Wednesday’s campaign round-up
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own
, but may be of interest to political observers:
* Would he make us wait until Saturday to learn about the running mate? “Barack Obama’s campaign confirms that the Illinois senator will hold an event in his home state Saturday
, kicking off the ‘roll into the convention’ — but would not confirm or deny reports that he might be joined on stage by a running mate. The event will be held in the Old State Capitol in Springfield — where Obama first launched his presidential bid a year and a half ago.”
* Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) hit John McCain pretty hard yesterday on energy policy. “[McCain] continues to reject bipartisan compromise because it would roll back massive tax breaks for the oil companies ,” Vilsack said. “That is not putting the country first, it is putting the interest of oil companies first.”
* The McCain campaign is utterly offensive on so many levels, but it’s really good at message discipline. Its new Spanish-language radio ad tells a Latino audience: “Fame must be grand for Barack Obama. But is he ready to lead in tough economic times?”
* And the new McCain campaign English-language radio ad follows the same theme: “Celebrities like to spend their millions. Barack Obama is no different. Only it’s your money he wants to spend.”
* Al Gore gets a Thursday night slot: “Former Vice President Al Gore has accepted a speaking role on the final night of the Democratic convention, appearing on the same stage that Barack Obama will officially receive the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, three sources tell CNN.”
* Jimmy Carter will speak on Monday night of the convention.
* The DNC is hitting McCain over his odd remark on Saturday night that $5 million was the line of demarcation for distinguishing the rich.
* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Ohio by four, 45% to 41%.
* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Florida by three, 46% to 43%.
* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Louisiana by 17, 55% to 38%.
* SurveyUSA shows McCain leading Obama in Indiana by six, 50% to 44%.
* SurveyUSA shows Obama leading McCain in Minnesota by two, 47% to 45%.
* A Susquehanna poll shows Obama leading McCain in Pennsylvania by five, 46% to 41%.
* There will be plenty of campaign ads before Sept. 11
, 2008, and plenty more after, but both McCain and Obama will suspend campaign advertising on the seventh anniversary of the attacks.
Barry
says:Thank you Steve for leading off about the Saturday VP announcement. Yes, that’s a great idea – tell everyone about your decision on the one day of the week when voters will be ignoring your announcement. The campaign is truly not ready for prime time.
zie
says:First and foremost i take my hat off to Usain Bolt. Probably the greatest olympian in modern history (as far as track is concerned)! How f-ing dominant is this guy right now. At this rate he is probably likely to win the 4x100m relay and if there was a 4x200m he would win that as well. Absolutely dominant!!! These games have definitely been about more then ONE olympian. The only thing that can probably change all of this is if he got caught doping.
Maria
says:Yes, that’s a great idea – tell everyone about your decision on the one day of the week when voters will be ignoring your announcement. The campaign is truly not ready for prime time.
Interesting interpretation. This item doesn’t say that Obama won’t be “telling everyone about [his] decision” until Saturday. It says he may be joined onstaged by his VP pick on Saturday, just in time for major Sunday coverage and presumably at least a day or two after he’s announced said pick.
Racer X
says:“Celebrities like to spend their millions. Barack Obama is no different. Only it’s your money he wants to spend.”
As opposed to John McCain, who wants to spend trillions, and the money he’s spending so gleefully isn’t yours, it’s your children’s.
Conservatism only conserves the money of today’s elite, but the morons who keep voting for those “conservatives” can always be counted on to keep voting for the people who keep ripping them off, because them liberals want to raise my taxes!.
Scott F
says:McCain’s ads are far more effective than Obama’s. Sullivan thinks so too. Somebody had better step it up. As for panic mode, mine when off the scales about two weeks ago, its now broken.
Georgette Orwell
says:Bingo, Racer X. Now, how can we get the Obama campaign to use this?
Nevertheless, McCain’s projections, er, ads seem to be working. I’m depressed beyond words.
hark
says:I have seen two of McCain’s ads here in Idaho, where of course he doesn’t need them, but they were powerful, persuasive, absolutely brilliant. Full of lies, but the public will never know. Who’s to tell them? The electoral police? There’s no such thing as truth, as reality these days, but what the stronger, tougher side manages to project. Both these ads scored knockout punches, in my opinion. I was shaken by them. Literally. They just came at me, and I walked away, feeling as if I’d been punched in the gut, wondering how in the world Obama could ever counter them, much less go on the offense himself.
