Memo to Staff: What McCain Really Said

Memo: Campaign staff, surrogates, Gov. Palin, etc.
From: Rick Davis, campaign manager
Re: Elite media's hearing problem
Date: September 18, 2008

As you all know, the Obama campaign, aided by their attack dogs in the elite, liberal media, have jumped all over our candidate's alleged misstatement re the economy's fundamentals. Obviously, John McCain is not so out of touch that he would use the Hoover-esque "fundamentals are sound" line amid an unprecedented implosion on Wall St, recessionary job market, etc...

So here are some talking points on what he really said. Please emphasize them in all campaign-related appearances and be sure to take deep, deep umbrage in the unlikely event that you are challenged on their veracity.

"The fund of mentals is sound." Senator McCain was sticking it to the elites on this one. His comment was directed at Mensa International, that group of out-of-touch, elite intellectuals with super high IQ's (we call them by their derogatory sobriquet: "mentals"). While the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet, their budget is in surplus.

Action item: could someone check to see a) how these nerds break in the polls, and b) the actual status of their budget.

"My bowl of lentils is round." John's a regular guy -- well, really a maverick, but also a regular guy -- who enjoys a bowl of soup at the local diner. His comment actually reflected a deep insight regarding the circularity of the economy.

Message team: need a better narrative on this one.

"The fundamentals are sound...not!" When the senator is not out on the stump, or thinking of new ways to reign in greedy, Wall St. investors, he likes to kick back with youth-oriented television. Here, he was reaching out to young voters by citing the great old Wayne and Garth formulation, but the "gottcha" media corps was too busy gasping to hear the canceling negative at the end of the phrase.

Problem: young voters have never seen Wayne's World.

"The firmamentals abound." The senator was obviously making a biblical reference that only evangelicals would understand.

To do: Check this one out with Gov. Palin.

"The incrementals astound." A clear, even trenchant critique of the astounding nature of our economy's negative incrementals right now, this was twisted by the media to somehow mean the opposite of what the Senator intended.

Econ surrogates: Please use this formulation--"negative incrementals"--on all CNBC appearances.

Thanks all. Sorry we have to deal with these despicable distortions of our message, but remember: the American people are with us. They know that only our economic program can turn those negative incrementals around.

Comments

[ProFromOre]

"negative incrementals" - that's good. The whole thing was great

[RumiSouth]

I am suddenly reminded of an Adbusters video about the nature of GDP. It might be worthwhile for the Obama campaign team to consider talking about what McCain means by "economy" versus what we think of when we say the word: to John, "economic fundamentals" means CEO pay packages are good and profits are up. That's a marked contrast to how most of us think of economy as OUR job, OUR paycheck.

[mmorningstar]

Bravo!

PS Are you "The Jed Bernstein" from Livingston High School?

That would be amazing!

[jbernstein]

Nope...not him...sorry.

[DebbieinPhx]

Did you hear Sara Palin trying to defend that line. Bwhahahahahaha...I didn't think it was possible to make McCain sound worse, but some people... What can you say? They're just special that way. Bwhahahahahaha....
Great piece. Loved it!

[nandtbearden]

As I heard Barack Obama say in a audio clip this morning: (paraphrasing)
When John McCain says he is calling out the "good old boys' network" in D.C., that means he's calling a campaign staff meeting.
Love the Bernstein posts...people in Arkansas are still discussing the points you made when you spoke at a forum hosted by the organization I work for in 2006.

[Jp2]

Let me get this straight.If we our all in soup lines and no one has a job.The fundamentals of our economy our still strong because McCains handlers our trying to spin he was talking about the American workers.Really how stupid does he think the people our. Obama has to hammer home this point.

[PATina]

hahahaha... when I first heard Mc Cain's "explanation"... I thought that the American worker can't be that strong w/ over 600,000 of them having lost jobs this year and unemployment over 6%.

[alkamm]

Great post! His supporters should also be notified of his intentional ambiguity with the word "oversight."

Loyal Republicans need not fear when he uses the word oversight because RNC lawyers have found that he may cleverly refer to overlooking the regulations with an inadvertent, unintentional lack of focus rather than the socialistic regulatory "oversight" that liberals advocate.

This word affords Republicans the opportunity so say all things to all people and carries built-in plausible deniability, something all Republicans rely upon to cover up their perennial mismanagement of government (see boo boos). These "mistakes" in judgement and character are in fact Republican strong points, so McCain should develop a subtle "wink" and "nudge, nudge" when he claims he will be the agent of oversight. Palin should employ her nose-wrinkle along with a sexually ambiguous wink as well.

[LeftRight]

Really? I thought that when he said oversight he meant the cameras that he'll be placing all around to ensure that we aren't out doing anything that might be construed as "independent"!!

[uncasam]

The sad thing is that this "memo" would have made more sense than McCain's on-air claim that in "fundamentals", he meant the American worker.

"Don't you dare disrespect the American soldier, I mean worker!"