From TPM Reader JT …
Obama has a frustrating problem. He has arguably run one of the best branded websites and campaigns of any in American history. He’s consistent on tone and graphic design. But that’s where his branding advantage ends. While he has done an okay job at branding himself, he has failed dismally at branding John McCain.
You mentioned several ways that Obama can improve his messaging, but I’m skeptical any of these will be effective. Your suggestions focus on Bush’s policies, and by proxy McCain’s. But the arguments are all intellectual appeals to reflect on policy points having very little to do with John McCain, the man. Obama needs to own the branding of John McCain, the man. That’s why Karl Rove’s assessment about Obama at the country club works. It’s a prototypical branding schema from which the entire message of John McCain’s campaign is based. It’s simple, and it speaks to the heart, not the mind.
To that end, I think the essence of Obama’s campaign needs to be “John McCain will do anything to get elected.” He will exploit his time as a POW and make up stories about his military “experience.” He will flip-flop on any given number of issues — Afghanistan, immigration, torture, tax cuts, etc. He will use racist appeals and attack Obama’s patriotism to get elected.
“McCain. The candidate who will say anything to get elected.”
This is short. And it’s easy to remember. And it counters McCain’s own branding of himself as a Maverick.
I confess I don’t know why this point hasn’t been hit harder or hasn’t caught on more even irrespective of the campaign. Because here you’ve got a guy who’s literally abandoned everything he supposedly used to believe in, all to be president. There really is nothing he wouldn’t do.
TPM Reader CD, meanwhile, is very downcast …
Just read your latest blog post, and am afraid to admit that I feel the same way as you. The only thing that has given me comfort recently –and I’m not able to find the quote exactly, so I’m paraphrasing — was Plouffe saying “people need to understand much of the electorate decides very late in the game. In other words, I’m not concerned with
polls.” That makes me think they’re hedging their bets, biding their time, etc. until the convention. That’s my hope.But my feeling is far less enthusiastic now. What’s really bothered me has been McCain’s celebrity ads, or rather, Obama’s lack of vigilance in refuting the claims in these ads. The ads are working. How do I know? Because they’re working on me. I’m a huge Obama supporter, and he’s the first candidate I’ve given significant money to, and his lack of push back on the celebrity issue has planted the seed in my mind: “is he really so arrogant to think he doesn’t need to refute these claims?” I’d like to see some conviction, some insult taken by Obama at these attacks. He is the outsider, he is the change candidate, and he does have more work to do to introduce himself to the voters.
Letting this celebrity-line-of-attack go so unchallenged, to me, is the worst way to go about doing that. He’s letting McCain introduce Obama.However, when he has taken the opportunity to respond to attacks, specifically Corsi’s book, his responses have been so long-winded that I myself get bored of them. There is no sound bite, no decisiveness, no energy to the responses. A 42 page response to the book? While I’m sure it was exhaustive, how do you expect news media to cover that?
Where is the quick fatal blow in 42 pages? Supreme Court decisions are shorter.Maybe it was the timing of his vacation. Hopefully he actually starts to saturate the country at/after the convention. But where is this money advantage? Where is this expert campaign that guided him through a rather monumental upset in the primaries? He coasted out the last remaining primary contests against Clinton, while she “found her
voice.” It certainly feels, at least right now, that McCain picked up right where Clinton left off, and Obama is still coasting.I’m a big believer in Obama’s message. I think Bush is a criminal. I think our nation is in a truly perilous state. But for the first time since his campaign started, I’m truly worried and disappointed by him. He looks outclassed, outgunned, and outspun.
I’m an average American, I would say, and I believe I want what most Americans want: a fighter. I don’t like to see, nor do I think the country likes to see, someone who isn’t up for a fight, and right now Obama just doesn’t appear up for a fight. This doesn’t just worry me in terms of the political race, it worries me in terms of his ability to actually be President. Me, a progressive mind if there ever was one. That I have this perception should scare the bejesus out of the Obama campaign, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, I am not unique in these matters.
But then again, I’m not the expert, and Obama and Co. have knocked it out of the park before, so I wait and see.
