I have been at a loss for weeks to explain the McCain campaign’s current strategy, which seems to be comprised of three steps: 1.) Say nothing of importance. 2.) Criticize your opponent for saying nothing of importance. 3.) Focus on your opponent’s positives, and try to turn them into negatives, instead of actually pointing to his REAL negatives or you candidate’s real positives.

That last one is a particular favorite of Camp McCain, though I still don’t see why. Check out this ad, and reflect briefly on your own impressions before reading further.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/oHXYsw_ZDXg&hl=en&fs=1]

After years of every foreign flag-burning being broadcast on cable news, isn’t it actually a bit nice to see a potential American president being greeted with fanfare? And since when is it bad to be popular? And in a culture that literally WORSHIPS celebrities (Britney and Paris, shown in the ad, among them), is it a good thing to suggest that your opponent is one, too? I suppose they’re aiming to make McCain look “real” and Obama look “fancy,” but I think they’d be better off sticking with their earlier (and more appropriate) tack — that for all his talk of Hope and Change, Obama is nothing more than a typical politician.

In fact, isn’t the allure of Obama that he’s NOT a typical politician, but something very other? If so, why point out his otherness? Then the old bit about gas prices, as if John McCain has been fighting for the average driver all his life (and not fighting for preservation of ANWAR, to the consternation of his fellow conservatives).

The longer McCain’s advisers let him ramble on about Obama’s lack of leadership without giving people a fluid, full-course explanation of how he’d make the country better — and standing in front of lime-green backdrops or cluttered grocery aisles or fly-infested interviews — the better for Obama.

Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 12.18 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.