The McCain campaign’s three most recent television ads come together to paint an interesting picture. Over the last week or so, ads, approved by John McCain, have blamed Barack Obama for high gas prices, falsely accused Obama of snubbing wounded U.S. troops, and compared Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. It is, of course, only July.
Taken together, the three ads combine to make McCain look “desperate” or “relentlessly negative.” But there’s another adjective that comes to mind: “small.”
Of all the reactions to the campaign’s new advertising, the most striking came from John Weaver.
John Weaver, for years one of John McCain’s closest friends and confidants, has been in exile since his resignation from McCain’s presidential campaign last year. With the exception of an occasional interview, he has, by his own account, bit his tongue as McCain’s campaign has adopted a strategy that Weaver believes “diminishes John McCain.”
With the release today of a McCain television ad blasting Obama for celebrity preening while gas prices rise, and a memo that accuses Obama of putting his own aggrandizement before the country, Weaver said he’s had “enough.”
The ad’s premise, he said, is “childish.” … The strategy of driving up Obama’s negatives “reduces McCain on the stage,” Weaver said.
“For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness…. For McCain’s sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop.”
What’s striking about this is that Weaver sees McCain as a hero. An example of American greatness. A leader with the kind of character to make the nation strong again. Weaver, to borrow a phrase, is a true believer when it comes to McCain — all McCain needs to do is show voters what’s in his heart, and he’ll do just fine.
But McCain has clearly chosen a different path, and in the process, done something Dems have wanted to do for years — make McCain appear small, self-indulgent, and rather ordinary.
Democrats don’t need to “diminish” McCain; Democrats can sit back and watch McCain “diminish” himself. Over the last few days, I feel like I’m watching Obama play rope-a-dope with a pugilist who seems painfully oblivious to what he’s doing to himself.
The WaPo’s David Ignatius has a column today wondering where the old, admirable McCain disappeared to.
What’s damaging the McCain campaign now, I suspect, is that this fiercely independent man is trying to please other people — especially a Republican leadership that doesn’t really trust him. He should give that up and be the person whose voice shines through the pages of his life story.
I don’t really buy into the notion that McCain is “trying to please other people” — I hold McCain more responsible for his own actions, decisions, and staff hires — but it is interesting to see a growing number of observers argue that Mad Dog McCain is pretending to be something he is not.
Tom Edsall also had an interesting report.
Alex Castellanos, one of George W. Bush’s media mavens in 2000 and 2004, had a different take: “The problem is that ‘advertising’, i.e., anything that smells even faintly false, contradicts his persona,” Castellanos said. “John McCain is the un-cola of politics, the anti-politician. And few things are more political than negative commercials that draw attention to themselves as ‘advertising’ designed to manipulate voters and not as ‘information’ designed to inform them. You can’t be the un-cola and Coca Cola too.”
Democratic media specialist Bill Carrick’s analysis is very similar to Castellanos’. Carrick, who cut his political teeth in South Carolina, said:
“When your political persona and appeal are wrapped around the idea that you are not a typical politician, but an independent, above politics candidate, going negative can back-fire big time. John McCain’s core message is he is a bipartisan leader who will bring the country together. As he becomes a more polarizing and partisan figure, the campaign is undermining his core message and persona.”
Someone has no doubt convinced Senator Small that these tactics will pay off in the end. He’ll have to sell his soul, but come January, he’ll get to be president.
McCain had better hope so, because at this point he’s losing a presidential race and what’s left of his character.