCain should express his outrage and reiterate daily until Obama apologizes.
See the Jake Tapper article for a nice article taking Obama to the woodshed. |
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Could you imagine the out roar if the McCain campaign compared Barack Obama to some black hip hop artist like Jay-Z? Now that would be racist without something more. Oh wait, perhaps a song by Ludacris praising Obama and calling Hillary Clinton a female dog? http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=52f_1217434061&p=1 That is something the Obama campaign and its supporters are doing to themselves.
Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are being used as examples in the latest McCain ad because they have not done anything (the message is a lot of fluff and hype, but nothing of significance), not because they are sexually available white women. Plus Obama himself was the source for the Paris Hilton comparison: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/30/the-paris- hilton-comparisons/
Now personally, this amateurish RNC effort (why the Hasselholf comparison?) has a nugget of something McCain should use: dirty Berlin hippies going off on how their Marxist friends in America support Obama. Now that is red meat for the base! http://blip.tv/file/1125713
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If McCain wants to win this election he needs to rethink his stance of adoption by gays and his comment that children are best raised with a mother and father. Of course that may be true but it is hardly the norm anymore and he has just turned off a lot of single moms and dads not to mention the 6-8 million children of gay parents who have reached voting age.
http://kidsofqueers.blogspot.com/ |
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Even assuming that Obama and David Axelrod are not completely aware of who is running what attack ads for them, or that the campaign and DNC aren't coordinating it all to apepar to have it's hands clear, which would be as niave as believing that blowing up a powdered milk factor was going to scare the Terrorists straight, if your record and arrogance are issues, which they are, then they are fair game. Barack Obama made them issues the moment he started prancing around like he was the elected president of the world.
His utter lack of experience - including not holding one hearing on Afghanistan which the subcommittee he chairs has oversight on - is a HUGE issue. And everytime he opens his mouth and spouts one of these failed, and I mean proved really Godawful bad ideas that took decades to fix last time, he shows why experience is an important factor. He talks about his vison, that makes that fair game. Let's see, prices high, he doesn't want to increase supply... do they still teach basic economics at Harvard? Supply and demand? Cause it was required at the High School I went to twenty years ago and if it wasn't at Harvard, he might want to sue to get his money back. he wants to raise the effective costs for blue collar working stiffs, so maybe he needs a home economics lesson too...
This is ALL fair game, and if Barack Obama doesn't like it - and I can see why he'd see it as unfair since there is NO defense against his utter lack of experience or vision - then tough. Welcome to the big leagues. Could be worse, he could be in John Edwards's shoes. People start figuring out that the networks and major news outlets aren't running that story, you can kiss the value of his free ride in the press good bye and expect things to either start getting a lot rougher or having to get his arrogant self on to Bill O'Reilly a couple of times between now and election day. |
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"For the first time this general election cycle, John McCain is driving the message."
Really? Hmm. You would think that simply parroting the opposition's narrative isn't necessarily "driving the message."
"That's not change we can believe in." [cue creepy smile]
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The only hope the GOP has is a convention that produces a different candidate. |
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said it herself. The ad features two celebrities who have "done nothing." Well...if the shoe fits. |
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"Now personally, this amateurish RNC effort (why the Hasselholf comparison?)"
Hasselhoff is loved like Elvis in Germany. He is extremely popular and has been for at least twenty years. Hence, the comparison. |
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First - I COMPLETELY agree with Sean (1st post) McCain Camp needs to get a new ad-man. The two I've seen (Paris/Brittany and Gas-Pump ad) both come across a low-budget. Any WHY end the ad with Obama smiling?? Throw up a grumpy face... like when Rev Wright called Obama "a politician".
Some bubbling political bombshells:
1. Whitey Tape? Yes - it has been resounding crticized as a poor-taste rumor. But if GOP operatives had such a tape... do you REALLY think it would be released BEFORE the DNC convention? Such a bombshell would be better given to the public in October.
2. Leaked Prayer - several Israeli Newspapers have reported the Obama campaign leaked Obama's "private prayer" before he left the King David Hotel. With corroborating evidence this would further paint Obama as a manipulator.
3. "I am the symbol..." At a closed-door Congressional Pep rally Obama reportedly said that HE had become the symbol of America returning to it's best traditions. Having this on tape and airing it as evidence of Obama's messianic self-image.
4. Rezko. Under the MSM radar are on-going "deals" between prosecutors and convicted felon Tony Rezko. What golden political nuggets will come from Obama's relationship and personal land-deal that Obama described as "bone-headed"? |
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-- Get serious, and point out that you "won't make an issue of your opponent being a negro liberal with an Islamic name." Repeat. Repeat again. Repeat again.
