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This is not your father's election
The 2006 mid-term election was a watershed moment. The negative attack ads that have become a republican staple surprisingly didn't work. Despite the republican mantra that terrorists would win if Democrats were elected, and the promise that the country would be in a shambles with a Nancy Pelosi congress, the country voted overwhelming for Democrats ensuring a Democratic majority.
Despite a long presidential campaign and our national reputation of having a low attention span, the public remains energized and is tuned-in to the issues, and this election is being followed very closely. We have seen record turnouts in the Democratic primaries in state after state, with multitudes of new voters registering as democrats. And we have witnessed record numbers in small donations to the Obama campaign.
In previous elections, the negative attacks and misleading ads that McCain is using would certainly have been effective, but thus far they aren't gaining any traction. Such ads rely heavily on an uninformed and uninspired public. Not only are McCain's negative ads proving to be ineffective, but with each misleading statement about Barack Obama, McCain is damaging his own straight-talk brand. Ironically, McCain's negative attacks have become more of a negative on him.
Comments (3)
Right on. John McCain barely disguises his contempt for Obama, if he does at all. It's a matter of time until that old man finally loses his cool, and hopefully on camera while disparaging Obama's race. or something like that. but maybe that's just a fantasy of mine. McCain has sold his principles down the river for political expediency and for the WH. he feels he deserves the presidency, although it doesn't work that way. the American people determine whom they want. the way McCain has run his campaign, attacking and distorting and flip-flopping, is just shameful, disappointing, and wrong. the McCain of 2000 would be ashamed of this older and more foolish version of him now in 2008. and wouldn't vote for him either. i'm sure.
July 29, 2008 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, the McCain of 2000 was the same foul-mouthed, womanizing, excessive drinker that hs had pretty much always been. I notice this about my friends and colleagues as we get older: we are not, in general, different from who and what we were so much as we are more of what we have always been. For a lot of us, that's a good thing. For others .... not so much
In his first election, for the House of Representatives, McCain's opponent pointed out that he just barely met the minimum residency requirement for Arizona. McCain snapped: "the only place I've lived longer was Hanoi!" Not even close to truthful, but it worked.
Mr. McCain is having to try really, really hard to smear Barack Obama while adopting many of his positions. It's a stretch. John McCain has not drawn a non-privileged breath in his life. Even as a POW, his offer of cooperation for medical treatment was enhanced considerably when he pointed out who his father was.
The sad thing is: there seems to be a possibility that the American People will be just as eager to accept the McCain version of the world as the Established press seems to be. Even his opponents feel the need to preface every response to his negativity and incivility with something approaching: "a war hero who has never stopped fighting against his country's enemies."
Not my father's election? true, but there are a lot of people my father's age, and even mine, who find this dreck attractive.
July 30, 2008 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the key for Obama is to point out that McCain is abandoning the kind of pricipled stance that gained him bipartisan respect in the first place, without seeming to disrepect him. So far its working, and I think the trip Obama just finished will go a long way toward burnishing his image as a leader.
I think there at least some middle-of-the-road voters who are swayed by concerns about his inexperience, and that trip will allow them to pick Obama with fewer reservations.
July 30, 2008 4:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
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