Pants on Fire IV

St. Petersburg Times (Florida): "The Straight Talk Express has taken a nasty turn into the gutter. Sen. John McCain has resorted to lies and distortions in what sounds like an increasingly desperate attempt to slow down Sen. Barack Obama by raising questions about his patriotism. Instead of taking the Democrat down a few notches, these baseless attacks are raising more questions about the Republican's campaign and his ability to control his temper."

Comments

I know I've posted this a lot, but I think it bears repeating.

The McCain camp is willing to take its hits for being negative, but turning the GOP base against Obama is the only way they can consolidate it and get them out to vote.

This is step 1 in a long-term process.

http://strategy08.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/why-mccains-ad-strategy-is-brilliant-and-im-serious/

Posted by Dan | July 31, 2008 10:57 AM

Instead of taking the Democrat down a few notches, these baseless attacks are raising more questions about the Republican's campaign and his ability to control his temper.

The bitter old man-child is coming out. I wonder if he'll be able to keep his cool during the debates. I suspect the best he can do is be snide or condescending when he takes a hit, and he may start snapping. It would be pretty funny if he just blew his top.

No matter what, I can't see him keeping his composure when the heat gets turned up. He's petty, and it shows under pressure.

Posted by LFC | July 31, 2008 10:57 AM

I'd be a lot happier if this showed up in the news pages rather than as an editorial.

Posted by John H | July 31, 2008 11:12 AM

Dan,

The GOP base already hates Obama. They just don't like McCain. Getting them to hate Obama more may be the least bad option for McCain, but its not a winning strategy.

Posted by crack | July 31, 2008 11:14 AM

Dan, you're right. McCain is doing what he has to do - working, even at this late date, to try to consolidate his party's support.

It is what he has to do to have any chance of winning, but I sure wouldn't want to be worrying about consolidating my party's base as July turned to August, and my opponent had been appealing to the center for several weeks.

Posted by joe from Lowell | July 31, 2008 11:30 AM

Obama '08 should run an ad of a McCain lookalike peeing on himself. 'Cause that's what the little rat turd is doing.

Posted by Trevor | July 31, 2008 11:40 AM

I don't think East Coast yuppies (such as myself) are well-suited to imagine the effect of an ad campaign on, let's say, working-class folks in the rust belt.

Nevertheless, I would guess that a substantial cross-section of the voting public regards "manliness" as a significant character virtue when voting. If A punches B in the face several times in a row with no retaliation, on balance it looks like A is acting manly. I agree this is retarded, but let's not say the American public hasn't disappointed us before.

There are ways for Barack to turn this around, and perhaps turn McCain's attacking to his advantage, but it requires a much more vigorous response than "don't get scared at what they tell you about me."

You have to show your supporters why they shouldn't be freaked out, not literally tell them.

They need to tie this strategy around McCain's neck. Make it a part of his character. Get the press asking him direct questions about how he feels about his own ads. Make it impossible for him to fire his campaign manager/ad man and disown this strategy later.

Posted by mk | July 31, 2008 12:03 PM

I think with enough negative attacks the media narrative will turn against McCain, as you're seeing here The problem for McCain is that whatever effect on popular opinion launching these negative attacks have now, if the media narrative turns into McCain's negative attacks, he's f*cked. He already comes off as an angry old man. Sure he can consolidate his base this way, but his base really won't win him the election. Bush appealed to a lot of moderate voters out there that I think the super negative McCain is going to have a hard time appealing to. I think Obama is taking the right strategy by taking the high road. Sure it carries some risks, but McCain is really starting to turn the media against him, which is pretty remarkable, given his history.

Posted by mpowell | July 31, 2008 12:24 PM

How many times do I have to tell you people that the MSM will NEVER turn against McCain because the people who OWN that media want McCain as President?

The fact that this paper here or there runs an editorial denouncing McCain is going to have zero effect on the overall MSM support for McCain. Nobody ever said every single paper and TV station in the country is run by McCain supporters.

But enough of them are to make a difference.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 31, 2008 8:03 PM

I think some of us might be worried about the wrong things. The Obama team might have an edge that no one is paying attention to...

Where do people get their news about the political race? Less than 50% of the country has cable. Far less than that read the NYT. A lot of people who do actually pay attention to the news read their local papers-- a source they certainly trust it more than the talking heads on national tv.

So news like this is encouraging-- Obama's coverage in LOCAL papers is far positive than in the national news.

Posted by zoe from pittsburgh | August 1, 2008 4:12 AM