| Desperate times and desperate tactics in the final stages of the McCain Campaign Last Wednesday, Senator Barack Obama completed a clean sweep over John McCain winning three in a row in the debates for President of the United States. All of the polls have documented the fact that Obama won by very significant margins. An NBC poll said that 90% of the respondents said that Obama helped himself the most; while only 10% indicated that McCain helped himself with his performance in the debate. An MSNBC poll indicated that 82% of the electorate who said they would vote for Obama initially said they were convinced to do the same by his performance in the debate. The numbers from the CNN/ORC poll has Obama winning 53 to 45. In all of the national polls, Obama’s lead has gone up by 5 to 10 points and more. In the swing states where the election is on the line, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama’s numbers have steadily increased to the point where he now has substantial leads in almost all of these key states. By some projections, Obama could be on the verge of a landslide electoral victory to a level not seen in many, many elections. In most scenarios, McCain will have to run the table by winning all of the swing states to get the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Presidency. Contrary to what the polls have made crystal clear, the McCain Campaign and their Republican pundits have consistently put out their spin that somehow McCain has won the most recent as well as the previous two debates. It is the “just say in ain’t so strategy.” McCain declared victory right away. Sara Palin, who continues to be on training wheels dodging interviews with all of the media (except FOX) and running away from her abuse of power as governor of Alaska, also declared much of the same as she went on the stump. McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis, the guy who was the consultant that was paid big bucks by Fannie Mae, also declared that McCain had won. He excoriated Obama for falling back on his promise to take public money to fund his campaign. Joe Scarborough on his “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC, the day after declared that “McCain won the debate but Obama didn’t lose.” What does that mean? According to how they see things, there is no way that Obama can win — it is the heads I win and tails you lose strategy! The logic of this strategy has been evident throughout the Campaign. Any positives about Obama are immediately turned to negatives. Being intelligent, articulate with a positive demeanor and even-handed personality is equated to being an “intellectual egg-head.” Having 200,000 Germans attend his speech turning around the “ugly-American” syndrome is cheapened by labeling it as being akin to a “rock-star” performance. The second component of the McCain, Republican National Committee and pundit strategy called for ignoring the real issues that the American people care about and focus instead on the personality issues. McCain said in advance of the debate that he would focus on Obama’s alleged relationship with the terrorist William Ayers. He pursued that strategy even though all of the polls had indicated that this had back-fired on him. McCain, and especially Sara Palin’s use of this strategy over the past few weeks has created a Frankenstein monster that has turned on them. The catcalls of “Osama Obama,” “kill Obama,” and the notion that Obama “pals around with terrorists,” or that “you can’t trust him because he is an Arab,” has excited a narrow and ignorant sector of the Republican base. More significantly however, is the fact that these strategies have alienated and been roundly rejected by the masses of the American electorate. Obama was right to try to stay above the fray in not spending too much time and focus in responding to the attacks. He continued to paint a picture of McCain and his Campaign as being out of touch with issues that mattered to the American people. In contrast to his eloquence and poise McCain continued to reflect the angry, desperate and grumpy-old man image. McCain tried to score some points making references to “Joe-the Plumber” about issues on taxation and the economy. He also tried to make some separation between himself and President Bush by telling Obama, “I am not George Bush … if you want to run against George Bush, you should have run against him four years ago.” Obama responded that McCain voted with George Bush 90% of the time. He released a campaign ad the following morning that further underscored this connection. Obama was right to bring the focus on the economy especially given the 733 point drop in the Dow on that very day. He also scored major points on issues of jobs, by exposing the cost of the McCain’s healthcare proposal that would tax health insurance for the first time, and with his proposals for improving access to education. In the final weeks of this long Campaign, Obama must continue his strategy of contrasting himself against McCain on real issues that matter not allowing himself to be goaded into spending too much time and focus on misguided and false personal attacks. To be sure, as d-day approaches, they will continue to come with more intensity and viciousness. |
It’s a clean sweep for Barack Obama