-- Aim old. Since the black and youth demographic is wholly for Obama, write them off, and focus on the 50+ voters (they're also the ones who ACTUALLY VOTE). Shoot for this Buick-driver bloc with ads on the network news shows, and giving an exclusive one-on-one to the AARP magazine. Anywhere they advertise Viagra, Depends and prostate pills is where you want to be.
-- Aim for women voters. Tsk-tsk about how Obama and The Media threw poor Hilary under the train. |
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I thought the ads with Obama juxtaposed with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were A) hilarious, and B) hit the nail on the head. The incredibly biased attention the media is giving to "The Anointed One" is clearly hilarious given Obama has no proven record of leadership accomplishments. It's brilliant to exploit this angle, for it not only points out a truth, but it simultaneously gives people legitimate reason to doubt Obama. People can call the tactic "Rovian" all day. I don't care. The fact is that this narrative, if played long enough, could be precisely what brings Obama down and puts a more trustworthy candidate in the White House. The last thing this country needs is another Paris Hilton. |
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If Barack Obama's candidacy had substance - the ad would have seemed ridiculous and would not have raised any attention. |
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The Stupid Party
The RNC wants an amnesty candidate.
Don't vote for one.
Another amnesty will result in Democrat majorities for decades, or until they are supplanted by the La Raza Party, why doesn't the RNC know that? How stupid do you have to be to import voters for the opposition at the same time you alienate your own voters? Nominating any of the amnesty supporters is a losing proposition, we will not support them. If the GOP intends to surrender our sovereignty and abandon the rule of law, they will find in November 2008, that they still have their big money/cheap labor donors, but they do not have voters.
GOP-RIP
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The football analogy doesn't quite work in this context, Mark. The game of football is decided on the playing field, whereas the game of politics is decided in the bleachers, so to speak. In other words, the voters decide the winner, not the candidates. So bloodying up the opponent's star quarterback, to go back to your analogy, could generate some sympathy votes from the stands. |
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Sorry, Matt, for the typo! |
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Your article is absolutely spot-on. Permit me to extend it a bit.
The Britney-Paris-Europe ad did a very effective job of labelling Obama as an empty celebrity. He deserves that label. He earned it. The tour of Europe and the rockstar appearance at Germany's most important monument screamed empty rockstar. The speech that he gave at the German gate screamed empty idealism. Together, all of that screams "juvenile." So, Obama asked for the Britney-Paris connection. Why not give it to him?
Now, in a normal election year, one would expect Obama's juvenile antics to bring about his own destruction. But this is not a normal election year. The MainStream Media are firmly in Obama's grasp. They present Obama's juvenile events as worthy of praise: "see how the world loves him!" Some large number of voters respond positively to the MSM's praise. That element must be tackled head-on by McCain's strategists. Otherwise, McCain loses the election. The Britney ad did just what was needed. It said to the public and to the MSM, Obama's rockstar events are worth just as much as Britney's rockstar events. They are juvenile.
In any election, candidates must label their opponents in some negative way. In other words, you must encourage voters to recognize shortcomings and view them negatively. The hot air balloon that is Obama and the MSM must be popped. There is no alternative. The McCain campaign strategists created an ad that is a brilliant response to Obama and the MSM. |
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Personal reasons?
Silver State Bancorp reports $62.7 million loss in 2Q
Silver State Bancorp, $1.9 billion-asset holding company for the similarly named Henderson bank, reported a second-quarter loss of $62.7 million loss, compared with net income of $6.2 million for the second quarter last year.
The loss stemmed from the company's loan loss reserves increase and write off of the premium paid for a bank in Arizona.
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If you don't like the recent McCain ad...welcome to the world of politics! Who says that in an election year, all if always fair? It's not like Obama has never gone negative either. For me personally, I think it's a clever ad which communicates how a lot of people already perceive Obama - lots of style, little substance. What I find somewhat surprising (or maybe not) is the Obama camp's and the media's overall reaction to it. You would think they had never seen a political campaign before. It's almost like Obama's untouchable - their 'golden boy.' I mean, Hillary Clinton's campaign was 'dirtier' than this. Well, I'm glad McCain is finally taking the offensive (without being offensive) - and having a sense of humor about it :) |
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Every campaign pro worth his salt is working to help get someone elected. I am tired of seeing these articles by wannabes carping from the sidelines. If the vote were held today, McCain would win by the biggest margin in recent memory. Not half bad! |
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