McCain Finds Americans No Longer Buying Into the Spec Market on Dread

As expected, John McCain is trying to turn the stretch run of the campaign away from the economy and back to national security. He knows Americans are afraid of losing their jobs, their homes, their 401Ks, and their life's savings -- but he wants them to put all of that on the backburner and focus on the fear of losing their lives.

Accordingly, his latest Hail Mary bomb comes equipped with a nuclear warhead.

McCain barreled through the door Joe Biden opened with his ill-advised comments about Obama being tested within the first six months of his presidency, flashing back to the Cuban Missile crisis and painting Obama as "untried, untested" and a national security liability.

In contrast, McCain insisted, "I've been tested." Of course, the kind of test given a 26 year-old Navy pilot assigned to Cuban targets, as McCain was during October 1962, is very different from the test a president would face in that kind of crisis. But who needs to worry about details like that when you are playing the mushroom cloud card?

With time running short, Team McCain wants to cover as many fear bases as possible. So along with the Missiles of October, the McCain campaign also rolled out a new round of robocalls designed to convince voters that Obama has "a disturbing history of coddling criminals" and would be soft on "sex offenders, drug dealers, and murderers."

Beware, America: if the nukes don't get you, the sociopaths, the junkies, and the perverts will.

Unfortunately for McCain, playing the Be Afraid game has gotten a lot more complicated than it was back in the good old days when all you had to say was "Cipro" and "duct tape" and the electorate would reach for its GOP security blanket. Between 2001 and 2004, every time the government issued a terror alert, Bush's approval rating would go up. It was positively Pavlovian.

A new study pdf conducted by UC Berkeley sociologists Robb Willer and Nick Adams, and published this month in the journal Current Research in Social Psychology, suggests voter reactions to those kinds of threats may be changing -- and that terror warnings or the evocation of looming attacks may, in fact, have the opposite impact on McCain than they had on Bush (you see, McCain's right: they aren't the same!). Especially when it comes to swing voters. We may have finally reached the point when voters are thinking: "Fool us with the fear card once, shame on you. Fool us with the fear card 279 times, shame on us... We won't be fooled again."

John Kerry still believes Halloween 2004's bin Laden video was one of the main reasons he lost. But the confused -- and panicked -- reaction of the McCain camp to yesterday's pro-McCain posting on an al-Qaeda affiliated website, shows how the rules of the terror game have changed.

McCain's surrogates went to great lengths to pooh-pooh the notion that al-Qaeda would prefer McCain's hawkishness to Obama's more reasoned approach to foreign policy. Yet, in the same breath, senior McCain foreign-policy advisor Randy Scheunemann announced, "John McCain will spend what it takes to win" in Iraq. An approach that fits perfectly with bin Laden's "bleed to bankruptcy" strategy.

For his part, Obama is refusing to buy into McCain's divide-the-economy-from-national security-and-conquer strategy. "We often hear about two debates, one on national security and one on the economy," he said yesterday after meeting with his national security team, including Gary Hart, Madeleine Albright, and Richard Holbrooke. "But that's a false distinction. We can't afford another president who ignores the fundamentals of our economy while running up record deficits to fight a war without end in Iraq. We must be strong at home to be strong abroad. That's one of the lessons of our history."

Throughout his speech, he repeatedly hammered home the "foreign security implications of our economic crisis" and the impact of the Iraq war on our military readiness, our ability to deal with the "grave" situation in Afghanistan, and America's bottom line, saying: "For the sake of our economy, our military, and the long-term stability of Iraq," we need to bring "a responsible end to the war."

And he even challenged McCain's over-inflated national security credentials, pointing out the very different approach he would bring to taking on bin Laden, the growing threat from al-Qaeda along the Pakistan border, and making Afghanistan, not Iraq, the central front in the war on terror. "As president, [McCain] would continue the policies that have put our economy into crisis and, I believe, [are a] danger to our national security."

Obama's steady hand during the economic meltdown and his unflappable bearing during all three debates has clearly had an impact. Coming out of the conventions, McCain had a 14-point lead on who would be better able to handle international affairs; that has shrunk to a within-the-margin-of-error 3-point gap.

Given the wide lead Obama holds on dealing with the economy, "helping the middle class," and health care, and his advantage on handling taxes (sorry, Joe the Plumber), it's to be expected that McCain will keep trotting out the mushroom clouds, the murderers, and the sex offenders. Fear is all he has left to sell. It would be the best news to come out of the campaign so far if the American voter is no longer willing to buy into the spec market on dread.

