Here's a short description of McCain.
John McCain: A 72-year old man with a history of cancer who chose a hockey mom he'd met only once to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world.
After the fold is a long description of how I constructed that short description.
John McCain's "maverick" brand is a strength for him among independents and Democrats. So attacking him on voting with Bush 90% of the time is good, as it weakens that brand. (eg. see this video).
But what about that other 10%? Having weakened the maverick brand, we should tarnish what's left. Obama's convention speech quote about not wanting to take a "10% chance on change" was a good start, but could be improved on.
I chose to think about McCain's recklessness, and that's what the sentence above is about: he could die in office, and he chose as his deputy someone who (a) is a terrible choice, and (b) he barely knew.
I used "72-year old", "cancer" and "heartbeat" to reinforce McCain's mortality. "Heartbeat" doesn't match "cancer" that well but "a heartbeat away" is such a well-worn phrase that I think it doesn't matter.
I didn't mention Palin's name, because the focus should be on McCain, not Palin. It's too easy to get bogged down in arguments about her, and I think that doesn't help.
I used "hockey mom" because it's a phrase she used to describe herself, it communicates a sense of inappropriateness for the job -- it says "inexperienced" without saying it directly. Also, it's not overtly critical and so won't put people on the defensive the way more direct criticism might. It also doesn't directly explain why she's a bad choice -- e.g. because she's inexperienced, or a creationist, or abuses power -- because those are charges that can be argued against (even if the arguments are weak).
I considered using "Alaskan hockey mom" to communicate a sense of her strangeness -- Alaska is really unlike the rest of the US, so she's an odd choice in that regard -- but decided against it because "Alaskan hockey mom" brings Palin to mind almost as clearly as if I'd said "Sarah Palin", which I wanted to avoid.
I didn't use "vice-president" or "VP" because again it might bring Palin to mind more directly.
I used "met only once" because it communicates immediately the recklessness of the decision, while avoiding wonkish words like "vetted".
I used "most powerful job in the world" to reinforce the importance of this decision -- despite the 24-hour TV coverage, the presidential election is not a game show, it's not about who you'd like most to have a beer with.
I didn't say anything about why he chose Palin -- e.g. that it was angling for the evangelical vote, or the women's vote, because again that's getting into details, and it just gets in the way of the message.
Here are some other examples. I haven't thought about these ones as much, nor explained why I wrote them the way I did, but I think they're a step in the right direction.
John McCain: A former POW who never met a war he didn't like who wants his finger on the nuclear button.
John McCain: A Republican so rich that he doesn't know how many houses he owns.
John McCain: 90% Bush, 10% loose cannon
Can you do better? What other aspects of McCain would you focus on for the other 10%? And can you explain why you chose the words you did? Try to:
- Make it true.
- Avoid details or descriptions that someone could easily latch onto to argue about, even falsely.
- Focus on McCain, not Palin.
- Speak to people's gut, not their head.