Over the past month, the Obama team has allowed McCain to separate himself from Bush and turn the election into a referendum on Obama. It is now getting difficult to tell who is going to win in November. I know this though: if the election is about Obama, Democrats will lose. If the election is about McCain, Obama might lose. If however the election is about the past 8 years of Bush / McCain, Obama will win.
McCain is a war hero with a very good favorable vs. unfavorable rating. He’s not the ideal opponent to run against. There is one politically radioactive person on the Republican side however that is the perfect opponent, and that is President Bush. The Obama campaign needs to tie McCain to Bush’s 30% approval rating as tightly as they possibly can.
This will have two effects. First, it will de-motivate center right voters from showing up to vote for 4 more years of Bush / McCain. Secondly, it will push independent voters closer to Obama’s sphere.
All Obama supporters can take this advice to heart. In your forum posts, blogs, or even in your day to day conversations, use the Bush / McCain sentence construction and avoid mentioning the Republican candidate’s first name. Want examples?
The
The Economy: The Bush / McCain policies of the past 8 years have caused soaring gas prices, a mortgage crunch, job losses, and a weakening dollar.
Paris Hilton and Britney Spears: The failed Bush / McCain policies of the past 8 years have made Americans so despondent that we have turned to vacuous celebrities for entertainment.
You probably get the idea. I’ve met a lot of highly educated liberals who don’t value repetition, and might even think this is childish. I would submit that this is why Democrats lose presidential elections. A very good friend of mine is a successful marketing exec at a very well known financial services company, and of course, a Republican. He has told me in the past that the key to successful branding is what he calls “the drumbeat”. It’s not enough to say something once - there has to be a continuous stream of communication that reinforces the target message.
Barack Obama fell short on this front when Bush / McCain surrogate Phil Gramm made his “nation of whiners” comment. Obama made the witty quip that
Obama is a talented politician. He possesses the rare gift of being able to call people to action with his words. His rhetoric is positive, and speaks to our better angels. The Bush / McCain strategy has been the exact opposite. It is divide-and-conquer politics, and it has been on painful display for the past month. It’s unfair to argue that Obama is somehow deficient as a candidate because he can’t level petty attacks while simultaneously maintaining his positive message for the country.
But Joe Biden was born for this kind of thing. He is one of the few Dems who relish a political knife fight, and is tremendous at staying on message. If he can push the Republicans back on their heels rhetorically, he will more than repay Obama’s confidence in him.
The Republicans have no positive message to communicate this election year. But that’s nothing new. Republicans don’t win because of better ideas, they win because they have become masters of the Machiavellian art of hurling spurious attacks at their opponents that move the debate away from the issues. The Obama Campaign has been in a reactive stance, fending off the celebrity attack, the tire gauge attack, and every other nonsensical utterance coming out of the McCain camp. It’s time to fight back.
