Likability isn't as much of a factor in Presidential elections as people like to make it - but it's undeniably a factor. There's a comfort zone that people take into account. This is why is was slander on the part of the media to make Al Gore so unlikable compared to W.
What's rare here is that the likable guy also has an attention to detail and a head for policy.
From a purely economic perspective, finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical. There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy.
I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security and drives our economy, that's going to be my number one priority when I get into office, assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation.
This is just incredibly perceptive and I'm glad Obama has picked up on it. Something as simple as energy efficiency in California has created 1.5 million new jobs in the past 30 years. Energy connotes productivity, it connotes a cleaner environment, and it gives us what we need to maintain our power as a society - something to MAKE. We have to notice the inter-connectedness of all of this.
What I hope is that he also has the ability to make his policies meet the challenges ahead. In other words, will he leverage his likability to push people toward the policies we truly need.
Yes, this is funny. McCain references John Murtha's comments about Western Pennsylvania being "a racist area" to a crowd near Pittsburgh and says "I couldn't agree more," and recognizes his mistake and funbles all over himself trying to get out of it.
This is the kind of stuff people beat up Bush for. And while McCain isn't the brightest bulb, there are a host of these kinds of innocent misstatements by Sen. Obama as well. I think we have to reassess the notion that Bush is stupid because he mangles his sentences a bit. It's not necessarily an indication of intelligence. Presidential candidates are on the road non-stop for close to two years, in the modern era. They eat like crap. They sleep on planes, if at all. They're tired as hell. They're going to make some mistakes. Either side can choose to harp on them, or they can choose to recognize the reality of saying millions of words in front of large audiences and TV cameras. You're going to screw up every now and again.
Bush's stupidity is about judgment and stubbornness, not occasionally messing up a speech he didn't write. Same with McCain.
Another "lone wacko" says exactly the same thing at a McCain-Palin rally as the other "lone wacko." Funny how it seems so coordinated, like it's an expected response to fearmongering and incitement.
There were no incendiary outbursts from the crowd about Mr. Obama during Mrs. Palin's speech, as there have been during other recent McCain-Palin rallies.
However, someone did shout out, "Kill him!" during Republican congressional candidate Chris Hackett's remarks before Mrs. Palin took the stage.
The outburst came during a round of booing from the crowd after Mr. Hackett said Mr. Obama should come to Pennsylvania and learn what the state's values are.
I think we have to be clear where this is all going. We've seen this kind of hate before in America - it's a part of our legacy. And by running their campaign in this way, McCain and Palin aren't making it more likely they will win - the attacks are simply driving up their unfavorables. They are making it more likely that their supporters will be angry and resentful and hold the grudge long after Election Day - and more likely that they will take matters into their own hands.
Color of Change and Brave New Films put this together to show the accumulation of these remarks, and words can become action without much effort.
I mean, I suppose I could go ahead and mention that the guy running McCain's transition team lobbied for Saddam Hussein, and that means John McCain himself murdered our troops and gassed the Kurds. And if I were Barack Obama I could run an entire campaign based on that, suggesting that McCain was a risk because he's associated with radical figures. And he bombed the South Africa rugby team (man, I thought I kept up on all these Obama rumors and even I missed that one).
But that would be horrible for America, you see. It would debase the office to which I was trying to ascend. It would make it impossible for my supporters to accept my opponent if he were to win. It would debilitate the country.
There's nothing wrong with a politics of contrast on the issues; in fact, it's vital. The politics that tries to win through scare tactics and causing riots, for all intents and purposes, is beneath contempt.
Barack Obama Just Doesn't Understand Ordinary American Racists
Barack Obama had a few words today for the increasingly eliminationist tone of McCain campaign rallies.
I think that folks are looking for something different. It’s easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that’s not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious. The challenges are too great. The American people aren’t looking for someone who can divide this country – they’re looking for someone who will lead it. We’re in a serious crisis - now, more than ever, it is time to put country ahead of politics. Now, more than ever, it is time to bring change to Washington so that it works for the people of this country that we love.
So the McCain campaign tries to pivot into some backlash politics as a response, but it's an awkward flail that pretty much makes no sense at all:
"Barack Obama's attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn't understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo.
"Even worse, he attacks anyone who dares to question his readiness to serve as their commander in chief in chief. Raising legitimate questions about record, character and judgment are a vital part of the Democratic process, and Barack Obama's effort to silence and shame those who seek answers should make everyone wonder exactly what he is hiding."
I mean, this is just pathetic. Obama responds to calls to "Kill him" and instances of rally mobs yelling "Terrorist!" and "Treason," and he's attacking them? Also, it's kind of hard to imagine McCain claiming that Obama "doesn't understand regular people and the issues they care about" when his own aide thinks the stock market dive isn't worth talking about:
McCain didn't talk about the stock market yesterday, and didn't put out a statement on it, while Obama did both, and McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was asked about that on a conference call (about Acorn!) this afternoon.
