OK, so this is a little bit immature, not very objective, and makes only a minimal contribution to the Great National Debate.
On the other hand, I enjoy dark humor.
My Republican Party.
After all, the Pilgrims really didn't need a social safety net.
Showing posts with label political ad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political ad. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
McCain's Final and Dumbest Mistake, or a Misreport
I don't know if anyone has seen or heard about this report by David Kiley over at BusinessWeek. Hopefully, by now we've all seen or are aware of the negative ad run by the McCain campaign that falsely claimed that Obama canceled a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week because the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring reporters.
Kiley writes:
The first is that if this is true -- if this "ad script" exists, if McCain was even vaguely aware of this strategy, I think the race might be effectively over for him. Putting aside my personal feelings for a moment, and considering just the political ramifications, this plays extremely badly, and right into the worst possible narrative for John McCain at the worst possible time. It is the naked, absolute, height of political cynicism and negativity. I think Jon Q Voter will react viscerally and negatively toward it, and I don't know how you win them back. This is ethical bankruptcy in its most obvious form, and it's not even hard to explain or understand.
The second point is that I have to question the veracity of this strategist's claim. Everything I wrote in the previous paragraph is utterly predictable. Though I believe some campaigns are capable of actually doing something this diabolical (perhaps even McCain's), I simply have a hard time believing that this was anywhere approaching a formal strategy. I think it is more likely that someone from the campaign was making a barroom boast to the effect of, "we'll get him either way", or that this GOP strategist was simply conjecturing what they believe McCain camp would have done had Obama gone through with the troop visit. It's very difficult for me to swallow that this ever rose to the point of formal discussion of any kind, much less that preliminary work was undertaken to execute such a strategy.
I'm assuming we'll know in the coming days. Stay tuned.
Post Script: To quote Will Ferrell -- am I taking crazy pills or something? Though I've seen the story mentioned on a couple of lefty blogs, it hasn't gained any serious traction anywhere. How is this not a big deal? I don't pretend to have my finger perfectly on the pulse of American media or public, but I guess I seriously misjudged the inertia of this. If anyone has ideas about why this isn't an issue, or at least why the Obama campaign isn't indirectly making it one, I'd love to hear them.
Kiley writes:
What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was...wait for it...using wounded troops as campaign props.After talking about it with my friend DB, a fellow political junkie, I think there are two salient points.
The first is that if this is true -- if this "ad script" exists, if McCain was even vaguely aware of this strategy, I think the race might be effectively over for him. Putting aside my personal feelings for a moment, and considering just the political ramifications, this plays extremely badly, and right into the worst possible narrative for John McCain at the worst possible time. It is the naked, absolute, height of political cynicism and negativity. I think Jon Q Voter will react viscerally and negatively toward it, and I don't know how you win them back. This is ethical bankruptcy in its most obvious form, and it's not even hard to explain or understand.
The second point is that I have to question the veracity of this strategist's claim. Everything I wrote in the previous paragraph is utterly predictable. Though I believe some campaigns are capable of actually doing something this diabolical (perhaps even McCain's), I simply have a hard time believing that this was anywhere approaching a formal strategy. I think it is more likely that someone from the campaign was making a barroom boast to the effect of, "we'll get him either way", or that this GOP strategist was simply conjecturing what they believe McCain camp would have done had Obama gone through with the troop visit. It's very difficult for me to swallow that this ever rose to the point of formal discussion of any kind, much less that preliminary work was undertaken to execute such a strategy.
I'm assuming we'll know in the coming days. Stay tuned.
Post Script: To quote Will Ferrell -- am I taking crazy pills or something? Though I've seen the story mentioned on a couple of lefty blogs, it hasn't gained any serious traction anywhere. How is this not a big deal? I don't pretend to have my finger perfectly on the pulse of American media or public, but I guess I seriously misjudged the inertia of this. If anyone has ideas about why this isn't an issue, or at least why the Obama campaign isn't indirectly making it one, I'd love to hear them.
Monday, July 28, 2008
McCain Ad Reactions
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo Media had this post talking about MSM response to McCain's most recent ad. Sadly predictable I guess. It's hard to see how it's a good thing when media outlets go out of their way to be fundamentally uninforming.
I should mention that if you're unfamiliar with TPM you really should check it out. When I first began regularly reading political blogs a couple of years ago TPM was among the first ones I read, (on the advice of my friend Van Dorn). I've barely missed a post since then. Josh Marshall is, in my opinion, the most insightful person writing blog commentary anywhere on the web.
