{"id":16415,"date":"2008-07-30T13:36:37","date_gmt":"2008-07-30T17:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16381.html"},"modified":"2008-07-30T13:36:37","modified_gmt":"2008-07-30T17:36:37","slug":"how-low-can-mccain-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/how-low-can-mccain-go\/","title":{"rendered":"How low can McCain go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case there were any lingering doubts, we’ve officially made the transition from Silly Season to Stupid Season. Here’s the McCain campaign’s new TV ad, for example, that reinforces the obvious fact that anyone who still respects John McCain as a credible man of character simply isn’t paying attention.<\/p>\n

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I’m pretty comfortable, at this point, describing John McCain as the single most ridiculous major party presidential nominee of the modern political era. This ad is so spectacularly inane, it’s hard to watch it without feeling insulted.<\/p>\n

For those who can’t watch clips online, the ad features images of Obama in Europe, intermixed with images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Over chants of “Obama, Obama,” a narrator says, “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead? With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling. And, says he’ll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that’s the real Obama.”<\/p>\n

Obama campaign spokesperson Tommy Vietor responded, “On a day when major news organizations across the country are taking Senator McCain to task for a steady stream of false, negative attacks, his campaign has launched yet another. Or, as some might say, ‘Oops! He did it again.'”<\/p>\n

That’s cute, I suppose, but let’s unpack the ad in a little more detail.
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\nOn coastal drilling, the McCain campaign has crossed the pathetic line and keeps on running. The ad makes it sound like coastal drilling will help consumers. It won’t. McCain has personally conceded that the effects of coastal drilling would be “mainly psychological.”<\/p>\n

On raising taxes on electricity, the McCain campaign is pointing to Obama’s support for a cap-and-trade policy. That’s odd — hasn’t McCain said he supports a cap-and-trade policy, too? Does that mean McCain wants to “raise taxes on electricity”?<\/p>\n

But the unfortunate reality is, fact-checking mind-numbingly stupid ads like this one is largely beside the point. Of course<\/i> the ad is ridiculous. Of course<\/i> it’s an example of cowardice from a campaign too afraid to engage in a substantive debate. Of course<\/i> the McCain campaign is lying.<\/p>\n

This ad isn’t about facts and reality; it’s about an emotional response. It’s about characterizing Obama as arrogant (read: “uppity”), and foreign.<\/p>\n

But does the emotional punch work? Jason Linkins makes the compelling case<\/a> that McCain is swinging in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

[E]ven beyond the numb-nutted concept behind this ad, look at all the things that are tactically wrong with it. First, it just reinforces Obama’s brand as one with worldwide appeal. Second, it’s, like, McCain’s FOURTH ad that announces that Obama supports a sensible stance against offshore drilling – which isn’t popular in states McCain needs to win, like Florida, and which McCain himself even admits would only have a “psychological” impact on the economy. Third, you don’t even know it’s a McCain ad until he shows up, approving it at the end!<\/p>\n

And let’s get a count on how many McCain ideas and policies this ad advances! Uhm…zero<\/i>. Actually, this might be the most honest feature of this advertisement!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have no idea how voters will respond to stupidity like this ad. Maybe they’ll find it compelling. Who knows.<\/p>\n

But it seems to me the ad tells us very little about Obama, and a whole lot about the shell of a man McCain has become.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case there were any lingering doubts, we’ve officially made the transition from Silly Season to Stupid Season. Here’s the McCain campaign’s new TV ad, for example, that reinforces the obvious fact that anyone who still respects John McCain as a credible man of character simply isn’t paying attention. I’m pretty comfortable, at this point, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}