"There’s very little a candidate for president can say and very little the president can say about what’s happening in the stock markets except hope that they correct themselves," Davis said, adding that McCain's mortgage plan could be an "elixir" for the financial crisis [...]
The campaign, he said, shouldn't become a "CNBC news show on the stock market."
People aren't worrying about their life savings dropping into the toilet, after all, they're far more concerned about Weather Underground bombings in the late 1960s.
I guess that McCain tried to calm the masses today, but you can't put the genie back in the bottle. He unleashed these forces and he's ultimately responsible for them.
But then something weird happens: He acknowledges the "energy" people have been showing at rallies, and how glad he is that people are excited. But, he says, "I respect Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." People booed at the mention of his name. McCain, visibly angry, stopped them: "I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and lets make sure we are."
The very next questioner tried to push back on this request, noting that he needed to "tell the American the TRUTH about Barack Obama" -- a not very subtle way, I think, to ask John McCain to NOT tell the truth about Barack Obama. McCain told her there's a "difference between record and rhetoric, and I plan to talk about his record, respectfully... I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity, I just mean it has to be respectful."
And then later, again, someone dangled a great big piece of low-hanging fruit in front of McCain: "I'm scared to bring up my child in a world where Barack Obama is president."
McCain replies, "Well, I don't want him to be president, either. I wouldn't be running if I did. But," and he pauses for emphasis, "you don't have to be scared to have him be President of the United States." A round of boos.
And he snaps back: "Well, obviously I think I'd be better. " [...]
UPDATE: Indeed, he just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, "I'm scared of Barack Obama... he's an Arab terrorist..."
"No, no ma'am," he interrupted. "He's a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements."
Tough beans, John. You lost your honor quite a while ago. No redemptions.
Dan Balz looks like a complete idiot for trying to balance the character attacks from the Barack Obama campaign and John McCain campaign, as the crowds of screaming hordes at McCain rallies sink deeper and deeper into the sewer.
"He promised higher taxes on electricity," McCain charged at the event in La Crosse, Wisconsin. "He voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 a year." At that point, the woman yelled "traitor," and both McCain and his wife Cindy appeared to look in her direction.
The Arizona Senator continued with his stump speech without referencing her.
There is nothing ingenuous about this. McCain and the RNC are raising the Bill Ayers issue every chance they get, and top surrogates are calling Obama "a guy of the street". The ugliness is widespread and the demonization is palpable.
Thursday's debate took place in front of a highly partisan crowd in the GOP stronghold of Middle Georgia.
Chambliss supporters waved "Saxby" signs and offered up a sustained "boos" when Martin mentioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
"Bomb Obama," one woman hollered.
I don't buy the hand-wringing from the McCain campaign for one minute. They're trying to make this a question of Obama hiding his true self, but given that he failed to disclose his own ties to the radical right-wing US Council for World Freedom, given that Sarah Palin has deep roots with secessionists and radical extremists in Alaska, given that Charles Keating, who bilked the US government out of billions, wrote a mash note to McCain in the 1980s pronouncing "I'm yours until death do us part," the idea of secrecy and character is one of true projection. Not to mention the fact that linking Obama to Ayers is ridiculous, so says THE PROSECUTOR OF THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND.
They are trying to make Obama illegitimate and unfit, and doing it in the nastiest, most dangerous way, practically inciting his supporters to riot. It's got saner people lamenting this lynch mob mentality.
"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Senator Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Senator McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."
He endorsed John McCain in the presidential primary, but now former Republican Gov. William Milliken is expressing doubts about his party's nominee.
"He is not the McCain I endorsed," said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. "He keeps saying, 'Who is Barack Obama?' I would ask the question, 'Who is John McCain?' because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.
"I'm disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues."
It's not just a dangerous path that McCain is walking down, it's one devoid of honor. And if he winds up with blood on his hands, may he never forget it.
This is just getting uglier and uglier. When Fox News has to admit that McCain rallies are taking on the character of a Mississippi lynch mob, you know something's wrong.
You’ll hear the booing behind me. In recent days, when Barack Obama’s name has been mentioned, it has gone from boos and hissing to actual chants and calls of traitor, criminal, and even terrorist.
The McCain campaign says they don’t condone it, they don’t want to see it happen, but it’s happening more and more every day.
They don't condone it, they just stoke it like a camper poking at a fire.
After a week of McCain supporters being incited to shout "kill him!" and "terrorist!" and "treason!", a man in Louisiana was arrested for threatening to kill election officials. The Smoking Gun has his arrest report and mug shots. It seems his voter registration card was delayed, and he was insistent that he would bring his shotgun to their office and kill them if they didn't hurry up because he needed to "keep the n*gger out of office."
We're entering a dangerous time and the McCain campaign will have some measure of responsibility for this, though they won't take it. And America will have a "hoses in Montgomery" moment when forced to reckon with this.
