I just saw the latest web ad from the McCain campaign, "The One." It seems so over the top that a casual observer would think it's parody. Over the last few days I've seen pundits and others wondering aloud why McCain would go so visciously negative so early and so often. I have one theory as to why.
McCain's got nothing. He's got no ideas, he's got no policies. The only thing he has is his (false) legacy as a "patriot" and a "maverick" and a "straight talker." His only chance is to take the low road and try to force Obama to cede the high ground. And he has to do it now, so he's got time to rehabilitate himself before November.
McCain is the little punk who keeps jabbing the bigger, smarter kid with the stick until the bigger kid finally gets tired of it, pushes the punk down and takes the stick away. Then the little punk goes running to the teacher crying.
So many people are wondering why Obama isn't "fighting back." But I think if he does that plays into McCain's strategy. And I'm not saying it's a good strategy, but it IS a strategy. The minute that Obama takes anything like a mocking tone toward McCain, you're going to hear McCain surrogates screaming about how Obama doesn't respect the "POW," the "veteran," or whatever iconic tropes they want to pull out.
It won't be true, but it's amazing how unwilling people are to let go of the notion that McCain is a "hero." If they were willing to hear the truth about McCain, why do so few people believe that he's done absolutely nothing to help the troops, has fought tooth and nail against giving them more help and benefits, and is willing to use them daily as a political football? It's blindness -- but it's blindness that can't be easily changed, and that McCain will work for all it's worth. And if anything will work, that will. It's the one card McCain's got.
Obama needs to do what he's doing, asking "Is that all you got? Sticking to the issues, keeping the high ground. Somebody's got to be the grownup. Eventually it will backfire on McCain -- he can't go negative forever. And while Obama does that everyone else has to do the dirty work for him: write letters, email, talk to your neighbors, stand up and tell them what a lying, cowardly, despicable, pandering, piece of crap McCain has become. He may have been a "hero" once, but that is not the man McCain is today, and he needs to stop using his service to the country as an excuse for the disservice he does it today.