Saturday, October 25, 2008
Fazlling back on the familiar
It's interesting to me that after at least a month of trying one thing or another, John McCain seems finally to have decided on a single strategy for criticizing Obama. Ironically, it's an old strategy: to portray the Democrats as the party of "tax and spend". Never mind what Obama says about reducing middle class taxes. the McCain strategy is to say you can never trust Democrats because they will always raise your taxes to pay for their new programs. It's been a successful strategy for Republicans for a very long time (at least in my memory it goes back to the 50s). but will it work this time? Forgetting for the moment about "too little, too late", I wonder if Obama has insulated himself by openly and consistently championing tax cuts for the middle class (side note: whatever happened to the poor?) so that people are less likely to believe McCain, at least in this regard. Or does the Obama lead in the polls reflect a hardening of the narrative/image that has surfaced in the last few weeks, that McCain is angry and erratic and that Obama is calm, cool, and consistent? I think that's Brian's point in her reply to one of my posts. Do other people agree?
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2 comments:
Dr. Bob,
I don't think the McCain campaign had much to do with deciding its current propaganda strategy.
Rather, in my opinion, Obama has very helpfully given it to them -- and he has no-one to blame for it but himself. He was the one talking about "spreading the wealth around" when talking to Joe the plumber (collective groan...). The Republicans saw a golden opportunity, and made the most of it -- after all, most Americans, like you pointed out, are still intensely uncomfortable with any kind of socialism.
Had it not been for Obama's inconvenient turn of phrase, I suspect the Republicans would have had a far harder time pinning the "tax-and-spend" label on him. After all, he does weave a very convincing narrative about lowering the taxes on the middle class... As it is, not only do they have that, they also have a far more powerful label -- "Socialist" -- to throw at him.
The whole affair strikes me as a massive PR blunder on Obama's part, if there ever was one.
As to the effects? I don't think I am qualified to do much predicting, not with the information that I have. The fact that the polls have historically been shown to be less than perfectly reliable underscores this. Thankfully, we'll find out, one way or the other, in two weeks...
Regards,
--Eugene
It seems that the Republicans latest effort to change the narrative or the race wont reveal its success until Election Day. The middle class is obviously the key voting block, and it will be interesting to see which politician they believe. It has almost become a race of one candidate making promises, and the other telling the people not to believe him. I dont think McCains message is as likely to resonate, because it is to defensive. This narrative seems a direct counterpoint to his last debate strategy when he was on the offensive and got so many positive reviews. To me, whoever stays more positive in the last week will come out with the advantage. It is up to McCain to try to convince the people to like him. this should be his focus more than getting people to dislike Obama.
As far as the poor go, its very disappointing to not hear Obama talk about them because I thought this message was originally so powerful and hopeful. Hopefully, this is only the case because he feels those constituents will vote for him and he will address their problems in a significant way if he is to become President. But maybe im not cynical enough...
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