Right now, all we have is a war of words. But as McCain slips slowly into irrelevance and Obama pulls ever further ahead, we see that, at two major rallies today for the Republican candidates, audience members yelled out that Obama is a terrorist and that he should be killed (or maybe that Bill Ayers should be killed, hard to know from the context, but when you're talking about someone approving of murder in the presence of a Republican candidate, it's a distinction without a difference).
The right has made a cottage industry on whipping up their side into a frenzy, demonizing liberals, blaming them for every ill of society and ramping up that rhetoric louder and louder until it takes on the full appearance of eliminationism. And as much as the conservative noise machine gets all wounded and indignant when you say this, such rhetoric doesplay itselfout into actual acts of violence.
Pfotenhauer’s invocation of abortion clinic bombers in defense of McCain is ironic given that McCain has repeatedly voted against protecting Americans from domestic terrorists in the anti-choice movement. On multiple occasions throughout his career, McCain sought to limit the government’s ability to punish violent anti-choice fanatics by:
– Voting against making anti-choice violence a federal crime. As the Jed Report notes, McCain voted in 1993 and 1994 against making “bombings, arson and blockades at abortion clinics, and shootings and threats of violence against doctors and nurses who perform abortions” federal crimes.
– Opposing Colorado’s “Bubble Law.” McCain said he opposed Colorado’s “Bubble Law,” which prohibited abortion protesters from getting within 8 feet of women entering clinics [Denver Post, 2/27/00]. The law was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
– Voting to allow those fined for violence at clinics to avoid penalties by declaring bankruptcy. NARAL Pro-Chioce America notes that McCain “voted to allow perpetrators of violence or harassment at reproductive-health clinics to avoid paying the fines assessed against them for their illegal acts by declaring bankruptcy.”
It should be unsurprising that the McCain campaign is stopping reporters from mingling in their crowds - maybe it's for their own protection. But riling up your base and demonizing your opponent to this degree - calling him un-American, for example - is bound to have consequences. Especially when we're about to head into a protracted economic downturn and it will be blamed on liberals, gays, Hispanics, Arabs and black people, not necessarily in that order.
Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."
I hope they understand the consequences of their actions.
I'm reminded of that line by Charles Grodin in Midnight Run, "You guys are the dumbest bounty hunters I've ever seen!" This gambit is so easily mockable, so silly, that it's impossible to take it seriously, especially since the McCain campaign doesn't take it seriously by virtue of their still actively working.
And then there's the threat to skip the debate. It is the height of disrespect to the office to suggest to try and cancel a public event like this. There have been far worse times in American history where campaign events continued to be held. Presidential campaigns and events have been held during the Civil War, WWII, even the Great Depression. Now, there is precedent of a candidate skipping a debate, but it's not exactly good precedent for McCain - Jimmy Carter dipped in the polls as a result. (How about John Anderson's energy policies?)
And I truly believe that David Letterman's mockery, his catching McCain in a lie by seeing him give an interview to Katie Couric when he said he had to rush to Washington and cancel his appearance on the talk show, is the beginning of the end for McCain. He's become a national joke. You can't dig out of a hole like that.
I'm suspending the rest of this final sent-
...UPDATE: His website and Google ads are still up as well. This is all based on the media not noticing that McCain hasn't suspended the campaign.
The financial system is a mess. We're about to spend trillions, plural, on paying off super-wealthy executives who made terrible decisions. This is the result of nonexistent oversight and deregulation as well as a policy of expanding inequality and stagnating wage growth, all of which has been championed by John McCain and the Republicans for decades. And Barack Obama knows it.
[McCain] said that he is calling for the firing of the Security and Exchange Commissioner. Well I think that is all fine and good, but here is what I say: In 47 days, you can fire the whole Trickle-Down, On-Your-Own, Look-the-Other-Way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don’t just get rid of one guy, get rid of this administration, get rid of this philosophy, get rid of the do-nothing approach to problems and put someone in there who is going to fight for you.
So what is John McCain to do? Take Karl Rove's advice and lie his head off.
A day before the Arizona Republican began criticizing Barack Obama for taking economic advice from former Fannie Mae executive Frank Raines - a dubious claim that was challenged even by the source who first reported it - the former Bush strategist urged McCain to do just that.
During an appearance on Hannity and Colmes on Wednesday, Rove outlined what he thought would be the best counterattack for McCain to launch the opposition's way: mainly, tie the current financial and housing market crisis to the Democrats and play guilt by association with Obama.
"I do think that McCain and Palin ought to identify that the source of this contagion, the thing that started these dominos going down was the misbehavior of Fannie and Freddie, who I would remind you are the biggest part of the bailouts," he said. Earlier in the program, he had specifically brought up Raines' name in this context.
A day later, McCain echoed Rove's advice. On Thursday evening, the Senator's campaign released an advertisement declaring that Frank Raines was an Obama economic adviser. "Shocking," declared the ad, citing the mismanagement that occurred under Raines' reign, as well as his large compensation package. Shocking, indeed. The Associated Press and other news outlets reported hours later that the claim was not honest. Raines had even told a senior McCain aide, in a private email, that he was not an Obama adviser.
