Blocko Wocko
Why do I get the feeling that there was a conversation in the Obama / Biden campaign strategium which went like this?:
“We’re getting killed in the Blogosphere for not fighting back.”
“They don’t know what they’re talking about. But we better throw them a bone right now. It’s important to have them continued to be energized and willing to donate time and money. AD COPY!”
John McCain. He came to Washington in 1982. And never learned how to e-mail.
What else would explain an advertisement, billed in our post-modernist campaign coverage with a memo that alerts to a new “hard hitting campaign”, about McCain’s Computer Illiteracy? It is a point, a somewhat important point, which is in of itself not a problem, but is indicative of a bigger problem with McCain — one that is lost in the narrow topic which is discussed by a narrow audience. This is micro-segmentation, and does nobody much good in Ohio.
So I think it’s a bit of a mis-step, and let it be a denouement for an icy patch to Obama / Biden’s campaign in a race whose “Fundamentals” still suggest they should win, and in a better position than Kerry was in 2004 at this moment, and frankly than McCain is right now.
There is something I suspect about Sarah Palin which needs to be stated. She is the Republican version of Barack Obama, or a pronounced version of every “Thin Man” charge lobbed at Obama — does Robert Ebert’s editorial here remind you of a certain advertisement? Obama’s announcement of a run for the White House had a pronounced immediate shake up of the Democratic Primary race, but then seemed a flash in the pan as his poll numbers dissipated shortly thereafter as his inital “novelty” wore off. But then the voters leaned against him through a long primary process and some substance, as well as warts, come through. Is that about to happen when Palin’s initial novelty value wears out? She, and her cultural cache, is the one holding up the McCain campaign right now. Her great substance is that she has the ability to see Russia from Alaska.
I have more trust in the strategists of the Obama campaign than I do in the aggregate strategy session of the “Blogosphere”. For that matter, I would trust the much maligned Bob Shrum over “some guy(s)/gal(s) with a free blogspot account”. And the Dukak– well, no, let’s not go crazy. Al Gore’s campaign was better than anyone remembers — and he had to navigate sheer trivial theater review. John Kerry’s was terrible, but the one odd thing about that was the upshot of a good campaign was a mere extra couple of points — it is staggering how narrow the bottow – top levels are with these elections.
As the new Obama ad and the top of my blog entry here suggests, there is something off with the feedback loop. Maybe there is simply nothing much to say about the campaign itself (never mind the semi-circular logic comparing a Campaign with the mayorship of a tiny town), and it be best to pour over the respective records of Mr. McCain, Obama, Biden and Mrs. Palin with nary a thought on the current drifts of Horse Racery.