For those of you in Minnesota, I will be speaking at St. Olaf College Monday, October 27th. The speech will begin at 7:00 PM in Boe Memorial Chapel.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[SamuelKim]

Mr.John Mccain fighting.

[Soosan a disgusted American]

Latest News Hot off the Press;

Republican Presidential John McCain has halt his campaign once again to endorse Federal Government Proposal, as it more accurately reflects his political stance!

Official Announcement:
The federal government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, holds back the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed!

McCain whole heartedly once again agrees with the federal government on this issue:-)

[Star2000dancer]

Just for the record, although they keep changing the numbers, I bet Joe the Biden is'nt 146IQ & I BET McCain's IQ is'nt 130 or 138. Palin's ,may be around 120 tho..

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

Typos. Palin's IQ is 12.0 and McCain's IQ is 13.8. Average is IQ 100, by definition­.)

[mulishmissourian]

Love the imagery!

[THINKB4USPEAK]

Huh, no takers for the POP QUIZ? Wow.

[notajesusgigolo]

McCain's frequent use of military terms - inappropriate to the issue more often than not - increasingly suggests to me that he's more trigger-happy than someone I would want as my Commander in Chief. On the other hand, Obama expresses goals of unity, sharing, helping, responsibility, and respectfulness. Because of this, he is the leader that the American people will wholeheartedly embrace on Nov. 4. Yup, it'll be a landslide.

[THINKB4USPEAK]

I pray you are correct. But, I also remember 2000, when Al Gore was declared the winner in fl,only to have fl redeclared "undecided" after gw made a call to his brother, the gov.

[THINKB4USPEAK]

The politic of fear is nothing new, it is just a reccuring fad. Like a new, fresh tv program, it becomes stale and ineffective with formulaic repetition. POP QUIZ! The Cuban missiile crisis originated with the US placement of intermediate-range nuclear armed missiles as a deterent to Soviet invasion of western Europe. Did the Kennedy, or the Eisenhower administration broker the arms to Turkey deal, under-estimating the Soviet response, nearly causing WW3? We know the crisis was defused by withdrawal fromCuba=withdrawal from Turkey. At the time, affluent Americans built woefully inadequate backyard fallout shelters. The less blessed were taught to duck and cover, the top 1 or 2% had mountains hollowed out where they could wait it out and emerge the "victors". But, I diverge. Kennedy, or Eisenhower?

[daddysboy]

Things that aren't ugly and mean can become classic though and can be enjoyed by multiple generations with minor variations. Fear is an emotion, and a state of mind. It is not the nature of things to remain static for any great length of time; to remain fearful, the reasons need to be fresh and the emotions can't be allowed to grow stale. I think the reasons for being fearful about allot of things in this country were false to begin with and Americans are discovering that in droves now. I also think that the emotion of being afraid is incredibly taxing on the spirit when not addressed so people find ways to overcome it as they are now. If this tactic is going to continue to be used, they will have to resort to more extreme methods such as the ones that al qaeda has employed.

[blood1]

Beside being in the Vietnam war, and having some various Navy fighter pilot mishaps, exactly what is John McCain's foreign policy experience. From all that I have seen, he has traveled a lot, spoken to foreign leaders (except recently with Spain)...h­ow does that mean he has a lot of foreign policy experience. Has he been directly involved with any successful foreign policy, if so please, someone tell me,as I am unable to find any record on the web.
Thanks!

[hectorg]

Obama, on the other hand has travelled to the Mideast for a couple of days for photo ops, and to Europe for fewer days and just as many photo ops, making him a master of foreign relations, to those of you with the mental capacity of a doorknob. So, his foreign policy qualifications are...

Oh, yeah. He's black.

Make that half white.

[THINKB4USPEAK]

Doorknobs turn the way Rovian hands twist them. Careful with your analogies, you are not. McCain's qualifications in a world where whites are a MINORITY is, oh, yeah...HE'­S WHITE.

[Rob52]

If Sen McCain is so fit to be President why on earth is he collecting $58,000 a year in disability from the VA? You can't tell me he needs the income.

[PT6]

Arianna,

The McCain "FEAR OF THE DAY" since Joe the Plumber is Wealth Shifting!
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­-----

Both McCain's and Obama's Tax Plans Shift the Wealth?

McCain’s Tax Plan - Redistribute Wealth to the Richest 1 to 2%!

1. Biggest TAX CUTS to the Richest 1 to 2%
2. Trickle Down Minuscule Tax Cut to the Rest!

Obama’s Tax Plan - Tax Cuts for Middle Class and all making less than $250,000 Net!

