McCain Spears Obama
In the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of OZ" Dorothy Gale goes on a journey in a magical land to find a wizard who will help her find her way back home. Arriving at the Emerald City, she and her fellow travelers are given an audience with the Wizard who puts on a fantastic light show, only to be revealed as a fraud - an ordinary song and dance man - when Dorothy's little dog Toto pulls back the curtain of the control room.
For those watching the 2008 presidential campaign who had not yet been convinced that the Republican party lives in the Land of Oz, John McCain’s campaign released an attack ad that equates Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Ridiculous you say; harmless stupidity that no one will take seriously? In John McCain’s Land of Oz it's no surprise to discover that when we pull back the curtain, the wizard who is telling people what they should think is really a political functionary with a video budget - what is sometimes referred to as an ad man.
More than any piece of political campaign effluvia in recent memory, this chunk of elephant manure - however inane - is instructive; it reminds us how important it is to continually look at the subtext of political messages to appreciate the true value of their imagery.
The stated strategy of McCain’s handlers in equating a Harvard educated professor of Constitutional law with two ditzy 20-something blond celebrities was to show that Obama the politician is really all about personality with no substance. What would cause the McCainites to waste good money on such a moronic idea? This was, in fact, an attempt by the new leadership of the McCain team to invigorate a campaign that just a few weeks ago seemed to be quickly slipping away.
On July 2, in a truly Orwellian move, the McCain camp, concerned over the campaign's inertia, hired long-time GOP insider and Karl Rove protegé Steve Schmidt to handle day-to-day operations. A California political operative who ran President Bush's re-election campaign, Schmidt was a counselor to VP Dick Cheney and was among those responsible for engineering the sleazy attacks against John McCain that characterized the Bush primary run in 2000. That McCain would turn around and hire Schmidt to run his '08 juggernaut speaks volumes about the Arizona senator's values, his obsession with becoming president and the sorry state of American politics in general.
Known for his aggressive tactics, Schmidt has quickly put his imprimatur on the McCain campaign by focusing on one simple idea: the country is still unfamiliar with Barack Obama. Schmidt and Team Mac know they have a small window to define the Illinois senator before he successfully defines himself. Since no one really pays much attention to substantive arguments in American political discourse anyway, Big Mac's guys knew they had to address three key items: the dangerous disparity in oratorical skills between the two candidates, the obvious age difference between McCain and Obama, and the unquestionable allure of Obama's personality. The tactic would be to attack Obama's strengths and sow doubts about his readiness for office.
When news broadcasts juxtaposed pictures of Obama being cheered by hundreds of thousands of adoring Europeans during his overseas visit with McCain being interviewed in the cheese aisle of a local supermarket, the McCain image squad sprung into action. They would take a page from Hillary Clinton's primary playbook and portray Obama as a silver-tongued hustler with nothing to back up his words.
What is truly ridiculous, of course, about the attack on Obama's "substance" is that since the time of Richard Nixon the heart of Republican political planning has been a fundamental understanding that the American people rarely make the effort to look beneath the veneer of Madison Avenue slogans, shallow arguments and manipulative imagery that characterize our political campaigns. The party has counted on voters having little more than a surface comprehension of political arguments, confident that they will continue to vote for candidates like George Bush that they feel comfortable with - candidates who most often lack substance.
The problem for the McCain machine is that, like John Kerry and Bill Clinton before him, Barack Obama does have an in-depth understanding of the issues confronting the country to accompany his charisma and rhetorical skills. The challenge for the McCain crew would be to define a candidate whom voters would be both uncomfortable with and who was also lacking in substance. The solution: paint Obama as being arrogant; overlay the image of a highly educated black man with that of two brainless blonds, both of whom dropped out of high school and who strangely personify the odd pairing of personality types that make up the majority of the the Republican base: one from the trailer parks of Mississippi and other from the mansions of New York.
It is rare that those pulling the message levers for political campaigns are scrutinized as they should be. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" they will say. As we inch ever closer toward election day, voters should feel confident that Steve Schmidt and his team of media ninjas will be out waging war against candidates who are known simply for being celebrities, who are lacking in substance and have no business holding public office. The man behind the curtain has, after all, an in-depth understanding of the subject - he was campaign manager for Arnold Schwartzenegger.
