In the last week or so, John McCain has done more to help the Obama campaign than any of us here could dream of doing.
People have written about how Obama needs to define McCain, with many saying Obama should take the low road, go negative, and attack, attack, attack. The problem with this is that if the object of your attack is well defended, the attacks backfire. Look at what happened to the Clinton campaign after Bill's South Carolina remarks.
In the last week or so, John McCain has done more to help the Obama campaign than any of us here could dream of doing.
People have written about how Obama needs to define McCain, with many saying Obama should take the low road, go negative, and attack, attack, attack. The problem with this is that if the object of your attack is well defended, the attacks backfire. Look at what happened to the Clinton campaign after Bill's South Carolina remarks.
It would have been political (suicide is too strong a word, but it is close) to attack McCain with the main stream media protecting him. McCain has spent the last 15-20 years building up his brand, defining himself as a maverick, a straight-talker, and a nice guy. The press loved him. .
From a cognitive psych viewpoint - it is very hard to change an established schema or world view. And McCain had created a pretty solid world view about who he was. Those of us on KOS might have seen through it, but many in the MSM thought of McCain the way McCain wanted them to thing. Thus, any attack would not only be ineffective, it could liley bounce back on the attacker
The last two weeks are changing that. McCain's petulance, his stupid attack ads, and his generally snarling attitude have tarnished his brand. The good folks in the press are starting to realize he isn't the nice, straight-talking, maverik they thought he was. They are starting to realize he is a grumpy, mean old man who will do and say anything to gain more power.
And now we can start to define him. Though he's already done most of the work for us.
that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.