These guys really know how to do it.
Final Notice
says:Please, don’t be depressed, don’t be despondent. We need you. The country needs you. Your kids and grandkids need you. GET ACTIVE!! Volunteer at the Obama website. The time to fight is NOW!!!
petorado
says:Republicans have been hitting the Olympics hard with their advertising screeds. Like Scott F, I keep thinking Obama is going to hit back, but those ads never seem to come. The DSCC is running some hard-hitting rebuttals in the Udall-Shaffer race, nailing “Big Oil Bob” for being an oil industry mole, but otherwise the Dems seem to have missed the boat on the biggest viewership event of the summer so far. I understand it’s still a long way before November, but it’s much harder to reframe debates when the opposition has already set the public’s frame of mind. It’s scary to think that at this point the public will still be so wishy-washy about a third Bush term just because of some TV ads.
Tom in Ma
says:Strong attacks on McCain now — before the conventions — play into GOP hands. The Convention is when we build up Obama and attack McCain. The more that the attacks against McCain are well-known, the better that they will be able to use their convention as a time to defend against them. The time for the most brutal of our ad attacks are AFTER their convention. The GOP has the tactical advantage in that they can use their convention to blunt our narratives. We, however, have our own tactical advantage in that we have the last word.
It is a little observed part of the Rove tactics is to let their opponents make all their criticisms, see what they are, and then defend themselves. They try to define their opponents early, and bait them into defending themselves too soon.
LIberals have been pounding Bush and now McCain for years with really tough critiques. But the still unenlisted voter has not paid attention. It just may be that the kinds of ad attacks that would make us (the highly committed feel the best is not what will be persuasive in the months to come._
Goldilocks
says:Voting Republican makes them feel psychologically rich.
Scott F
says:I just assumed that I wasn’t seeing Obama ads during the Olymnpics because I live in Vermont. I assumed, and maybe incorrectly, that he was playing in other states. (Maybe I assumed too much of technology). Maybe it is worse than I thought? (Not possible). Tom in Ma, Kerry lost the race effectively in August of 2004. You don’t get a second chance to set the narrative. Conventential Wisdom takes at least a month to turn around, and McCain looks to be riding high right into his convention. Not so with Obama. He’s a month behind the curve, and the Republicans are not him off the mat. The whisper campaign must start now and merge into a dull roar, and the personal attacks on McCain must commence immediately, and we must make the rest of this Campaign about McCain’s Character (he has none). This election must be a referrendum on McCain and his Republican party.
I watched Kerry speak in Ohio the night before the election, and I remember thinking, hey this guy is pretty good, where’s he been the whole campaign. Of course, by that time, it was simply to late to change anything. In reality, it was too late to change things by September 1st.
RonChusid
says:tell everyone about your decision on the one day of the week when voters will be ignoring your announcement.
Besides this not necessarily being the day he will announce his decision, I also do not believe it is the case that such an announcement would be ignored regardless of what day it is. John Edwards made his confession on a Friday as the Olympics were opening, which should have been one of the best days of the year to pick for a story you do not want to receive heavy coverage, and we saw how that turned out.
Not that it matters very much. Obama will get some publicity when he announces he choice, but the VP choice is not likely to determine who wins this election.
Goldilocks
says:The poll (Reuters/Zogby from the previous post) showed Americans preferring McCain on the economy by nearly double digits.
Knowing what we know and with a fair swath of ads knocking McCain’s ‘economics’, that poll doesn’t make any rational sense. So how come so many more Americans favor McCain’s so-called, utterly iniquitous ‘economics’ by double figures? The only explanation, if it is such, is that a majority of Americans are such feeble-minded masochists that they imagine if they vote for such a trickster they too will somehow share in his ill-gotten gains. Frankly it’s pathetic. And snobbish. Have they been so effectively brainwashed to feel psychologically rich if the vote conservative? Could be true.
toowearyforoutrage
says:Barack Obama’s campaign confirms that the Illinois senator will hold an event in his home state Saturday, kicking off the ‘roll into the convention’
Any truth to the rumor the VP pick is going to parachute in?
You know,… the rumor I’m trying to start.