The breathtakingly negative presidential campaign being waged by John McCain is no accident, and not the result of bungling by young aides. It's a very deliberate strategy by a group of people imported directly from the 2004 campaign, in which John Kerry was stripped of his war record and turned into a windsurfing girlie man (no wonder he's become a lead attack dog for Obama... as was clear on MTP today as he sat steaming next to Joe Lieberman, and accusing the GOP of character assassination... this is personal.) From The Guardian:
McCain's aggressive strategy is a deliberate and well-thought-out ploy. It was developed and implemented by a coterie of advisers brought in last month who are protégés of the Republican political guru Karl Rove. Schmidt, who learnt his trade with Rove, heads the group and is now guiding the campaign.
The strategy is intended to turn McCain's ailing presidential bid around and give it a firm focus: one mostly fixed on attacking Obama. Schmidt and others believe they can do to Obama what the Republicans did to John Kerry in 2004.
'They know how to win a presidential election. If you can show a candidate's basic flaws, that is one way to win,' said Steve Mitchell, a Republican political adviser and chairman of Mitchell Research. McCain's new advisers believe they can define Obama in their own terms and leave him as damaged goods in the eyes of the electorate. If that sounds like a hard-headed, unpleasant, negative strategy, that is probably because it is. But Schmidt and his allies have also started to give Republicans the one thing that Obama had seemed to be monopolising - hope of winning.
Steve Schmidt is known as 'The Bullet'. Part of that is to do with his bald-headed appearance, but it is also as much to do with his hyper-aggressive political style. He was promoted to run McCain's campaign at the beginning of last month, after he and several other aides went to McCain and warned him that his presidential bid was in dire trouble.
McCain took the warning to heart and placed Schmidt in charge of the day-to-day running of his campaign operation. It was a bold move, but Schmidt is one of the rising stars of Republican politics. The New Jersey native cut his teeth under Rove and in the Bush White House. He ran the 2004 Republican war room that was responsible for taking down Kerry. He also worked hard on getting conservative judges through the process of appointment to the Supreme Court. Then he guided the re-election campaign of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to victory.
Schmidt has been joined by other key figures from the Rove-era Bush White House. They include the formidable figure of Nicole Wallace, a Bush campaign spokeswoman in 2004, and Greg Jenkins, a former Fox TV journalist who once worked for Bush's campaign. The group has sought to tighten an operation that was floundering under its previous leadership. They have also given it a sharply negative edge. And whatever braying there is right now about Obama "playing the race card," count on the fact that a race-based attack, not overt, but very real, is coming:
any Republicans believe that the controversy surrounding the Rev Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, will return to haunt him. That would inject race into the campaign in ways that were hinted at last week. When McCain's camp recently accused Obama of playing the race card, it was the first time the subject of his skin colour had directly come up. Many Republican strategists believe that McCain is most likely to benefit from that. 'The more race comes into the debate, the less likely it is that Obama will win,' said Mitchell.
That contention is not proven. But prominently airing the Wright issue in the final month of the campaign would surely test that theory. McCain's camp is unlikely to bring up the Wright issue, but there are many Republican surrogates who will probably do that job enthusiastically. Again, the echoes of the campaign that derailed Kerry are troubling for Democrats. 'Come October, Wright's name recognition is going to be 99 per cent,' said Mitchell. The pre-emptive strikes clobbering Obama for even bringing up race are likely meant to blunt any complaints from his camp once the racial stuff begins.
Of course, the strategy is also certain to permanently damage John McCain's stature and image, as I and many others have said before. But again, the new McCain team doesn't care about that. This is the 50 percent plus one crowd -- the ones whose goal is to push their guy into the White House, reputation be damned, and then force the other 49.9 percent of Americans to deal with it. They don't care if McCain becomes the second most hated president in American history (Bush II being the first) so long as he's president. And if the country falls apart after that? Sorry for ya. Worse, the fact that McCain is being diminished by the nonsense ads and smarmy tactics will only make them more desperate to win, because otherwise, McCain will be left with absolutely nothing. I'm assuming that the Obama team knows all of this. What I hope, is that they are prepared to respond to it more forcefully than they have so far. And I think this makes the veep choice all the more important. What Obama needs in a partner in this election is not a sympatico, or someone he's "comfortable with." He needs an attack dog. He needs someone who can go out and clobber John McCain and his running mate, and who's not afraid to do so. Otherwise, we're in for four years of war, a shitty economy, oil spills off the coast of Florida, and a world scratching its heads at how so many millions of Americans could be so stupid. Previous: | Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, dirty politics, John McCain, negative campaigning, political advertising, presidential candidates, right wing smear machine |