Nevertheless, Rove's charge made its way into Friday's speech as well, where McCain criticized Obama again for turning to Raines, but also for initially tasking Jim Johnson, another former Fannie CEO, with heading his vice presidential search committee.
He is, without a hint of shame, attacking Obama for having connections with two former Fannie Mae executives. At the same time, one of McCain's top policy advisors, Charlie Black, was lobbyist for Freddie Mac for 10 years, while his campaign manager, Rick Davis, lobbied to help Fannie and Freddie steer clear of additional federal regulations (which, obviously, would have been pretty helpful in retrospect).
But wait, there's more. Tom Loeffler, who served as McCain's campaign co-chairman, also lobbied for Fannie Mae. Aquiles Suarez, a McCain economic advisor, was a Fannie Mae executive. Dan Crippen, a McCain advisor who helped craft the campaign's health-care policy, lobbied for Fannie Mae (and Merrill Lynch). Arthur B. Culvahouse, who helped lead McCain's VP search committee, also lobbied for Fannie Mae. In all, McCain has 19 people who are either advisors or fundraisers who lobbied for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
And voters are supposed to be outraged because of Obama's connections to Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson? Why would McCain even start on this subject at all, making the argument that ties to Fannie/Freddie are scandalous, given his own associations?
The point is that this is a dodge. Fannie and Freddie's problems are the result of a larger inattention to the practice of letting anyone with a pulse have a mortgage, and then banks leveraging themselves to the eyeballs to gamble on these people. McCain is vulnerable on the economy and he expects people not to know the intricacies of this byzantine crisis, so he's lying. Again.
What's more, it's a distraction. Instead of having an argument on how we got here and what needs to be done to get us back on our feet, we get inscrutable attacks like this:
My friends, this is the problem in Washington. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to challenge the system. That isn't country first, that's Obama first.
Does anyone know what he's talking about? Gaming the system?
This is the classic Chewbacca defense, a distraction to keep people off balance. At this point, it's McCain's only chance of winning the election. I don't think Obama will bite.
McCain starts speaking 18 minutes into the rally. He begins by reminiscing about the State Fair. "I'm very grateful to be here. We intend to campaign hard across the state of Iowa again...I think we're going to be up late on Election Night, my friends, and we're going to need your help."
I look up, about five minutes into McCain's address and see a steady stream of people walking out of the rally. They just came to see Palin apparently.
The hard-core wingers want their tabula rasa gal at the top of the ticket. The problem for them is that she's divisive and her charm is fading. Markos is right - the intense focus on her made sense to drive up her negatives. Now that the financial ship has hit the iceberg, thoughts turn back to McCain, and his own party faithful don't want to hear from him.
This week we've seen a brand-new Barack Obama, one who has seized the moment when leadership was needed and struck powerfully to indict those responsible and set himself up as someone who has the intelligence and character to change things for the better. It's kind of crazy how he's gone into overdrive this week.
Obama keeps hitting McCain on his claim that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," and, in what sounds like a suggestion that McCain is befuddled, repeats a now-standard stump line: "They sent him back a few hours later to clean up his remarks."
Obama also quoted McCain's vow to take on the "old boys' network" in Washington, adding:
The ol' boy network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting.
And this confidence has shown through to another solid ad on energy.
When this election is about issues, as it is this week, Obama wins hands-down.
I remember doing stand-up comedy and walking into large venues with 8 people in them and having that sinking feeling. I imagine John McCain had that same feeling today.
John McCain returned to the campaign trail on Monday, only this time without his popular vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin. The results were somewhat less than enthusiastic. As reported by MSNBC's First Read, the Republican presidential nominee addressed a crowd of roughly 3,000 people in a stadium that seats 16,000.
The pictures, however, tell many more words. The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena where McCain spoke had large swaths of sections entirely empty, an American flag draped over the seats.
Jacksonville, by the way, is about as Republican as it gets while still being in Florida.
If the GOP could flip the ticket, they would. Which says a lot about the GOP.
John McCain is fond of saying that his nasty, divisive campaign would have been all sunny and keen if only Barack Obama had joined him for weekly town hall meetings on the road. That would have made the campaign entirely civil, and there wouldn't have been any accusations that Obama wants to teach sex to kindergardeners, I guess. This would be more compelling if McCain hadn't stopped giving town halls himself lately.
For a candidate who once railed against “stale soundbites, staged rallies and over-managed messages,” John McCain seems to have turned over a new leaf.
Today marks the four-week anniversary since McCain held his last press conference (8/13 in Birmingham, MI) and three weeks since his last public town hall meeting (8/20 in Las Cruces, NM).
McCain’s new campaign strategy: staged rallies with thousands of supporters. Since announcing Sarah Palin as his VP choice on August 29, McCain’s has appeared at 11 rallies with his new running mate where both members of the ticket delivered a 10-15 minute stump speech.