I should mention that if you're unfamiliar with TPM you really should check it out. When I first began regularly reading political blogs a couple of years ago TPM was among the first ones I read, (on the advice of my friend Van Dorn). I've barely missed a post since then. Josh Marshall is, in my opinion, the most insightful person writing blog commentary anywhere on the web.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
McCain's New Ad -- A reader comments
Reader pw writes:
Nevertheless, and perhaps it's just my political disposition, I can't really imagine someone who had genuinely not decided who to vote for using this as the basis for hopping over to the McCain side of the fence. It might work the last week of October, but with over three months until the election? It just seems like too much time for Obama to expose the ad for what it objectively is: a disingenuous slander.
It also begs the question of where does McCain from here? Will those aforementioned late October ads make veiled references to a secret Obama/Bin Laden sex tape?
On a more serious note, I believe this strategy originated from the fairly decided change in tone HRC embarked on in the middle-end of the primary season, and which it could be argued yielded some results. The difference of course is that the primary season is a lot more fluid. You get a very limited amount of time to craft a message (be it yours or your opponents) and then you move on to address the dynamics of a completely different electorate in a completely different state.
McCain seems to be working here to build an anti-Obama narrative unencumbered by much consideration of actual events. But then, considering his campaign week was highlighted by cruising around with Bush Sr. in a golf cart while Obama was speaking in the Tiergarten, reality really isn't getting McCain very far. What's sad is that there are probably people who will see this ad and believe it uncritically - hopefully, most of them are just having pre-conceived notions reinforced.In my opinion, this is where media coverage so often falls flat on its face. Issues such as the veracity of McCain's ad claims are far too often presented as a dichotomy, e.g. McCain's interpretation is X, while the Obama campaign is arguing Y.
Nevertheless, and perhaps it's just my political disposition, I can't really imagine someone who had genuinely not decided who to vote for using this as the basis for hopping over to the McCain side of the fence. It might work the last week of October, but with over three months until the election? It just seems like too much time for Obama to expose the ad for what it objectively is: a disingenuous slander.
It also begs the question of where does McCain from here? Will those aforementioned late October ads make veiled references to a secret Obama/Bin Laden sex tape?
On a more serious note, I believe this strategy originated from the fairly decided change in tone HRC embarked on in the middle-end of the primary season, and which it could be argued yielded some results. The difference of course is that the primary season is a lot more fluid. You get a very limited amount of time to craft a message (be it yours or your opponents) and then you move on to address the dynamics of a completely different electorate in a completely different state.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
McCain's New Ad
Viewable here. Wow. Tough to know where to start. Probably the claim that most deserves comment is the "he made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras". As has been widely reported (here's a good summary by Andrea Mitchell) this claim could barely be further from the truth.
Politically, this really seems like flailing to me. I don't know how this doesn't alienate independent voters. It creates a back-and-forth that seemingly has to favor Obama because the claim itself is just nonsense. Anyone that would be predisposed to believe that a major party presidential candidate could actually have this level of callousness for active duty troops, not to mention such a complete lack of political savvy (and believe me, these people do exist) would never have voted for Obama anyway. This illustrates the point I made yesterday -- that this is fundamentally counter to what should be McCain's core message. This simply doesn't seem presidential. McCain needs to be actively acquiring new independent and on-the-fence voters, and I don't see how this helps. This ad utterly lacks any degree of subletly. McCain at some point is probably going to have to answer questions about this ad, and I don't know how that exchange is going to make him appear as anything other than petty and dishonest.
Politically, this really seems like flailing to me. I don't know how this doesn't alienate independent voters. It creates a back-and-forth that seemingly has to favor Obama because the claim itself is just nonsense. Anyone that would be predisposed to believe that a major party presidential candidate could actually have this level of callousness for active duty troops, not to mention such a complete lack of political savvy (and believe me, these people do exist) would never have voted for Obama anyway. This illustrates the point I made yesterday -- that this is fundamentally counter to what should be McCain's core message. This simply doesn't seem presidential. McCain needs to be actively acquiring new independent and on-the-fence voters, and I don't see how this helps. This ad utterly lacks any degree of subletly. McCain at some point is probably going to have to answer questions about this ad, and I don't know how that exchange is going to make him appear as anything other than petty and dishonest.
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