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For McCain, All-American Strategy May Backļ¬re
Late last week, John McCain unveiled what his campaign described as its "first general election ad." The 60-second clip introduces McCain as "the American president Americans have been waiting for."
The American president?
I was unaware that there was any confusion about his nationality. I suppose that we could count a minor controversy that generated buzz earlier this year when the fact that McCain was born in the American-controlled Panama Canal Zone led some to question whether he meets the constitutional requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen. The issue faded after a few days, and its reach never extended beyond the restricted circle of obsessive political junkies.
I would like to believe that this ad is a reaction to the Panama question, but that is too far-fetched to be plausible. And there unfortunately is a much more credible explanation for his emphasis on the word "American," one that requires us to believe that the Republican Party is looking to build fishy contrasts with Barack Obama and draw on the insidious smear campaigns that are circulating online about the probable Democratic nominee.
Given the recent track record of the Grand Ol' Party, exemplified by the Rovian tactics used to question the loyalties of Max Cleland and John Kerry in 2002 and 2004 respectively, such suppositions hardly demand a leap of faith.
Yet, Obamanism informs us that we are ideologically stagnating in 1990s partisan battles if we disbelieve that a new type of politics can emerge -- one in which a nonpartisan consensus can be built around pragmatic solutions.
Meanwhile, in the real world in which the Right beats up Democrats who are too busy drifting rightward to notice, John McCain is running his first general election ad.
Obama is never referenced, but contrasts are subtly drawn. "Where has [McCain] been? Has he walked the walk?" asks the ad, before showing images of McCain's captivity as a prisoner of war. A central argument of the upcoming Republican campaign will be that McCain's life experiences has given him the strength to lead and the resolve to stare down America's enemies.
McCain is looking to drag the election onto the nationalist turf. Yesterday, he campaigned in Meridian, Miss., where he served as a flight instructor; tomorrow, he will return to his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, and stump in Annapolis, Md. McCain's goal is to stay away from issues and to focus on life stories and symbolism to show that he is a more solid -- and a more American (whatever that means) -- leader.
Interestingly, McCain's strategy is closer to Obama's than to Clinton's. A symbol-based campaign is the last thing Hillary wants in the primary race. While she downplays Obama's ability to lead the country and highlights her experience, her clear goal is to keep the election away from the terrain of process and character and focus it on policy questions that remain as dry as possible.
Obama, on the other hand, likes to portray his own life as a symbol of the American story; he frames his candidacy as the opportunity to fulfill America's promise. But running on character makes a candidate more vulnerable to ad hominem attacks of the sort Republicans are sure to employ. Considering the hints in McCain's first ad, the conservative hysteria around the Reverend Wright and the ongoing effort to portray Michelle Obama as unpatriotic, there is reason to fear that this general-election campaign will dig up the worst underground smears and will make 2004 look like a love parade.
But McCain is sowing the seeds of his own demise by drawing so much from his military history. In 2004, John Kerry's absurd attempt to mitigate his criticism of Iraq with glorious stories of Vietnam heroism paved the way for the swift boat ads. This year, McCain's strategy will make it that much more difficult for Republicans to avoid voter anger over the disastrous Iraq war.
After Bush's two terms, McCain should be running away from his hawkishness rather than embracing it. His myopic confidence that his life story will counter the unpopularity of his war-mongering will only make the coming Democratic ads featuring McCain professing his interest in staying in Iraq for 100 years while bombing Iran more damaging.
The GOP's conviction that it can once again win an election as the national-security party and mock opponents as weak and unpatriotic is the Democrats' best hope to win back the White House.
Originally published in the Yale Daily News.
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..the corprate media has ALREADY framed the vapid trajectory of this election in terms of a juvenile "People Pagazine/personality " contest between obama and clinton and will adroitly extrapolate that to banalize the general election. they will airbursh away mccains obvious mental and policy flaws much like they did bush in 2000 whiel the corporate aganda of the TV media will come into play attacking the Dem. just yesterday, Fox did an extneded tv feature with smirking warmomnger bill kristol engaged in a thinly veiled racist dialogue about whether Obama was " too cocky for his own good". i couldnt help but imagine the implication was of course the 'uppity" black man..too cocky..too smooth...this is just a start of what will be a hardly subtle but relentless flank attack agaisnt obama on anything but policy and bush's failures.. for obama being black, being of a foreign- born father and representing "sinsiter", shadowy left wing forces and radical causes...i wouldnt be surprised to see him beign morphed in an ad this fall into an incendiary stokely carmichael circa 1968 just like they morphed max cleland into hussein in the 2002 election...oabma needs to be preemptive about the impending slime attack now...
