The Power Of Sustained Mockery

What made the Paris Hilton joke video work was that it didn't take McCain seriously. And over the last couple days, neither has Barack Obama. "I'm looking forward to this debate between John McCain and John McCain" is a pretty good line, and while I also like this hard-hitting attack:

Instead of offering a comprehensive plan that will lower gas prices, the centerpiece of his entire energy plan is more drilling. It’s a proposal that won’t yield a drop of oil for at least seven years, but it’s produced a gusher for Senator McCain. Because after he announced his drilling proposal to a room full of oil executives, the industry ponied up nearly a million dollars in contributions. That’s the kind of special interest-driven politics that’s stopped us from solving our energy crisis. And that’s why Washington is broken.

The mocking tone is what's going to cut through the clutter here. People who don't want to do the work to learn the candidates' positions are ALWAYS going to say they want to hear more substance - that happens every year. We still have a media that refuses to give a crap, so the playing field is very narrow. Mockery that circles back to the core narrative (old politics, past vs. future) is going to be more effective. I thought MoveOn's Web ad was pretty solid in its own right:

MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group that has been strangely quiet this campaign season, will release a new Internet ad tomorrow, mocking Sen. John McCain for calling for Congress to return to Washington to pass energy legislation despite the fact that he has missed a string of high-profile energy votes in the Senate while campaigning.

With Willie Nelson singing "On The Road Again," McCain shouts, "I hear Congress just went on vacation for five weeks. Tell 'em to come back and get to work." Then the add repeatedly points to an empty seat in the Senate as the vote on energy that McCain missed are flashed on the screen.

"You tell 'em, John," the ad concludes.

What sucks is that this ad isn't running nationwide, because Obama de-funded the outside groups and asked them to stand down. He won't do the hardest-hitting character attacks, so the space is very empty on that front. I think it's a mistake.

But in the absence of character broadsides, I'll take mockery that makes the same point and leavens it with humor. The left has caught up to the right on this online, but at the highest levels of the political space this is still asymmetrical. We cannot have a snark gap.