Clueless Beltway Strategists
The intent of Salena Zito’s column was to find out what John McCain’s agenda is. It’s a fair question, one that McCain needs to highlight frequently between now and Election Day.
What stood out for me, though, was how clueless Washington strategists from both parties are. Here’s the basis for my opinion:
“He himself is reinforcing that this campaign is all about Obama,” says Democrat 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.”
GOP strategist David Carney disagrees; he says the McCain campaign has no choice but to do what it can to bring down Obama by constantly introducing him to voters through his flaws. “There is no positive that will help McCain,” he insists.
Mr. Siegel would be wise to realize that focusing on Obama’s foolish statements will disqualify him. Everytime Sen. Obama says something like filling your tires and getting regular tuneups make people cringe. Playing the video of Sen. Obama saying that his winning the nomination helps heal our land and stops the sea from rising makes him look like an egomaniac of unprecedented proportions. While that’ll sell in San Fransisco and Manhattan, that won’t sell in the heartland.
BTW, it’s apparent that Sen. McCain’s ads are getting under Sen. Obama’s skin.
That said, I flinched when I read Mr. Carney’s quote that “There is no positive that will help McCain.” Hello. When’s the last time that Mr. Carney looked at what’s happening in real America? Hidden in Mr. Carney’s polling data is a set of numbers, probably in the range of 70-30 or 75-25. It pertains to people prefering drilling for America’s energy needs here in the United States. McCain’s on the right side of this issue. He should be beating Sen. Obama over the head with it because Sen. Obama has been on 3 sides of this issue in the last 5 days.
Comparing McCain’s well-reasoned thinking on drilling to Obama’s blatant pandering on the issue is a great contrast. Rising gas prices caused Sen. McCain to rethink his policy. I can’t say that’s what happened with Sen. Obama. In Springfield, MO, Sen. Obama was characterizing drilling as a Republican scheme. By the time he spoke in Florida 48 hrs. later, he was singing the virtues of drilling. As I keep saying, this was a pure panderfest on Sen. Obama’s behalf. He’s being exposed. Most importantly, it’s making him look bad.
These days, it isn’t difficult for bloggers to make Sen. Obama look bad. Too bad it seems beyond the capability of the GOP’s Beltway strategists.
Technorati Tags: John McCain, Obama, David Carney, Mark Siegel, Strategists, Gas Crisis, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog