The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

Below: Barack Obama’s response to yesterday’s ad from McCain called “Celeb:”

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At least one former McCain strategist is troubled by McCain’s new tactics on the airwaves.

From Marc Ambinder (of the Atlantic)’s blog:

John Weaver [above, right], for years one of John McCain’s closest friends and confidants, has been in exile since his resignation from McCain’s presidential campaign last year. With the exception of an occasional interview, he has, by his own account, bit his tongue as McCain’s campaign has adopted a strategy that Weaver believes “diminishes John McCain.”

With the release today of a McCain television ad blasting Obama for celebrity preening while gas prices rise, and a memo that accuses Obama of putting his own aggrandizement before the country, Weaver said he’s had “enough.”

The ad’s premise, he said, is “childish.”

“John’s been a celebrity ever since he was shot down,” Weaver said. “Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags.”

Weaver remains in contact with senior McCain strategists and, for a while early this year, regularly talked to McCain.

The strategy of driving up Obama’s negatives “reduces McCain on the stage,” Weaver said.

“For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness.”

He added: “There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn’t at Obama’s. For McCain’s sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop.”

Good assessment.

A thought on “message:” For a candidate to be effective, you need to be able to boil down the message into a single sentence. Barack Obama’s theme or “message” is hope, unity & change. His slogan is “Change We Can Believe In,” which includes all three of those concepts within 5 words. What’s John McCain’s message? It’s hard to come up with the answer to that. His campaign is after constructing a “message of the week,” but as this article in the Washington Post today points out, the candidate himself is unable to stick to the script:

“[a] sharp-edged approach is being orchestrated for an unpredictable candidate who often chafes at delivering the campaign’s message of the day. It is that freewheeling style that has made him popular with voters and cemented his reputation for candor and straight talk.

McCain, who was most comfortable as an underdog in the unscripted environment of the New Hampshire primary, makes his advisers cringe as he delivers the attack line — and then keeps talking. In that respect, he is no Bush, his handlers say.

The result is a presidential campaign that sometimes rolls between serious policy discussions about the nation’s future and gotcha politics aimed at undermining his opponent’s character. McCain himself is often caught in the middle, proclaiming his commitment to the former while participating in the latter.

For weeks, McCain’s staff has been criticized for running a campaign that has no clear message. The decision by the senator from Arizona to have former Bush strategist Steve Schmidt run daily operations was described as a way to get control of the message. But some Republicans outside the campaign believe that not much has changed since then.

“It’s the candidate,” said one GOP strategist with close ties to the campaign, who added that efforts to identify a theme for each week quickly unravel as McCain veers off message in his public comments.

At a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania last week, McCain stood before a banner that proclaimed “Energy Solutions” and “The Lexington Project” — the moniker his campaign coined for an energy proposal featuring a combination of conservation efforts, expanded offshore drilling and nuclear power.

McCain rambled quickly through the details and showed little appreciation for the art of “branding.”

“I call it the Lexington Project, my friends, but you can call it anything you want,” he said.

Oof. That’s painful just to read.

Some [unsolicited] advice:

1. As much as it would pain McCain to hear it, Obama is right - McCain needs to start demonstrating what he’s for, not just what he’s against.

2. Yes, branding matters - fans of John McCain had better hope that sinks in, but soon. Message, message, message. Stick to the script.

3. There’s no denying this is a “change” year, & even though this may rub the Republican base the wrong way, McCain needs to much more aggressively distance himself from the current administration. Acknowledge the major dissatisfaction voters are feeling this year, define what’s wrong with the current system - & current leadership - & offer a prescription for change. Obama’s biggest hurdle is that most Americans don’t yet have a good sense of who he is, or what he stands for - but McCain’s biggest hurdle is “getting” the fact that voters desperately want the country to chart a different course.

4. Convince voters that they would be fooled into buying into the change Barack Obama offers. Calling him “the biggest celebrity in the world” is apparently what’s behind this latest ad - but that effort fell flat on its face, because it goes overboard in the wrong direction. Do not cement your opponent into a certain status that you plan to try to dismantle later on.

What do you think? Post a comment right now & let the world know!

FURTHER READING: “the McCain behind the Curtain” by Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair

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