Soon, Barack Obama should be officially named the Democratic nominee for President.
When that happens, the Democratic party will unify around our nominee, and turn our collective ire against John McCain.
And if our party has a coordinated and effective message, we should be able to knock McCain off of his stride and cripple his chances in November, especially since he will not have a deep warchest with which to defend himself.
With one voice, loud and clear, we should say: "John McCain is unfit to lead."
"John McCain is unfit to lead." Say it a couple times. Test out different intonations and accents. Say it to your cat or dog when no one is around. In short, get comfortable with this phrase.
"John McCain is unfit to lead."
The reasons that we should adopt this as our primary meme against McCain are simple: 1) It has multiple resonances, all of which are effective attacks against McCain. 2) By adopting a single slogan, we can much more effectively imprint this message in the minds of the electorate. 3) By having a versatile slogan, we can use it in the midst of a wide-range of articles, blog posts, and conversations about McCain without seeming like we are simply repeating empty rhetoric.
Let me unpack these reasons a bit.
- It has multiple resonances...
Saying that John McCain is unfit to lead can be taken as a commentary on his physical state of health (remember, he has, as of yet, refused to release his medical records), his age, his penchant for explosive fits of anger, his cozy relationship with lobbyists, his history of poor judgment (Keating 5, Iseman), his lack of knowledge about the world (he can't keep the factions in Iraq straight), his flip-flopping (on torture, on social questions, etc.), his fundamentally misguided approach to the war in Iraq, and his general goofiness on the stump and lack of presidential demeanor.
- It is a single slogan, and thus is more memorable....
"Staying on message" is something that all campaigns try to do. Why? Because if a campaign does not repeat a simple message over and over again, most people will not get a good sense of what that campaign stands for. The relative fate of Clinton and Obama in this primary campaign has borne out the theory that message discipline matters. Clinton has had a ton of trouble finding a consistent message. Obama, on the other hand, has been calling for "Change we can believe in" since Iowa. Partly because of this, Obama's campaign has been seen as much tighter and more disciplined, while Clinton's campaign has been seen as floundering about, rudderless. And more importantly, despite the fact that Obama is a newcomer to the national scene, people now have a relatively clear sense of what he stands for. With Clinton, not so much.
This principle of message discipline applies equally well to negative campaigning. If McCain's critics are all over the map rhetorically, our criticisms aren't going to stick, no matter how on point they are. We will be seen as opportunistic, grasping at straws. On the other hand, if we repeat a clear message over and over again, it will seem like we are on to something, like we have McCain's number. And more importantly, if we stick to the same message, this message will stick in the minds of voters.
- We can say "McCain is unfit to lead" in all of our anti-McCain rants.
This goes back to the first point. Because of the versatility of this meme, we can use it whenever we are talking about McCain. Whether we are talking about his Iraq war policy, about his hot-headedness, about his cozy relationship with lobbyists, etc., we can always conclude by saying: "X issue just shows why John McCain is unfit to lead."
Finally (and you have probably already thought of this by now), by saying that he is "unfit to lead," we can raise McCain's age as an issue, but without making ourselves look like a bunch of ageists and craven opportunists. Without a doubt, his age is one of McCain's biggest weaknesses (For evidence of this, check out Google Trends: lots of people have been searching for the terms "McCain" and "old."). Despite this, though, it will almost certainly backfire on us if we go around saying that "John McCain is too old to be president." Heck, even my dad -- a solid lefty who has no love for McCain -- felt sympathy for McCain when Romney tried to say he was too old... So this way we can subtly invoke his health without coming right out and saying that he is "too old."
What do you think?