And all the rallies have come with Palin at his side. In fact, when she returned home to Alaska yesterday to have her celebrity interview with ABC (the thing's going to look like an Olympic profile, it'll be embarrassing), McCain tried to fly solo and delivered a performance more reminiscent of a local committeeman, which is actually insulting to local committeemen:
After lunching with a roundtable of women at Philadelphia’s Down Home Diner, McCain shook hands with supporters and strode up to a podium to deliver a statement. But as he spoke, chants of “Obama, Obama, Obama” filled the room.
Reporters craned forward trying to hear the Arizona senator. Unfortunately for McCain — and possibly overlooked by aides who planned the event — a section of the diner opened up to a market where a crowd had gathered behind a cordon.
A large contingent of Obama supporters showed up, mixed with some who had bumper stickers reading “Democrats for McCain”.
“It’s time to leave the talk behind and start shaking up Washington and fixing our economy, taking care of the problems facing our families. We’re going to give a tax cut to every family with a child,” he said.
His words were barely audible.
McCain’s supporters shouted “John McCain”, “John McCain,” “John McCain”. The duelling chants nearly drowned out the presidential hopeful’s voice.
“Pennsylvania is a battleground state as we can tell,” McCain said.
Among other things, that's just horrible advance work. The Reading Terminal Market is clearly open-air, and Philly is Obama country. It was obvious that they'd crash the party.
But clearly, McCain is lost at sea without Palin, and his handlers are planning more joint events because it's the only way to draw some excitement. This isn't a big problem now, but it really does cut your campaign time in half. I know some people are wondering if Joe Biden has dropped off the planet, but the fact is that he's campaigning apart from Barack Obama, as most Vice Presidents do, instead of being joined together like the McCain-Palin ticket. Obama and Biden are covering far more ground, and we'll see if that makes them more effective.
Guys, here's what the traditional media is going to be talking about for the next day. We have to be prepared for it and know how to respond to it.
Today at an event in Virginia, Barack Obama mocked the McCain-Palin ticket's notion that they will change Washington. He didn't refer specifically to Gov. Palin, he didn't refer to the line she used in her convention speech about hockey moms and pit bulls. He simply used a common idiom.
"That's not change," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said of what Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is offering. "You know, you can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, "but it's still a pig."
The McCain campaign is going to try to frame this as a sexist remark.
Jake Tapper decided to make the connection for everyone, no doubt prodded by the McCain spin machine. He specifically connected the "lipstick on a pig" remark to Palin, despite it being an expression. Later in the same riff, Obama says that "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' but it's still gonna stink after eight years." Is that anti-marine life?
Ben Smith picked up on this too, claiming that "The crowd apparently took the "lipstick" line as a reference to Palin," because I'm sure he asked them all. The crowd certainly wasn't cheering simply because it was an accurate line, that McCain and Palin are a couple of liars, and that's a common phrase used to show someone trying to put a veneer over their true beliefs. Marc Ambinder has pushed back a bit on this, asking incredulously, "Suddenly, common analogies are sexist?" He also found instances of Obama using the phrase in other contexts. And there's also this:
McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.
"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.
There's no doubt that this is going to turn into some giant controversy, and it's COMPLETELY MANUFACTURED. Robert Gibbs has already responded to Tapper by saying "That's an old expression," which it is. Believe me, if there was a sexist remark made by Obama or one of his surrogates, I'd be the first person to jump on it. This ain't it.
The goal here is not to badger the McCain campaign off of this: they have no honor and no shame, and will try to ram this down everyone's throat. The goal here ought to be telling the traditional media that they should give this exactly the attention it deserves, which is none. This is the kind of tailor-made manufactured story for the daytime talking heads to cackle over. We have to demand that this is removed from our politics.
UPDATE: Obama has responded to this hissy fit:
"Enough is enough The McCain campaign's attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy – the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run," said Obama campaign senior advisor Anita Dunn.
Dishonor appears to be a theme that the Obama campaign is trying to push. More on that in a bit.
Where I absolutely agree with hand-wringers and message mavens alike is that the Obama campaign ads have been poor. That's not because they don't attack McCain or they don't tie him to Bush; it's a question of style. Even the ones which have done a credible job from a content perspective are not innovative, getting bogged down with the same statistics and one-line shibboleths ("protecting our economy") that pass for policy debate instead of offering a vision or a compelling narrative. I'm not completely opposed to presenting factual information (the "McCain will overturn Roe" ad was great), but in Obama they have an appealing candidate with unappealing advertising.
The Olympics ad that showed time-lapse footage of a house being built as a metaphor for getting the country back on track was a start, but there were all these stock images over the house-building and the reveal of the finished house at the end wasn't up long enough, so that completely ruined it. It's the perfect example of how over-cautious and wedded to the old ways of political ads the campaign has been, even in the primaries (with a few exceptions).
