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McCain's Gift to Obama: "I'm not George Bush"

October 16, 2008, 6:57AM

Virtually all media observers thought that Senator McCain got off "the line of the night" when he told Senator Obama that he, McCain, is not George Bush. Hearing that line told me two very different things. First, poor media coverage (ideological blinders aside) reflects a profound misunderstanding of the difference between an assertion on the on hand and the presentation of evidence on the other. Second, attempts to "make this a horse race" notwithstanding, Senator Obama should have a very good next few days.

Pre-debate, I wrote that one of the problems with coverage is that media tend to weigh comments not by substance but by the frequency of repetition (hence "No, I'm not" and "Yes, you are" are treated, just like in elementary school, as neutralizing one another). By anyone's estimation, Senator Obama has, for months, been assembling and deploying a mass of evidence to demonstrate that Senator McCain fundamentally follows the philosophy of President Bush. Yet to the media, trotting out the set piece of "No, I'm not" is the same as demonstrating that one is not. On the central economic issues, McCain proved that, indeed, he is Bush redux (we can't have any of that redistribution of income away from the wealthy; we need to continue tax policies that redistribute income to the wealthy.

Just as Richard Nixon's infamous "I am not a crook" defense ultimately did not help him, McCain's "I am not the President with the lowest approval rating" will not help him, either. The more attention the media give to "the line of the night," the more the Obama campaign will have the opportunity to say, "Well, let's talk about that."

And that is exactly what the Obama campaign should want to be doing.

2 Comments

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The MSM may be behind the curve. I'm thinking that people were more receptive to sound bytes when the good times were rolling.

Now that they are economically besieged by gas prices, food prices, job worries, shrinking IRAs, etc. they are finally paying attention to the man that can offer more than just a zinger.

Posted by Donal
October 16, 2008 8:48 AM | Reply | Permalink

See new Obama ad -- 90% -- up this a.m. complete with clip of McCain's so-called best quote of last night.

Short take: Yes, you are...

Posted by Jade7243
October 16, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink

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Craig Gurian is Executive Director of the Anti-Discrimination Center. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham Law School where he teaches "Housing Discrimination: History, Demographics, Law, and Remedies" and "Employment Discrimination: Law, Practice, and Policy." Mr. Gurian is also a Scholar-in-Residence at Fordham Law's Stein Center for Law and Ethics. He was Legal Counsel to a sister civil rights organization in the successful effort to pass a comprehensive Nassau County Fair Housing Law in 2006; was the principal drafter of New York City's Local Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2005; and was the principal drafter for the Commission on Human Rights of the comprehensive 1991 revisions to the NYC Human Rights Law. Publications: "Judicial Activism in the Service of Privilege: New York's First Department Makes Special Rules for Special Defendants," 71 Albany Law Rev. 369 (2008). [http://www.albanylawreview.org/articles/ Gurian.Publisher.pdf] "Using Local and State Legislation to Preserve and Expand the Ability of Fair Housing Organizations to Prosecute the Discrimination They Uncover," Harv. L. & Pol'y Rev. (Online) (October 2007), [http://www.hlpronline.com/Gurian.pdf.] "A Return to Eyes on the Prize: Litigating Under the Restored New York City Human Rights Law," 33 Fordham Urb. L.J. 255 (2006). [http://www.antibiaslaw.com/Eyes.pdf] "Adding Insult to Injury: Housing Discrimination Against Survivors of Domestic Violence" (2005). [http://www.antibiaslaw.com/DVReport.pdf] "Let Them Rent Cake: George Pataki, Market Ideology, and the Attempt to Dismantle Rent Regulation in New York," 31 Fordham Urb. L.J. 339 (2004). [http://www.antibiaslaw.com/cake.pdf] "At The Crossroads: Is There Hope for Civil Rights Law Enforcement in New York City?" (2003). [http://www.antibiaslaw.com/crossroads.pdf] Principal author of "It Is Time To Enforce The Law: A Report on Fulfilling the Promise of the New York City Human Rights Law," 57 The Record 231 (Summer, 2002). All comments represent Mr. Gurian's individual views, expressed in an individual capacity, and are not intended to convey, and should not be interpreted as conveying, the views of any of the entities referenced above.

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