In the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of OZ" Dorothy Gale goes on a journey in a magical land to find a wizard who will help her find her way back home. Arriving at the Emerald City, she and her fellow travelers are given an audience with the Wizard who puts on a fantastic light show, only to be revealed as a fraud - an ordinary song and dance man - when Dorothy's little dog Toto pulls back the curtain of the control room.
For those watching the 2008 presidential campaign who had not yet been convinced that the Republican party lives in the Land of Oz, John McCain’s campaign released an attack ad that equates Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Ridiculous you say; harmless stupidity that no one will take seriously? In John McCain’s Land of Oz it's no surprise to discover that when we pull back the curtain, the wizard who is telling people what they should think is really a political functionary with a video budget - what is sometimes referred to as an ad man.
More than any piece of political campaign effluvia in recent memory, this chunk of elephant manure - however inane - is instructive; it reminds us how important it is to continually look at the subtext of political messages to appreciate the true value of their imagery.
The stated strategy of McCain’s handlers in equating a Harvard educated professor of Constitutional law with two ditzy 20-something blond celebrities was to show that Obama the politician is really all about personality with no substance. What would cause the McCainites to waste good money on such a moronic idea? This was, in fact, an attempt by the new leadership of the McCain team to invigorate a campaign that just a few weeks ago seemed to be quickly slipping away.
On July 2, in a truly Orwellian move, the McCain camp, concerned over the campaign's inertia, hired long-time GOP insider and Karl Rove protegé Steve Schmidt to handle day-to-day operations. A California political operative who ran President Bush's re-election campaign, Schmidt was a counselor to VP Dick Cheney and was among those responsible for engineering the sleazy attacks against John McCain that characterized the Bush primary run in 2000. That McCain would turn around and hire Schmidt to run his '08 juggernaut speaks volumes about the Arizona senator's values, his obsession with becoming president and the sorry state of American politics in general.
Known for his aggressive tactics, Schmidt has quickly put his imprimatur on the McCain campaign by focusing on one simple idea: the country is still unfamiliar with Barack Obama. Schmidt and Team Mac know they have a small window to define the Illinois senator before he successfully defines himself. Since no one really pays much attention to substantive arguments in American political discourse anyway, Big Mac's guys knew they had to address three key items: the dangerous disparity in oratorical skills between the two candidates, the obvious age difference between McCain and Obama, and the unquestionable allure of Obama's personality. The tactic would be to attack Obama's strengths and sow doubts about his readiness for office.
When news broadcasts juxtaposed pictures of Obama being cheered by hundreds of thousands of adoring Europeans during his overseas visit with McCain being interviewed in the cheese aisle of a local supermarket, the McCain image squad sprung into action. They would take a page from Hillary Clinton's primary playbook and portray Obama as a silver-tongued hustler with nothing to back up his words.
What is truly ridiculous, of course, about the attack on Obama's "substance" is that since the time of Richard Nixon the heart of Republican political planning has been a fundamental understanding that the American people rarely make the effort to look beneath the veneer of Madison Avenue slogans, shallow arguments and manipulative imagery that characterize our political campaigns. The party has counted on voters having little more than a surface comprehension of political arguments, confident that they will continue to vote for candidates like George Bush that they feel comfortable with - candidates who most often lack substance.
The problem for the McCain machine is that, like John Kerry and Bill Clinton before him, Barack Obama does have an in-depth understanding of the issues confronting the country to accompany his charisma and rhetorical skills. The challenge for the McCain crew would be to define a candidate whom voters would be both uncomfortable with and who was also lacking in substance. The solution: paint Obama as being arrogant; overlay the image of a highly educated black man with that of two brainless blonds, both of whom dropped out of high school and who strangely personify the odd pairing of personality types that make up the majority of the the Republican base: one from the trailer parks of Mississippi and other from the mansions of New York.
It is rare that those pulling the message levers for political campaigns are scrutinized as they should be. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" they will say. As we inch ever closer toward election day, voters should feel confident that Steve Schmidt and his team of media ninjas will be out waging war against candidates who are known simply for being celebrities, who are lacking in substance and have no business holding public office. The man behind the curtain has, after all, an in-depth understanding of the subject - he was campaign manager for Arnold Schwartzenegger.
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