Creatively their spots are dead. They say the right things but in the wrong way. The campaign has to cut through the clutter. Nate Silver has a couple ideas, one of which I like.
During the final night of Democratic Convention in Denver, the Obama campaign had seven or eight 'ordinary' people speak to the assembled crowd at Invesco Field. They were working class, middle-aged white and Hispanic voters, who conveniently all happened to be from swing states. But they were actually pretty persuasive, and produced some of the more moving moments of the convention:
So I would put together five or six of these spots, featuring these people or people like them speaking directly to camera, with interspersed images of their hometowns and their families, reserving 5 seconds at the end for a few phrases on blackscreen:
"The Obama Economic Plan" "Tax Cuts for Working Families" "5 Million New Green Energy Jobs" "Health Care for Every American" "The Change That We Need"
You get the idea. It's a little unconventional but would be buzzworthy and would seek to counter some of Palin's homespun appeal.
You could do this in an entertaining and appealing way. Failing that, I think one of the best things they can do is feature Barack himself. He's the best message originator we have, and the riffs he makes on the campaign trail scream out for 30-second television ads. Instead of having him talk to the camera in a spot, just replay one of those riffs. For example, this one from today.
This will have the effect of actually offering some passion to the message. There's no passion in his ads right now. They're largely a litany. And so another possibility is this ad they cut internally for the DNC, which could be made into a 60-second spot. It has an emotional appeal, although that could be because I quite like the song (Fake Empire by The National) and is a positive way to push back on the "community organizing" slur. At some level I understand why the campaign is running away from the "movement" messaging in the general election, but I think it's a mistake. If turnout and motivating the base is crucial, then something like this could be very successful.
Lastly, they could get out their core message on Sen. McCain in ways that go beyond citing statistics and a list of policies. You can fit them in to something that actually has a storyline, like this anti-Norm Coleman ad from the DSCC:
There are a number of ways you can go. Liberals have the creative communityon their side but the campaign isn't putting it to use, and the 527s have been defunded. Everyone talks about how the Obama campaign has reawoken some spirit of taking the country back and putting us on a better path. You wouldn't know it right now from the ads. Do better.
...adding that I don't presume to know better that Obama definitely "needs to do X," in fact I recoil from those imperatives. But as a member of the creative community, it seems like a real wasted opportunity, particularly because they have the ability to get this done. I also agree that if they end up blowing this one, Democrats might want to consider dissolution.
UPDATE: As soon as I wrote this, I noticed this new ad, which is somewhat better:
At least the music is a little jarring, and some of the graphics are not totally standard. Overall, however, my criticism stands. Tell a story. Go off the omniscient voice. Add some passion.
To a man, everyone on the liberal blogger side of the aisle was stunned that the McCain campaign would allow the TV shot to go out to the world on his big night to be him in front of a lime green background. Cottage cheese and lime Jello, in the vernacular of the blogosphere. Surely they WATCHED the shot through a monitor and knew that it would make him look sickly.
But that's not the only head-scratcher with the RNC staging, which the set designers had months to organize. The giant screen was useless outside of the room, always putting the speaker at the podium behind monochrome, or worse, in the East River (in Rudy Giuliani's speech). Putting the seats for dignitaries along the side of the stage was OK, but the white line across the boxes designating them looked to the TV angle like the seats were empty, in a wide shot. And then there's this, which is absolutely amazing.
A lot of people were asking tonight: what the hell was that mansion up behind John McCain tonight during the first part of the speech? As I noted below, the TV close-ups only showed McCain's head against the grass in the picture, which made it look like he was reprising his famed green screen performance. And when they panned out, it looked like McCain was showing off one of his mansions.
Well, several readers have written in to tell me that the building is actually the main building on the campus of the Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California. And sure enough, this page on the school's website makes it pretty clear that they're correct.
Could this be? Could the producers have wanted a shot of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and they farmed it off to the intern who picked Walter Reed MIDDLE SCHOOL? I mean, is that possible? None of the consultants and muckety-mucks charged with picking the backgrounds know what Walter Reed looks like? As Josh Marshall says, "is this the RNC or a scene out Spinal Tap or Waiting for Guffman?"
You know, it wasn't so long ago that these guys were the pros at this. Say what you will about Mission Accomplished Day, putting Bush in that flight suit was brilliant theater. Where did those people go?
It's a lot easier for the Democratic candidate to do his job when the media glare is off of him and onto Hurricane Sarah. But there's a very specific reason for Obama's post-convention bounce, captured by atleastfournew polls. Let's break it down.
1) Have a pitch-perfect convention. Despite the abominable media coverage of the event, the DNC carried off very well. Over 38 million people watched Obama's prime-time address, one of the few unfiltered moments, and the reviews were very favorable. He framed the message of the campaign - that John McCain represents another four years of the same - skillfully, and put meat on the message of change by specifically citing where he would take the country. The other speeches and events reinforced this theme.
