Posted on 08/03/2008 12:00:56 PM PDT by Publius804
McCain Forgetting the First Rule of Fight Club
By Salena Zito
An old political adage says, "He who sets the debate wins the election."
If the presidential election was held tomorrow, it would be hello President Barack Obama because, so far, John McCain is handing him a victory.
McCain is better than the campaign he has run so far. Most people admit that McCain is an inspirational figure - even Obama has admitted that - so why isn't McCain telling voters where he wants to lead them?
Instead, his campaign is all about his opponent.
"He himself is reinforcing that this campaign is all about Obama," says Democratic strategist Mark Siegel. "His ads and his message are all negatives. The problem with that is, it is driving his own negatives up as well."
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
The first rule (and second rule) of Fight Club is “You do not talk about Fight Club”, not “You do not talk about your opponent”.
That's a stretch.
Basically, the only two ways McCain can get press or air time is to talk about Obama or make a gaffe.
Go figure.
When the final 8 weeks begin after Labor Day, the McCain people will hit more than enough big issues to make the haloed one feel that he's awakened with the head of a horse in his bed.
Obama has the largest field operation in the history of American politics.
In Alaska, Obama has four field offices open (Juneau, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Palmer) to McCain’s none. In Montana, Obama had six offices to McCain’s none in July ...
In Virginia, Obama has a 20-6 field office edge, with as many as 60 expected to be open in the near future ... in each of Florida and Pennsylvania Obama is expected to have a minimum of 200 paid organizers.
In Wisconsin, Obama has 15 offices open now, with 24 expected to be open by mid-August. The staffers are directly paid by Obama’s “Campaign for Change” organization. By contrast, Republicans have five party offices open that handle both McCain field work as well as the state leg. races, which somewhat dilutes the effort.
Already there is staff on the ground in traditional battleground states, as well as a number of nontraditional ones. Current plans call for large-scale operations in at least 22 states, with medium operations in many, many others. But paid staff are just one small part of what campaign manager David Plouffe has described as “the persuasion army.”
From the July 19th edition of the Boston Globe:
“The climate has made millions of Americans who haven't been involved in a political campaign ever in their lifetimes very active,” said. “We estimate that 70 percent of our grass-roots volunteers haven't worked in a campaign before. . . . We're somewhere just shy of 2 million volunteers, and we think we can potentially triple that on Election Day.”
That would mean 6 million volunteers. For comparison, about 116 million people voted in the 2004 presidential election.
The Obama-Clinton battle set primary turnout records in state after state, and Hildebrand expects more of the same in November: “We think the turnout will be beyond record turnout, and if we're effective, we will have done two additional things - brought in millions of new people who are registered to vote and we will increase the percentage of registered voters who will turn out.”
To accomplish that, Obama’s campaign is assembling what would be the largest field operation in the history of American politics. Advertising and campaign communications will be important and debate performances will be critical, but the Obama campaign is investing heavily in the importance of organizing voters and getting them to the polls on Nov. 4.
... “This allows us to increase the volume of voters we're talking to and have it be done with people who live in their community,” Hildebrand said.
Veteran Democratic operative John Sasso of Massachusetts said that level of organization is “unprecedented on the Democratic side.” The Obama model, particularly in its use of the Internet as an organizing tool, is a significant upgrade, he said.
“People tend to believe information delivered by people they know and who live in their neighborhood more than an ad they see on television or what some third party from out of their state is telling them,” said Sasso, who supported Clinton in the primaries and has played key roles in many presidential campaigns. “It can really change the electoral map.”
Throughout the day today, we'll be looking at some of the many events that have been going on across the country as we begin to build out our ground operation. In many places, there are already staff and offices that you can connect with. No matter where you live, you can sign-up for updates on campaign activities in your area and connect with grassroots supporters in your community.
There is no better way to reach to voters than through face to face contact. What began in Iowa and South Carolina is now being replicated across the country. The largest field operation in the history of American politics presents an unprecedented opportunity for ordinary people to get involved. Per obama’s website.
He might have 6,000,000 volunteers in addition to hundreds of paid staff for get out the vote. Their minds are already made up, and the majority of these are new voters. Obama has the money to spend on driving his get-out-the-vote effort.
Agreed and all the Senate and House Pubs running should put out ads defining not only Obama but all 435 Dem socialist pacifists. A .30 second ad could do it with a simple list of 5 issues where Pubs differ with their opponents and the Dem Messiah.
Oh well, I vote no to either. Since I do not believe that McCain is in this to win, I will not vote for him.
Perhaps Pat Paulson
You’re right. Let’s tear him down so we can usher in the presidency of the second coming of Lenin. /sarc
I think the slaying of the Clinton “sopranos” by B.O., out of the blue, rattled everyone - McCain staff included, MSM, the left, the right - everyone.
McCain & Co needed some time to “process” this, rethink what happened, decide a strategy.
It’s not over yet
Washington lobbyist Mark Siegel
Siegel, a former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee and Deputy Assistant to the President in the Carter White House
During the 2000 presidential recount crisis, he was the on-air consultant to The Today Show on NBC.
During three Democratic National Conventions, Siegel served as political consultant to Walter Cronkite, acting as his analyst and spotter.
Siegel was the chief strategist of the Humphrey for President Campaign in 1972, the political director of the Democratic National Convention in 1976 and the Coordinator of the Draft Kennedy movement in 1980.
He has also served as speechwriter to President Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, and Prime Minister Henny Eman of Aruba.
Mark Siegel was a very close friend and confidante of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Their relationship spanned the past twenty-five years, during which time Mark served as her representative in Washington during the tenures of her two governments, was her speech writer, and worked with her on her historic speech before a joint session of congress in 1989.
What positives does McCain have to run on beyond the fact that he's not Obama? It seems to me that his being 'not Obama' is by far his best quality, so why should he not focus on it?
Frankly, I'd much rather have someone who could run a positive campaign, but I don't really see how Obama could do that.
While I believe that McCain's campaign thus far is pretty much as you describe, the fact is that the Obama campaign is even worse. The truth of this is attested to by recent polling.
McCain should have been buried by now, with all the advantages given the Dems thus far. Fact is, despite all these advantages, McCain is still in a dead heat. Ask yourself why?
the infowarrior
McCain has not given any reason why anyone should vote FOR him. You can’t just be against something or someone and win elections. You must be FOR something, and McCain so far has come up empty.
Remember 1980? 2008 is 1980 but this time the Dems will have the landslide. The polls during that election were pretty close, right up until Election Day, which turned out to be a blowout for Ronald Reagan.
McCain can’t even excite the GOP base less than 4 months from November. There is no way in hell he’s going to pick up the independent voters he needs to win.
As for the polls that steadily come out, they’re totally useless. Remember that it’s not the popular vote that wins (or we’d have President Al Gore for the past 8 years), it’s the electoral vote, and only the electoral vote, that counts. There are no “blue” states that McCain even comes close to picking up right now. Given the defections of the RINOS in states like NH, CO, NM, etc, Obama will pick up enough of those battleground states to win the 270 electoral votes needed to get the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Yep, liberal scumbag whining is always the best barometer.
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