That's the date that I and many here will probably have a more clear picture of the electorate landscape and how the Obama campaign is doing. I've tried to be patient and will continue to be patient. I think polls after the Democratic and Republican conventions plus two or three weeks will provide us with a more clear landscape on where the electorate is going. However, there are a few things that are bothering me now and I would just like to share.
The message has been lost or worse yet, has been inconsistent.
We started with "McCain is Bush III" but I don't hear about it that much. The campaign has been reactive rather than proactive regarding its ads. McCain successfully played the "celebrity" ad over and over and over again and as other have written, McCain's surrogates have repeated that meme anywhere they're interviewed -- we sort of lost having the upper hand.
The Obama campaign introduced their own "McCain Washington Celebrity" ad but soon faded. They also focused on taxes, energy policy, jobs, etc -- healthcare and the war in Iraq has been largely absent, for the most part. The basic point is that the ads have not been consistent.
The problem is that this dilutes the daily talking points.
How do you focus on so many things at once, especially for those low-information voters?
I would suggest talking about the three most important things that Americans care about: Affordable Healthcare (noticed I didn't write Universal), the War in Iraq, and Jobs/Economy. We can probably substitute one of them with Lower Taxes or Affordable Higher Education.
Now, how do we go after McCain? How do we turn his strenghts into weaknesses?
I've been thinking about that lately. We obviously can't accuse him of being different or unpatriotic or naive. We can probably question his judgement vis-a-vis authorizing the War in Iraq but how do we scare the hell out of voters in addition to doing that?
One of McCain strenghts, which was displayed at the Saddleback Forum last Saturday, was his quips and one liners -- every pundit loves that and the audience responded favorably.
We should acknowledge that McCain is a funny guy BUT America is facing serious problems who requires a serious leader. We can't fix the Bush economic disaster with jokes. We can't fix the War in Iraq with one liners. We can't provide affordable healthcare for every American by laughing about it. These serious problems require a leader who is thoughtful, inclusive and who's ready to take on these serious challenges head on.
This neutralizes one of Obama's complain that he's too cerebral, professorial, etc.
The second part of my observation was how do we scare the hell out of voters?
McCain tends to shoot from the hip a lot. For example kicking out Russia from the G8 even before they invaded/attacked Georgia and staying in Iraq indefinitely "100 years in Iraq." Do we want to face another Cold War under a McCain administration? Do we want to have pernament bases in Iraq for the next 40 to 60 years and at what costs? I doubt anyone would say "yes" to any of those questions.
If Obama can create a narrative around those talking points and create attack ads that remain consistent and find surrogates that will push them at every opportunity they have, I think it would undermine McCain's strenghts and will scare voters at the same time.
It will also remind voters how they viewed Bush in 2000 and 2004. McCain is acting just like him with his quips and one-liners -- probably because they now share the same campaign strategists -- but see how much damage it caused to our economy and foreign policy by not having a thoughtful candidate?
In summary:
- Have fewer ads that focus on three specific issues
- Remain consisten through a longer period of time
- Turn McCain's weaknesses against him
- Portray McCain as a funny guy who can't be serious about the economy, the Iraq war and energy independence
- Scare the hell out of voters -- 2nd Cold War, pernament bases in Iraq.
Obama needs some work to do as well. I agree with one of the frequent posters here to keep his answers simple. At least simple to understand. He doesn't need to give 15-min answers to a single question. I understand that he's trying to cover his bases but sometimes he gets distracted. I was just watching the Virginia town hall meeting and sometimes he went a little too long in answering questions. For example, there was one question about illegal immigration. Obama started by saying that we're a country of immigrants. And then he went on about he would fix it. That's fine but I think he should start answering that question this way:
"I oppose illegal immigration." Period. Then go about how to fix it and what to do with the 10 million illegal immigrants. The point is to start with a strong and definitive statement and follow with your proposal to fix it.
Like I said, I'll wait until 2 or 3 weeks or even after the first debate to see how we're doing then. I do trust the Obama campaign and I have full confidence that they will be able to figure out how to solidify his support and gain in key states.
These are exciting times and we should remain strong in our support for our candidate.