2) Mind your business. With all the Hurricane Sarah stuff flying around, Obama has wisely stayed completely out of that conversation, explicitly warning the press to "back off" all these reports about the Vice Presidential nominee's pregnant daughter, a move that earned him praise across the political spectrum. There's no need for him to pile on to the Palin stuff - she's doing a perfectly good job of defining herself, and in the negative.
3) Bring everything back to the core message. Instead of attacking Palin, Obama has relentlessly attacked McCain - and explicitly tied him to George Bush. Here's ad number one:
The "more of the same" message appears at the end of every ad and inside every speech.
Finally, look how Obama rhetorically used yesterday's near-miss of Hurricane Gustav as a launching pad to talk about the "silent storm" of workers displaced, struggling and suffering while Bush-McCain economic policies offer them nothing (it's implicit message here, but it's undeniably present).
All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People in need of just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves, but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so, the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf, that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.
4) Do you job. In addition to messaging the McCain-Bush connection, the Obama campaign is not pollwatching, not putting together their tactics based on short-term political advantage but based on winning those 18 battleground states, based on raising their segment of Obama voters and moving the underlying data, based on registering and contacting as many potential voters as possible, based on meeting targets, and knowing that the game plan, if adhered to, will be successful. While DC insiders were trying to apologize for poll numbers a couple weeks ago, the Obama campaign ignored them - and did their work.
This is why those undecideds are collapsing, with many moving in Obama's direction. Those undecideds were probably decided anyway, but getting contact from the Obama campaign, hearing a message of change, a message of a break from Bush, without stepping into the Palin mess, and a clear direction of where the country ought to go has unquestionably sealed the deal for a lot of people, who won't be coming back out of that column. We focus a lot on what the other side is doing wrong, but I think we have to hand it to the political team that's getting the past two weeks right.
In the end, voters are schizophrenic. They want specifics beyond a change message and then they also say that they care more about character than issues. What this distills down to is that voters want to see the cues of how you run your campaign as a proxy of how you will run the country. And Obama is delivering. Talking about specifics over soaring rhetoric was as important as the specifics themselves. Using points of contrast with Bush-McCain instead of making anything out of Hurricane Sarah was a window into the man's character. Running a tight ship concerned with meeting numbers and registering voters instead of erratically freaking out about the latest fad from minute to minute displays confidence and competence. There are non-verbal cues that Obama is tapping into here, and the results are unquestionable.
UPDATE: When Obama's campaign was asked to address the elephant, or rather the elephant's VP pick, in the room, they kept the focus on John McCain. They could have thrown in the fact that he wasn't allowed to pick his on VP candidate because the Christianist wing of the party has held him hostage, but I'm not going to quibble. This is good stuff:
“The way the process was done should be of interest to voters because I do think it speaks to how things will be managed and executed as president,” said David Plouffe, who manages the Obama campaign. “At the end of the day, it may work out for them, but the process is a transparent moment for voters to decide how these two people will go about major decisions." [...]
In an interview here on Tuesday, Mr. Plouffe said voters should instead judge Mr. McCain for what he called an “impulsive” decision to choose Ms. Palin, who has served as governor of Alaska for 20 months. He said Ms. Palin’s governmental record in Alaska is fair game for examination in the final two months of the campaign, but not her family.
“You have to assume that when you’re making this pick – if something happened to you – you are choosing the 45th president of the United States,” Mr. Plouffe said. “And it’s a big decision.”
UPDATE 2: Bill Burton hit the other half of this earlier in an interview about Joe Lieberman with Fox News:
BILL HEMMER: That is our lead tonight. Fox has learned that Joe Lieberman will give a speech, quote, like no other in primetime this evening. He's campaigning for the person he considers his best friend in the U.S. Senate, John McCain. How will democrats react when one of their own is onstage in primetime? Bill Burton is the Obama campaign national spokesman. How will democrats react? BILL BURTON: I think that what he would have done is not just have Joe Lieberman give a speech but put him on the ticket like it is reported that he wanted to. He didn't, apparently, because he is beholden to the right wing interest in his party. I think folks ought to know that. Yes, Joe Lieberman is speaking but the reason he is speaking instead of on the ticket is because there's a choice in this election between Barack Obama who is for a woman's right to choose and John McCain who wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade to the point he kept Joe Lieberman off the ticket. HEMMER: We were pointing a built earlier today -- let's dissect this, ok? The Lieberman camp is saying that he is putting country before party, which is the same thing with John McCain and country first. Is this an age of cynicism? Could America use a few more Joe Liebermans? BURTON: I think that America could use some more leaders who didn't back George Bush's catastrophic policy and didn't support George Bush's tax cut for the top 1% like Joe Lieberman and John McCain do. There is a real choice in this election. I think the speakers tonight help to show what this choice is. HEMMER: Is he going to be treated differently after this? BURTON: Well, look, I think when people know what senator Lieberman's politics are, and know that he has been in lockstep with John McCain when it comes to things like tax cuts for the wealthy, when it comes to George Bush's foreign policy, especially in Iraq, and so I think that people know where he's been and where he stands, but the bottom line is, you know, last week we had some great Republicans who spoke at our convention. We had Susan Eisenhower, we had former Congressman Jim Leach speak, and we had the mayor of Fairbanks. HEMMER: But this is primetime. This is the national audience. This is 10:30 eastern time. You can't get a better slot than that, Bill. BURTON: Sure, I understand what you're saying, but like I said, if John McCain really wanted to show he's the maverick he purports to be, he wouldn't just have had Joe Lieberman giving a speech. He would have put Joe Lieberman on the ticket, but he was forced not to by the right wing of his party. HEMMER: Thank you Bill Burton from the Obama campaign.
