Just wondering…
…why the McCain campaign doesn’t whip out an ad showing the deep links between Obama’s economic advisors Johnson and Raines and the current crisis?* Or Obama’s own receipt of contributions from Fanny and Freddy? Or McCain’s own warning two years ago about the looming crisis?
[* For this one, it may be because so many Republicans—although seemingly not as many Republicans as Democrats—were implicated as well, including McCain adviser Gramm.]
Greetings:
My wondering is the $900K earmark for Michelle Obama’s employer who gave or had given her a $200K raise.
I would say because the McCain side is the more conservative side and the conservatives have merit arguments not feelings based images.
“Only talk radio, among all media, favors conservatism. With its long form interactive discussions, talk radio allows ideas to be tested, illustrated, and critiqued. Thus, Democrats have not had much success with it and have, in fact, mostly invested their hope in demonizing talk radio to those who don’t listen to it. – Thomas Lifson”
Flipping this over is why the Republicans arent really reaching many with anything they do. The media that is paid attention to most is the echo chamber to these that feel the need to sit in the choir and be preached to.
There just isnt a fun image freindly way to express things like the “deep links” of obamas advisors, or others mainly because they are so extreme. Despots get power because they are so extreme.
To actually list out everything, makes one look to them like a total tin hatter. very little of it has been seen in their world view. when they do see it, they have already been primed by them accusing the other side of similar actions already, so at worst, its just making things equal.
Interestingly enough Obama brought out the whole “McCain has an aid that is involved” thing to day. He received lots of applause from the fully Democratic audience so I guess he thought it would go ever well outside of that.
There were a few people pointing out that line probably isn’t best for him to follow much at all. Fox news felt compelled to list them and their relationship (along with noting that it is part of a long line of advisers such as Ayers, Rezko, and Wright).
I suspect that Roveian Mind Control Ray (otherwise know as “RoMCoR” to those of us in the know) was once more used again today. They must have solved the overheating problems it had in 2004 as it is now capable of being used pretty much every single day (and sometimes even multiple times a day).
Dear Neo,
There are lots of issues you can run on. From what I have seen on the web they run in the hundreds. There are two serious problems with running on a lot of issues.
The first is that you become unfocused in the voter’s mind – you lose their attention.. Some may care about the difference between chocolate and strawberry ice cream and others about the designated hitter rule. If you talk about ice cream the baseball guys tune you out.
What happens is that each issue focused ad reaches a smaller group. You only get to do so many and even if you get all who care strongly about an issue the sum of the groups gets you 40%.
The other problem is that approach can lose more voters than it gains. If you guess right on the ice cream thing and then some of them hear about the designated hitter position and they don’t like that then you might lose some of your ice cream voters.
The Rove approach – I use generically – is to find issues that resonate with the most number of people. Not necessarily the ones that are most important to them but of interest. You gain traction with them. It may not be a game winner but it helps. In whole, the common man – by definition.
There are very few single issue voters. The ones who are are the loud mouths. They organize and lend money and support to those who agree with them. They pull their strings.
The left handed piccolo players raise a lot of money and those to whom they contribute must play their tune or lose their patron. The fact that the whole string section can’t stand them pipey pip squeaks keeps the money coming but loses votes.
I think that’s why the Democrats run on a plethora of narrow issues and lose elections.
Regards,
Roy
11B40 –
I’ve been wondering that for a long time now. Perhaps it’s a few things like that (could there be more?) that has had Michelle practically in hiding since the convention?
Another thing I’ve been wondering…….why the heck all this time that Obama has been lobbing the “lobbyist” bomb at him (which has become more and more frequent) McCain doesn’t remind him that a) lobbying isn’t illegal, and can’t be so bad since Biden’s son does it for a living, and b) remind the public of all the special interest groups Obama is beholden to including Teacher’s Union, AFL-CIO, trial lawyers, NARAL,….. and the list goes on………
In a speech last night McCain did mention that Barack Obama has received the second highest amount of money from Fannie and Freddie since 1989
[Off-topic]
Ymarsakar — Thanks for giving it a shot at Contrary Brin.
