I can foresee a lot of scrambling by leading Democrats trying to explain this one away.
What John McCain is doing--as unlovely as the execution of the strategy may appear to political wonks and insiders of both parties--is going right past the money and the pseudo-wonkish seriousness of the Obama campaign to make ads that people will remember, whether they like them or not.
And for the first time he's throwing Barack Obama seriously off stride with them.
Obama is responding rather than initiating.
The strategy is an old one: throw rapid-fire shit at a wall and see what sticks, but it is nonetheless effective.
The fact that Paris Hilton and company made a video response actually plays into McCain's hands. Why? Because it doesn't make him look stupid to middle-class America, it looks like he finally got their attention.
Remember: McCain is the guy they wrote off as road kill last year, and he's got a lot of experience in not losing.
And while everybody's watching the hand waving the Paris Hilton doll, the other hand is making all the rounds on conservative talk radio shoring up the base by taking credit for giving the liberal elite fits.
Ironically, the one Democrat who'd know how to play this game back at him is Hillary Clinton.
Disclaimer: this is not a campaign ad nor an endorsement for Senator John McCain, whose stance of preemptive war alone keeps him from getting my vote. It is merely an observation about campaign process.
What John McCain is doing--as unlovely as the execution of the strategy may appear to political wonks and insiders of both parties--is going right past the money and the pseudo-wonkish seriousness of the Obama campaign to make ads that people will remember, whether they like them or not.
And for the first time he's throwing Barack Obama seriously off stride with them.
Obama is responding rather than initiating.
The strategy is an old one: throw rapid-fire shit at a wall and see what sticks, but it is nonetheless effective.
The fact that Paris Hilton and company made a video response actually plays into McCain's hands. Why? Because it doesn't make him look stupid to middle-class America, it looks like he finally got their attention.
Remember: McCain is the guy they wrote off as road kill last year, and he's got a lot of experience in not losing.
And while everybody's watching the hand waving the Paris Hilton doll, the other hand is making all the rounds on conservative talk radio shoring up the base by taking credit for giving the liberal elite fits.
Ironically, the one Democrat who'd know how to play this game back at him is Hillary Clinton.
Disclaimer: this is not a campaign ad nor an endorsement for Senator John McCain, whose stance of preemptive war alone keeps him from getting my vote. It is merely an observation about campaign process.
Comments
The one Dem message that is coming through is: This is not the McCain of 2000. He's changed.
BTW, I think Dems have already put out their counter ad.
A brand new issue needs to appear, and appear soon.
The lack of a new issue, is why we even talk back and forth about a campaign ad. Obviously there are much more important things to discuss than effective ads, (like health-care) but most of America has heard it argued back and forth before.....
But give us something new............
and our short attention spans will refocus, renewed with vigor.
Bottom line, we need a new issue.
1. It made her look smarter than him.
2. She drew a lot of attention to his age.
3. The McCain campaign ACTUALLY said her view accords w/ theirs, undermining the original point of the ad that it's Obama, not McCain, that belongs to realm of superficiality.
On the last point, the Obama campaign missed an opportunity to respond to point out that it's John McCain that has the Paris Hilton view on energy policy.