Posted on 08/02/2008 5:15:35 PM PDT by Red Steel
When is the McCain campaign going to get serious? It seems to be marking time with softball ads, more appropriate to the soundbites campaign media spokespeople exchange with one another than to strategic paid media hits. One ad talks about how the media loves Obama. Another mocks him as a celebrity. Each throws pitty-pat punches, far short of the kind of knockout blows one would expect from a presidential campaign. Were I a donor to McCain's campaign, paying for these pathetic spots, I would demand a refund. Or sue for malpractice.
Yet despite this softball nonsense, Obama remains vulnerable, no better than two points ahead despite the bounce from his overseas trip.
Are the McCain people waiting for September to get serious? If so, they are making a big mistake and missing an important opportunity. History indicates that the best time to beat a new candidate is in the summer. August to be precise.
Dukakis, Mondale, and Kerry all were destroyed in the summer, long before the fall campaign began. In 1984, the offensive against Geraldine Ferraro crippled Mondale well before Labor Day. In 1988, the pledge of allegiance, revolving door, and Willie Horton ads all ran in the summer. Dukakis was dead by September. And the swift boat attack on Kerry defeated him well before the summer was over.
McCain needs to make voters afraid of Obama. Not, as he suggests self-servingly, by emphasizing that he "doesn't look like all the other presidents on dollar bills," but by hitting him on the two fronts where it would really hurt -- the economy and national security. Obama's inexperience and the wildly liberal proposals he has made in his primary campaigning, both set him up for a crippling blow this month.
Oil drilling is an issue, but it does not provoke the fear that the McCain campaign needs to elicit to win. It's just an issue disagreement with bad consequences for the nation. Obama's position on the issue is not a recipe for national disaster.
But his tax plans and their likely economic consequence are very much a plan for catastrophe. Doubling the tax in invested capital, and ratcheting up the top tax bracket to an effective 60%, will plunge the nation into a real depression. Not a recession or a downturn or a correction or a slowdown. A depression. McCain needs to hammer this point home again and again and again in his advertising. He has to put top level economists on television talking about what the Obama tax program will mean to America. Obama is suspect as an ideological liberal, anyway. And nobody thinks he has the experience to be a good president. So the potential to scare voters by accurately elaborating what his tax plans will mean to the entire country -- not just the rich on whom the burden will directly fall -- is enormous.
When Obama says he will only tax the rich, it's like saying he won't shut down the entire ship, just the engine room. If McCain just talks about Obama's tax program in the abstract, most voters will shrug and note that the tax hikes won't really apply to them. Only 2% of Americans earn more than $200,000 a year and only 6% make more than $100,000. But if McCain explains the economic impact of Obama's tax proposals on all Americans, he will score points and could score a knockout.
The national security offensive should have two parts. First, McCain's ads should portray Obama as naive. By taking off on his comment that Iran is a "tiny country" that couldn't hurt the US much, he can show how the Democrat is not prepared to cope with the serious national security problems which will face the next president. The more the crisis with Iran ratchets up, the more dividends this approach will reap for McCain. But, as with the argument of an impending depression if Obama wins, McCain needs to begin the argument now and let it pile up by the fall.
Secondly, McCain should take Obama's proposed changes in the Patriot Act and show how they would weaken us in the face of domestic terror threats. Don't let the liberal media fool you. Bush's domestic security initiatives are very popular. How will Obama explain his legislation to notify suspected terrorist groups seven days after Homeland Security begins an investigation of them? Or how will he explain his opposition to the wiretapping that saved the Brooklyn Bridge from destruction. McCain needs to paint Obama as weak on homeland security.
This race is there for the winning, but McCain is using his paid media ads as mere press releases, touching on the events of the day without really using them as a strategic tool to destroy Obama. He needs to start doing so now.
Dick Morris?
Dick Morris.
Save the heavy stuff for October for the rat nominee whoever it is.
I am sure not waiting for McCain and co, some may have already read this, but I’m hoping other come up with observations that support Obama’s lack of intellegence,
There are a few reasons why to suspect Obama has Attention Deificit, the criteria for ADHD symptoms from;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder
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1. Often forgetful in daily activities.
Example: Obama says he doesn’t pay much attention to McCains campaign adds, yet he knows what isn’t in them,
.
2. Often has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities.
Example: Joe Bidens observations;
Biden wasn’t always defending Obama...
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/17/1204594.aspx
On Aug. 1, 2007, when Obama unveiled his counterterrorism agenda, the Biden camp fired off a snarky email congratulating him for his “Johnny-come-lately position” on Afghanistan, noting that during two Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Afghanistan and other subjects, Obama didn’t ask questions about the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or Afghanistan.
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3. Often forgetful in daily activities.
Example: Obama says “ahhhhh” all the time when he isn’t scripted
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4. Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn’t want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
Example: Obama stayed less than 1 day in Iraq to study what was happening on the ground
*
Yes, that one. He engineered Clinton’s demolition of Bob Dole before he ever got started. August is a good time. Besides at the rate Boma is raising money ($50 million a month) McCain better get ‘er done now.
He compared Obama to Britney and Paris...
How much more serious can he get? /sarc
That is a very good statement.
I think Morris is off-base here. Remember Dukakis in the tank? Ridicule of a candidate is very effective when the candidate is vulnerable to it.
Right. Morris’ argument about Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry being taken out in the summer omits the fact that their nominating conventions were held in July, not late August as this one.
Dick Morris should rewatch The Godfather. In the immortal words of Jack Wolz, “A man in my position can’t afford to be made to look ridiculous.” That’s just what McCain’s people are doing to the haloed one. Morris should know better.
Once he is the official ballot nominee, it's too late to switch him out (or perhaps not, this is the Dems we're talking about)
Who listens to Dick Morris...he’s got all the answers every day....always different....usually contradict his previous pronouncements.....nice tastings toes thought
Remember, a converted Dem vote is worth 2 (TWO) conservative votes.
He continues this way, Obama will go down like NO candidate in history.
Obama will beat himself. McCain just has to look reasonable and American.
Pathetic spots?? Eye of the beholder, I guess. McCain’s ads seem very impressive to me, and they’re hitting Obama where he’s most vulnerable.
As for August being the time to knock out Obama, wouldn’t Morris LOVE to see Hillary get back into the race. Puts him back in demand as a common tator.
I can scarcely believe the GOP luck that the Dems are saddled with Obama as a nominee. I actually stayed up some nights worrying that Clinton would snatch victory from him, and thus from McCain in November (maybe).
We should wait ‘til Obama is safely nominated. Any more press conferences like he did this morning, and he might not be!
For a while there, it seemed like Dick Morris was developing a mind. But if he wants Obama discredited beyond repair NOW, he surely knows who’d benefit from that:
Hillary Clinton.
HAve you seen this?
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