1. Biggest TAX CUTS to 95% of Americans making less than $250,000 Net
2. Remove "BUSH TAX CUTS FOR 5% RICHEST AMERICANS" back to first year under Bush!

Clearly, Both Plans shift the wealth:

Obama's favors the Middle Class!
McCains favors the Richest Class! More BUSH TRICKLE DOWN!

[antiquecowboy]

HISTORY: Democratic response to last Depreciation in 1930's: expand and pack the Supreme Court to get around constitutional restrictions; implement graduated income tax to penalize effort and success; expand welfare programs; cut back on military spending to the extent of weakening our ability to respond to threats to our security. -- If that does not sound familiar, you have not been listening to Obama and Biden. It did not work then -- it took World War II and the Korean conflict (both started by Democratic Presidents) to keep us out of a return to depression. The flight of companies and jobs overseas began in the 1970's in response to high corporate tax rates and has continued thru the 1990's and today. Reduced tax rates were implemented in an attempt to slow or halt the exodus. Do you really think that attempting to finance Obama's welfare plans with taxes on 5% of the population will improve the situation?

[Luca]

Thank you for your site, and thank you for this latest post. I totally agree. McCain and Bush's bully and fear directed style of governing is OVER. I can hardly wait to see on November 4th how huge the rejection of the old guard will be.

[daddysboy]

It seems like an old guard since it's been almost a decade, but the current administration doesn't even deserve the grace that the passage of time offers let alone the label of 'guard' of anything other than greed and lies. I am waiting to see how much this group of thieves wants to hang on to their ill-gotten gains and consequently how big their duplicity and general manipulations will be before this is over.

[StephenPalmSprings]

I'm concerned about the health of 72 year old McCain (he'll be 72 when a new administration takes office). He's had melanoma three or four times. His medical report was apparently didacted for the few allowed to see it. This guy is a a walking medical crisis about to happen. And Sarah Palin has suddenly seemed very anxious to dig in deep into Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Johnjlws]

Of course "the young President" who was tested was JFK, as was pointed out by Biden. I don't mind the analogy. I would have suggested using someone scary like Herbert Hoover or Richard Nixon, but neither was particularly young or untested and both, of course, were travesties and republicans.

[danielet]

Bush bragged at a Yale University Commencement that he's living proof that a "C" student can become president. If McCain win's he'll prove that a profligate "D" student at Naval Academy can be president. McCain desperately wanted to be an admiral after Vietnam, as was his granddad and dad were, but was deemed unfit to lead. So he became a politician, bypassing admiral, to become commander and chief. Suffering from metastatic melanoma, he'll do anything to win now. But his reckless lack of seriousness is showing in his: I'm a hero....on­ly I can save America...­.Only I know how to do it.
How? He only repeats: I'm a hero, I know, put me in power! Duhhhhh, we did that dumb thing in 2000...NEV­ER AGAIN!!!!

[danielet]

McCain is trying to avoid being "swiftboated" by clouding the campaign with slander of Obama. McCain's trying to hide that, when Hanoi Communist Chief, Le Duan, was confronted with mistreatment of US POWs as "war criminals, " he liked to site the "voluntary" testimony of the son of the very admiral McCain leading the flotila off Vietnam's shores, claiming deliberate masacre of civilians. McCain, years ago, admitted that to the press. Now he is trying to preempt "swiftboating" with slander. He's now using Obama's race to cover his weakness then.

[boyfood]

Finally McCain's confessions, which were apparently aired on N. Vietnamese radio, have been brought out. Not only was he a D student, but was an irresponsible pilot who's only lucky he came from a Naval hierarchy. One wonders what he would have happened had he not been shot down in N. Vietnam - shot down by a WWI vintage anti-aircraft gun. He was not a fighter pilot, but a bomber, knowlingly bombing innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure.

[Jessrond]

He's trying to do the Daisy Ad when facts are fact checked.

FAIL.

[jnratliff]

republicans are the most stupid people I have ever met. But if you keep beating them over the head again and again and again for eight years some of them start to catch on.
I have seen a few of them start to see what fools they have been.
To little to late. How many hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Iraq for nothing?
How many Americans have lost their lives in Iraq to make money for chenny and halliburton?
How many Americans have been terribly injured, their lives ruined so the oil companies could make huge profits?
How many children in Iraq have lost their parents because republicans are so easily scared that they become cowards and let their president start a war for fun and profits?
Don't you people feel the shame for all these things done in your name?

[roshni]

Excellen post.