You've succinctly abridged the Republican playbook newly published to deal with Obama, should he make the nomination...
If the Democrats don't explicitly link the war with the economy, they have no chance of defeating McCain. Only the 3+ trillion dollar war tab is powerful enough to defeat the freakish McCain he-man persona. The lead-up to the election will also, once and for all, reveal if the MSM really is pro-McCain (read the Jay Rosen post for a host of red herrings throwing doubt on this all-too-obvious situation). Since there will be debate after debate, ad nauseum, and since it will be the MSM darlings framing the debate, the kind of questions asked will make it very clear where the MSM's loyalties lie. If ever Bill Clinton's "It's the economy, stupid!" rang true, this will be the time. If the Democrats don't indelibly brand McCain with the ruin of the economy, they don't deserve to win.
Right, it is the economy.........sorta like, gasoline prices have risen one dollar a gallon since the democrats took over Congressional leadership.
If McCain wants to run on his Vietnam experience, he has to face the one thing that will surface and damage him. During his time in captivity, he collaborated with his captors. Yes, he was horribly injured, and yes, he was a very sick man, but he had pledged NOT to cooperate. Maybe he would be better running on his reputation as a member of the Keating 5.
The obvious disconnect in McCain portraying himself as our National Security candidate is that he has repeatedly failed to get the details right with respect to the warring factions in Iraq and Iran...this is THE international conflict we are involved in at the moment, a conflagration we desperately need to end, and he can't even get those details right? He's failing to prove he can deliver on what is supposedly his strongest selling point.
Of course, more critical is his own admitted lack of knowledge about economics...the US economy is in its greatest peril since the Great Depression...can we afford a President who hasn't even bothered to put together a team of advisers and come up with a plan throughout a year of campaigning? Is McCain blind to our obvious dilemma here?
The thought of McCain winning the White House should be downright frightening to the American people.
Reagan wasn't kinda charming. He had Alzheimer's. There is no way American's can'tbe sure it won't happen to McCain. And also, who needs a guy who is stuck in the middle of the twentieth century. Move on. He could be worse than Bush.
"the American president Americans have been waiting for."
Two things....
One, Is Schwartzenegger running? I didn't think he could...
Second, I guess we're all supposed to forget that most of us have ancestors who came here as immigrants.
The thing is, given the high level of jingoism these days, it just might work.
Excellent post...McCain will play up nativist/jingoistic nonsense to smear Obama...and you are right, this is just a prelude to much worse slime to come...as I said all along, the shit Hillary has gotten means nothing since it is all old news...that is why SHE would whip McSame's ass far better than Obama.
If the American people are so easily decieved then we deserve McCain as our next president, just as weve deserved Bush for the last 7 1/4 years
Of course, we did not deserve Bush. He was definitely not elected in 2000, and there is serious doubt about 2004. In any event, 2004 wouldn't matter without 2000.
Excellent post...I too see the Repub line to portray Obama as a foreigner as a key element in their strategy...and guess what? Nativism works...look at the hornet's nest stirred up by Lou Dobbs' nightly xenophobic rampages against immigrants as terrorists and criminals? Look at the hostility McCain faced for so long from many in his party who thought he sold out on immigration legislation?
You are right when you say the Repubs are offering this as a dress rehearsal to far uglier episodes where surrogates spout contemptible slander without blinking an eye...
As I said many times, they can't throw anything new at Hillary...nor has Obama...all water under the bridge...she would trounce McCain...count on it...Obama would not.
She might not trounce McCain, but she'd be the one to give him a run for his money. The only voters who hate her with such passion are Democrats. Indies, progressive Repubs, and others don't particularly despise her the way her own party does. And they aren't all raptured up with Obama, either. I think you're right. The Repubs have something up their sleeves and would love to put McCain up against Obama, because they have a better chance at winning. The thing Democrats can never remember is that not everyone in the country votes for their candidate just because they do.
This is a good move for McCain- he obviously doesn't have the wherewithal to answer questions on issues, so the Reagan - lite storytelling old guy is probably a good card to play.
Except Reagan was kind of charming McCain seems more like a grumpy A -Hole
I agree I just watched the Letterman McCain barbs video. The fakeness and creepiness of McCain there is not a good sign for him. Of course the MSM will swoon and cheer him for how wonderful and funny McCain is. Besides he can't run on policy it a BushCo clone and it will just piss off his base.
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