Can't get more uppity than being Moses or the Mesiah. McCain's series of ads and soundbites from spokesmen to the media dismissing Obama as a celebrity is a little audacious coming from coming from a guy, who, since 2000, has gotten more screen time than the rest of congress combined.
McCain's biggest ad buy links Obama to rich, blonde, young, white girls, both of whom have supported Bush. The real Britney. David Gergen knows what the McCain ads mean. Anyone from the South knows, ask Harold Ford.
Andrew Sullivan:
Instead of actually fighting on the core questions - how do we get out of Iraq with the least damage? how do we get past carbon-based energy? how do we tackle al Qaeda's new base in Pakistan and within the nuclear-armed Pakistani government? how will we reduce the massive debt bequeathed us by the Bush-Rove GOP? how do we restore the Geneva Conventions? - we are debating people's cultural insecurities and food choices.Andrew also agreed with me on how bad and unbelievable McCain's campaign has been lately - "McCain's main moves these past two weeks have been either childish or disgusting, and both times he has signaled he didn't really believe his own message."
The slow collapse of conservatism as a coherent governing philosophy is not unrelated to this. If you never want to fight campaigns on policy, why bother crafting any?
What is really going on -
McCain's aggressive strategy is a deliberate and well-thought-out ploy. It was developed and implemented by a coterie of advisers brought in last month who are protégés of the Republican political guru Karl Rove. Schmidt, who learnt his trade with Rove, heads the group and is now guiding the campaign.McCain was losing and the GOP saw no chance to catch Obama on an issues campaign. So they turned to the Karl Rove disciples and started the smears to bring down the Democrat. This is really no different than most GOP presidential campaigns. A surprise this time is the reaction to McCain abandoning his principles and promises of a clean issues campaign with some conservatives in the media showing their disgust with this.
The strategy is intended to turn McCain's ailing presidential bid around and give it a firm focus: one mostly fixed on attacking Obama. Schmidt and others believe they can do to Obama what the Republicans did to John Kerry in 2004.
Steve Schmidt is known as 'The Bullet'. Part of that is to do with his bald-headed appearance, but it is also as much to do with his hyper-aggressive political style.
Andrea Mitchell, iconic conservative Republican Mrs Alan Greenspan, cannot hide her disgust now when she talks to the McCain campaign. This reaction is also coming through from the other former supporters of McCain in the media. On one McCain advertisement and his campaign talking points she stated it was "completely wrong, factually wrong." Really, the media need to learn to just say this is a pack of lies and they are liars.
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