Congeries of cross connected concepts
I need to get this out before the Democratic National Convention, and I was inspired by this comment by M. Simon, who quotes Larry Johnson
But there is a very strange air about Republican operatives. In the last three weeks, I’ve talked to real insiders in VA, GA, AL and here. They all remind me of a unit waiting to cross the line of departure on an attack. Quiet, determined, last cigarette, last “can of peaches out of the ration,” radio checks, confident. They all use the term “safely nominated” when referring to Obama. That is weird.
Now, Johnson is a rabidly partisan border line nutcase with a long history of hysterical exaggeration, but I had been thinking along those lines myself, wondering about the McCain campaign. There have been complaints that the campaign hasn’t, until very recently, really hit at Senator Obama, especially a few months ago right after Obama became the presumptive nominee. I leaned in that direction myself. But now I wonder if it’s not working out better for Senator McCain to have held his fire. The team might well have thought Obama was a weaker candidate than Senator Clinton and held off because they didn’t want to break him before he was “safely nominated”. Yes, he could (in theory) get dumped after nomination, but that would be such a disaster that McCain would cruise to victory regardless of who was picked as a replacement.
Holding back also means that good lines of attack weren’t burnt out as “old news”, a factor that anyone who’s gone up against the Clinton Machine would take seriously. And, of course, politicallly advertising that goes on before the conventions is not trivial, but it’s not of much significance either so foregoing it is a minor loss that (in the opinion of the McCain leadership cadre) wasn’t worth the risk of not having Obama as the nominee.
It could be that McCain just got lucky, and made a virtue of necessity, but if he didn’t, then credit where credit is due. I think that should he win, the post facto commentators will laud this event sequence as brilliant strategy.
| cjm Sunday, 24 August 2008 at 10:13 |  |
after the edwards cover up by the msm — when the rumor had been around in blogs for months and months — i give creedence to the rumors of a michele obama “get whitey” tape being valid. why the clinton campaign held back on releasing it, i can’t say, but i would bet a dollar it is out there. i would also bet money that obama has been cheating on his wife too, and that pics of that are available too.
what i like about mccain, and what is absent in too many republican officials, is that he plays to win. mccain is a different kind of candidate than the dems are used to; he is hounding them and keeping them off balance.
i bet mccain makes his vp announcement right before obama’s big night at the dem convention, and i bet it will be “juicy”.
| M. Simon Sunday, 24 August 2008 at 16:16 | |
Thanks for the link and thanks for leaving your link at CV.
I concur with your analysis.
| Annoying Old Guy Sunday, 24 August 2008 at 16:38 | |
Thanks right back at you.
I was thinking on this some more and while I am probably wildly over estimating the media savvy of the McCain team, I wonder if they didn’t look at the situation back then and realize that
If so, why get in the middle of someone else beating on your self destructing opponent? A critic might point out that for (2), the blogosphere only reaches the political junkies. But, really, how is that different from the receptive audience of pre-Convention advertising? The American Street isn’t going to be paying attention to either.
If all that’s the case, then the slow but steady ramping up of the McCain campaign over the last three weeks or so would all be according to plan. I hope McCain’s team really is that smart.
| erp Sunday, 24 August 2008 at 16:57 | |
Cheating on his wife yes, but not with a woman.
People arrested at the Democratic National Convention will be processed at an industrial warehouse w