Wonderfully condescending quote #1, from Obambi:
“The one thing that I want to insist on is that, as I travel around the country, the American people are a decent people. Now they get confused sometimes. You know, they listen to the wrong talk radio shows or watch the wrong TV networks, um, but they’re, they’re basically decent, they’re basically sound.”
Thank you SO much, Your Wonderfulness.
Now, wonderfully condescending quote #2, from Hairplugs Biden:
“All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they’re just not used to somebody really smart. They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don’t know quite how to handle it. Cause if he’s as smart as Barack is, he must not be from my neighborhood.”
Now, isn’t that special.
Pass it on….
[Source: http://rachellucas.com/index.php/2008/09/17/youre-decent-but-just-confused-and-stupid/ ]
Great post Neo, what fun! But lest we take our selves too seriously here, we must not forget that the Obamessiah is going to lead us out of war (even if it’s only after it’s already mostly over anyway), and that’s what most counts! But, oh, now I’m starting to feel like Mr. Bill, oh, noooo!
http://www.slate.com/id/2200134/
It is interesting, as humble as McCain was about his economics acumen, a simple look at his experience will allow one to realize he actually has a fairly good grip on the topic. As much as I do not like much of his politics or economic leadership, if I am correct, he cannot claim to be foolish based on ignorance. Still, it is better than Obama, and more, his advisers on the topic.
I have such difficulties with this election. Do I despise the one who should know better yet seemingly ignores his education and experience? Do I hold McCain as worse because he should know better? Or do I just not vote, risking a worse, if through ignorance, one who will do far more damage? Then again, whether he is actually ignorant, or whether Obama knows exactly what damages he would create, is another matter.
Life does not offer simple questions, easy answers, or certainty, ever. A mistake here, at this time in history, is like few times in history. We will either stumble on, as a free state, in the hopes of another opportunity in the future. Or, we will begin folding up a dream, joining the rest of the world in it’s dark walk, and live as tools of a state, then a world state. I cannot be sure this is The election, I just know it might be.
Oh, don’t worry, the ads will come. They’re just letting Obama get out in front, riffing about corruption and malfeasance, and Washington…
And then they’ll come out and drop this stuff on his head. It’ll be all the more effective for his looking like such a hypocrite on top of being connected to the problem in the first place.
The McCain/Palin campaign is way inside the Obama camps OODA loop.
I hope so. You need a certain amount of lead time for something like this to change opinions before an election. Let’s hope they are timing it right. A series of ads, each one highlighting one “bullet point”. each one with a different kind of dirt on the money, each one naming one to three people, with their campaign roles, would probably be the most effective.
I have to conclude either
1 – McCain is strategically waiting to unload on Obama’s ties to Fannie
or
2 – The campaign is abysmally incompetent.
Given their track record this campaign so far , I want to lean toward 1.
And now look at what our wonderful Congress is doing:
Democratic Congress May Adjourn, Leave Crisis to Fed, Treasury
By Kristin Jensen
Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn’t equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can’t agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.
Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments — Sept. 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help.
One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment.
Rove was talking last night about the Bush administration back in 05 warning about the likelihood of a Fannie and Freddie fiasco and putting forward legislation to increase regulation of them.
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd blocked the regulatory legislation, insisting that Fannie and Freddie were fine.
This is all about the dems creating this mess and then hypocritically lying to try and make it about republican ‘incompetence and greed’.
Evidently adding ‘bearing false witness’ to their list of sins is not a concern. But then, they don’t believe in a ‘literal translation’ of the Ten Commandments.
Obama is the second highest recipient of largess from Fannie/Freddie. Chris Dodd got the most…
Time for ANOTHER ad.
Re: just wondering…
Neo,
He has: http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/18/john-mccain-hits-obama-where-it-hurts-his-connections-to-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac.php#comments
Raines is NOT an Obama “advisor” and Obama has NEVER sought out Raines for a single pieced of economic advice, which is verified by all parties and anyone with any knowledge of both men. Not that you’re interested in correcting what you likely already knew to be a lie before you wrote it.