Naval Strategy
Old Navy man’s new campaign ad: Dangerous. If McCain is slipping in polls, underdog, all that, then what better time to channel Nelson? Divide the enemy fleet. Attack, attack, attack.
NYT: Obama calls McCain Ayer attacks “out of touch.” America won’t buy the notion that his extensive professional involvement with someone who was part of a murdeorus 1960s terrorist organization is a problem. Anymore than America will buy the idea that getting palsy with terrorist-backing mullahs is a bad idea, I suppose. Because Americans are stupid that way.
“They’d rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up,” he told several thousand supporters at a rally here Sunday. “That’s what you do when you’re out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time.”
Obie decries “Swift-boating.” I bet Nelson would like Swift boats. Small, manueverable, deadly … as long as you don’t abandon your crew mid-command, like at least one Swift boat commander I could name.
As usual, it’s do as I say, not as I do. In a new sign of desperation, Obama reportedly plans to trot out the Keating Five thing.
Let the battle be joined! We have met the enemy, and he is ours! We have not yet begun to fight! Damn the torpedoes!
America’s already watched that Keating 5 torpedo pass off the stern, and anyway, it was a dud. Obama, who also has been big on 2004 campaign themes, needs to think about fighting the war he’s in.
This is fun. Obama Youth. The militarization of the message is a bit of a muddle. Apparently they didn’t get the Obamist surrender memo. Hey, if they want to be all military, self-defensy, Obamists may want to get some guns.
Meanwhile, here’s Rove with the argument for Palin. Never mind her considerable executive experience. Being able to connect with Americans is an asset, not a liability. Being an ordinary American, not some eastern elite, puts her square in the middle in American political tradition. About experience, of which Biden has much, its great, but no substitute for judgment, which he lacks. And all that talk about Obama surging in the polls, McCain slipping. Yeah, well …
McCain and Palin face an uphill struggle. Economic woes, war and the natural desire of Americans to give the other side a chance (after eight years with one party in the White House) should mean a big edge for Obama and Biden. But the race is tight, no candidate can get above 50 percent for more than a day or two, and it is likely to stay close right to the end.
The reason is, people have persistent doubts about whether Obama is qualified. NEWSWEEK’s poll last month found that 47 percent felt Obama “has enough experience in politics and government to be a good president” but 46 percent said he didn’t. In the recent ABC/Washington Post poll, 45 percent said Obama doesn’t have “the needed experience,” the same as last March. Even the late-September CBS News/New York Times poll found that while 46 percent feel “Obama has prepared himself well enough for the job of president,” 45 percent do not. For good reason: Barack Obama has less than half a term in the Senate, where he’s proposed little, accomplished less and spent virtually every day campaigning—as if being on the trail is a principal qualification for president.
McCain-Palin must deepen those doubts by pounding away on questions about Obama’s character, judgment and values. Drawing on Obama’s own record and statements, they need to paint him as a big spender, class warrior and cultural elitist; they need to say he’s never worked across party lines or gotten his hands dirty solving big issues.
Attack, attack, attack.
But the duo must also give voters reasons to support them. They must crystallize a positive, forward-looking vision so people who see Obama as unqualified have something to hang on to. It can’t be a laundry list of positions. McCain-Palin must offer a narrative about what they will do to help America see better days, especially on kitchen-table concerns.
McCain must launch these themes in the two remaining debates. Knockouts are welcome but unlikely and unnecessary.
Doable, but not easy, Commodore Rove posits.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:41 am on Monday, October 6, 2008
4 Responses to “Naval Strategy”
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October 6th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 10/06/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
They are — attacking, that is, with both barrels. See here.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I wish just once those NYT newsbots would get off that crappy little island and actually meet America. It might be quite a revelation.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
It’s about time. McCain hammered Obama today on the financial crisis he and other Democrats helped create, and finally called him out for being the second biggest recipient of FNMA/FHLMC money, ever.