red states rule
08-08-2008, 11:56 AM
For the first time, many people are beginning to think McCain might be able to win this election
McCain Catches On: It's All About Obama
By Toby Harnden
During the opening weeks of this general election campaign, John McCain's advisers were fixated on the phenomenon they were up against. It became an article of faith at his Arlington headquarters that the swooning mainstream media had mobilized en masse to get the Illinois senator elected, triggering a tidal wave of Obamamania.
"Oh, the unfairness of it all," McCain aides would lament, measuring the foot and a half of Barack Obama clippings each morning compared to the five inches devoted to their man. They'd bury their heads in their hands when another press avail knocked the Arizona senator off message as he responded to yet another inquiry that basically amounted to: "So what do you think of Barack today?"
But then the penny dropped. An astute campaign has the serenity to accept the things it cannot change. McCain's re-jigged team did just that by belatedly recognizing that this election was going to be all about Obama. When the main alternative was that it could be all about McSame and George W. Bush, the Republican's strategists concluded, perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing after all.
Obama has made his extraordinary life story the central plank of his political career. But the constant repetition of the carefully-crafted narrative has begun to wear a bit thin. All the talk about himself can seem a bit, well, self-regarding.
Team McCain now gets this. In a neat judo move - using the weight and momentum of your opponent to throw him to the floor - they hit upon the Celebrity ad, comparing Obama to the vacuous pop icons Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. A bull-session idea that was forced into reality by the hard-charging strategist Steve Schmidt, it was not without risk.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/mccain_catches_on_its_all_abou.html
McCain Catches On: It's All About Obama
By Toby Harnden
During the opening weeks of this general election campaign, John McCain's advisers were fixated on the phenomenon they were up against. It became an article of faith at his Arlington headquarters that the swooning mainstream media had mobilized en masse to get the Illinois senator elected, triggering a tidal wave of Obamamania.
"Oh, the unfairness of it all," McCain aides would lament, measuring the foot and a half of Barack Obama clippings each morning compared to the five inches devoted to their man. They'd bury their heads in their hands when another press avail knocked the Arizona senator off message as he responded to yet another inquiry that basically amounted to: "So what do you think of Barack today?"
But then the penny dropped. An astute campaign has the serenity to accept the things it cannot change. McCain's re-jigged team did just that by belatedly recognizing that this election was going to be all about Obama. When the main alternative was that it could be all about McSame and George W. Bush, the Republican's strategists concluded, perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing after all.
Obama has made his extraordinary life story the central plank of his political career. But the constant repetition of the carefully-crafted narrative has begun to wear a bit thin. All the talk about himself can seem a bit, well, self-regarding.
Team McCain now gets this. In a neat judo move - using the weight and momentum of your opponent to throw him to the floor - they hit upon the Celebrity ad, comparing Obama to the vacuous pop icons Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. A bull-session idea that was forced into reality by the hard-charging strategist Steve Schmidt, it was not without risk.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/mccain_catches_on_its_all_abou.html