The Republican soccer ball trick of picking an unknown for Veep, along with the coming destruction of New Orleans, has tended to obscure the event at Invesco Field on Thursday night. Well, I'm going to step back from that trap this morning and take a close look at Barack Obama's opening argument for the general election.
In many ways it was the intro video that did a lot of heavy lifting, portraying a real American story, all of which are unique. This is a man whose strength of intellect and talent in connecting with his fellow man has brought him to this moment, and whose determination and belief that he could achieve was paramount. The bio showed Obama's highs and lows (the death of his mother, for example) and set the table for his sharing in suffering, middle class concerns and values.
Then there was the speech. You can follow along:
It started with the typical nods to his fellow candidates, his running mate and those who helped him to this point. The theme was the American promise, the ability for us to come together in common effort and establish that equality of opportunity and the chance for everyone to pursue their dreams. And then, he spoke some truth.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
That was really the key moment and it went right up front. The target was not John McCain but Republicanism - the rank stew of cronies, anti-government zealots, warmongers and economic royalists who have held the country in contempt and used the treasury for profit-taking over the past eight years. This open of the speech, tougher than anyone expected, had an anger to it, a sadness at the direction of the nation, and a fortitude to take it back.
Even the section on McCain wedded him to Republican failures.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives – on health care and education and the economy – Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors – the man who wrote his economic plan – was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
The YOYO society was something Hillary Clinton talked about a lot in her campaign. It's powerful. It's succinct. And it's correct. This was a Democratic speech, one that understands the role of government to improve people's lives, to work for all Americans instead of against them, that honors work over wealth. This section also got out a lot of information about McCain, on taxing health care benefits as income, on seeking to privatize Social Security. This is the stuff of future ads and mailers. And there was a brilliance in tying the economic hardships and struggles to his own personal story, and showing how government brought him and those in his life to where they are today by providing programs to help them realize their goals.
Rather than shying away from specifics, Obama then launched into a long section identifying exactly where he would divert from current policy. His tax plan (cuts for 95% of Americans, tax fairness and balance ), his energy plan (a legitimate all-of-the-above strategy that includes a few elements I don't like - clean coal, nuclear - but seeks to end all importation of oil from the Middle East in 10 years and invests massively in renewables), his education plan (investment in early childhood education, college funding-for-service plans, higher pay for teachers), his health care plan (affordable and accessible care for all, paid family leave and sick days), and many more got a mention. He put a few Republican-friendly ideas in there (streamlining bureaucracy, parental responsibility), but the domestic policy was committed to Democratic ideals of fairness, equality, opportunity, and the common good.
On foreign policy, he sought to distance his judgment from McCain's. Which is very right. The line about how "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won't even go to the cave where he lives" worked very well. I find the "Iraq has $79 billion dollars and we have deficits" talking point to be kind of distasteful - the idea that they have to fund their own occupation and reconstruction when we destroyed the country is myopic. The overall talk is tougher and more Biden-like (his influence shows here) - I think it's a little disconnected from the traditional liberal internationalism that we all expect from Obama. There's a different audience for Presidential acceptance speeches, and that's fine, but I'm disappointed that Democrats seem to have to rhetorically bring the head of the enemy on a platter for all to see to prove their toughness and defense credentials. There was a fleeting reference to "restoring our moral standing" that needed to be bigger.
I thought this was a solid section:
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
I also appreciated how he took the hot-button issues of abortion, guns, gay marriage and immigration head-on, in a common-sense kind of way, defusing them as issues by finding the space where everyone can agree. America's promise stems from what makes us similar instead of different.
Then, he basically outlined the McCain electoral strategy in a direct and almost dismissive way:
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what – it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
The speech ended with a long reference to Martin Luther King's march on Washington 45 years ago, a march that was for jobs as much as freedom and justice and equality, a speech that talked about our togetherness, our need to walk as one for the dreams we seek. Obama's speech was a unity speech, a call to unite as Americans and finally restore the promise that has gone so unfulfilled under Republican rule. It was tough but also inspirational. I didn't agree with every word of it, but I understood it to be the words of a leader.
I am a film and video editor, stand-up comedian, and blogger. My editor resume is here. A sample of my stand-up is here. The blog is what you're reading right now. Wasn't that easy?
View blog reactions
