MCCAIN’S IDEA OF CHANGE: CHANGE THE FOCUS AWAY FROM THE ISSUES THAT MATTER

Trailing badly in the polls and with ever more people realizing that he put Country Last by choosing Sarah Palin for Vice President, The Honorable John McCain has now decided to reach for the Swiftboat in hopes of not drowning between now and election day. 

McCain’s 4th quarter campaign ad buys, which feature images like this one

contrasted with this one

are now, according to reports, 100 percent negative.  Meaning, McCain has 100 percent abandoned the idea that he can win this election on the strength of his own ideas, or by making an affirmative case for how he is best suited to lead America.    

The strategy for McCain now will be to engage full time in the politics of personal destruction. 

Thing is: he’s probably going about it all wrong… and that’s just fine with me.

From the Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain’s team has decided that its emphasis on the senator’s biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan’s campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Everyone knew this was coming.  October is, as they say, the month of “political surprises,” and McCain’s been telling us since the summer that if he is going to overtake Obama it will be in the 11th hour of this campaign — read into that what you will. 

But what is interesting to me is that the McCain campaign seems to have now decided to use Sarah Palin as their primary attack dog. 

Granted, her ignorance on policy matters and world events does severely limit what she’s capable of doing on the campaign trail (she can not, for example, go before a group of retirees in Florida and spell out the complexities of Social Security) so in one sense, with limited options maybe this is the best role for her, I don’t know.

But it does strike me as odd decision, politically speaking, since one of the reasons why the Swiftboat smears of 2004 worked so well against John Kerry was because (at the time) the attackers seemed like they inherent credibility on the issue. 

Meaning: the messenger matters in character assassinations – what kind of credibility, on any issue, has Sarah Palin built up? 

You have to assume that since Palin is only reason McCain is still in this race and that she is now the “big draw” out on the campaign, her words — no matter how truthful or reality based – will continue to get a lot of attention. 

But she was exposed early on as a pathological liar, as someone who will say anything at anytime to anyone if it will make her look better. 

At this point no one believes that she a firm grip “on the issues” — so how far, beyond the Republican base that is, do the McCain people really believe Palin’s attacks on Obama’s economic or health care plan can ultimately reach?

Palin has now pivoted to attacking Obama’s patriotism a lot this weekend, only she’s using a smear that was proven false nearly a year ago.  

She’s just told a crowd of people that “There’s a place in Hell for women who don’t support other women,” and claimed to be quoting Madeleine Albright.  Only, she misquotes Albright, who in fact said there is a place in Hell for women who don’t help other women. 

Support vs. help is a big difference in a political speech.  Plus, from the video Palin seemed to have been reading the quote from a piece of paper which makes the whole thing all the more bizarre. 

The Atlantic.com’s Ta-Nehisi Coates calls the remark “thuggish,” and rightly questions the effectiveness of making her new pitch to undecided women be: ”Support me, or burn.”

All of this hurts Palin’s credibility as a messenger.  She was a “base pick” to begin with and I don’t see how turning her into an attack dog this final month wins over political independents (or women) who already and overwhelmingly view her as being out of her depth. 

If the GOP thinks that Palin will be an effective mud slinger to smear Obama in ways that John McCain is “too honorable” to do himself, then the Republicans have misjudged the situation here, badly. 

And with respect to Palin’s talk of breaking the glass ceiling, John McCain may have thought that he found the GOP’s answer to Hillary Clinton in Sarah Palin, but he too misjudged the situation here, badly.

Hillary Clinton made an overtly gendered pitch to voters during the final months of her campaign, but she had credibility as a national office seeker in ways that Palin simply does not. 

Palin is looking more and more marginalized, relegated to friendly places like Fox News and Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, and because she has not built up trust with the American people, her over-the-top attacks on Obama look like desperate attempts at flame throwing in order to remain in the conversation. 

So from the position of someone who wants the Democrats to take back the White House this year, I say: “Good strategy John,” and ”Keep up the attacks, Sarah.”  You’re both doing a heckuva job right now, you betcha.

Tags: attack politics, John McCain, John McCain desperate, McCain losing, McCain put country last, Palin clueless, Palin smears, sarah palin, Sarah Palin attack dog, smear politics, Swiftboat Veterans