Category: John McCain

by Dave Mindeman

From the Lee Atwater days with George Bush Sr., to the Rovian decade of Bush the younger, Republican strategy has centered around personal negative politics. It is what they know best and it has always worked for them.

Until this year.

John McCain has stuck with his robocalls....he has stuck with questions of Obama's character....he has pursued under the radar negativity. He has done all of that because it is the GOP playbook. And having experienced the crushing effect of that on himself in 2000, he had every reason to believe that it could work for him.

But he has been wrong.

The American people have finally begun to realize that negativity can say something about the person projecting it. They seem to have tired of the old "guilt by association" tactics. And, quite frankly, they are looking at their own, far greater, concern of a country in financial meltdown.

They want answers, they want hope. And the Republican party no longer knows how to do that.

As a nation, right now, there is a strong desire to pull together and beat this economic problem. They want someone steady. They want someone optimistic. They want a positive outlook.

That is the real difference right now between John McCain and Barack Obama. McCain abandoned his "maverickness", if you will, and embraced the tactics that had been successful in the recent past.

That could be a fateful decision. Maybe McCain can still come back but he will also have to bring back a personna and brand that has been badly damaged by a campaign devoted to the dark side.

Category: John McCain

by Dave Mindeman

John McCain came to Minnesota yesterday and our Minnesota nice label got busted.

His campaign is beginning to sow the harvest of what was inevitable from such a relentless negative campaign. And he seems to have managed to find every mean person in Minnesota. And to call this gathering a "town hall meeting" is a stretch -- it was like you had to carry your "mean" card just to get in.

It started on Thursday and Friday when the tickets were made available. Only people who were willing to make 50 calls for the campaign could get the tickets....in other words, only the "basest of the base" would be there. Ross and Coleen Rowley had told the Lakeville High School that they would be demonstrating outside the high school, holding up anti-war signs to offer a counter viewpoint. The school's administration was not resistant but the Rowleys got a call from the Lakeville police department. The police told them that they would have to be moved to an outside perimeter...a good distance from the event. When Ross asked them why, the police captain told them that (paraphrasing) 'a few parents called and didn't want their children to see that message'. When a reporter called that captain back to check on that, suddenly it changed to a secret service request.

And then came the rally and the questions from the audience. Now, I suppose when you run dark and forboding negative ads on a consistent basis, you might expect that your base of support will pick up on that. The questions were angry...they wanted a fight...they were "scared". These are not the kind of emotions that will give you a civil campaign.

But I think even McCain was taken aback at a lady questioning Barack Obama's ethnic origin (with negative implications) -- "can't trust Obama because he's an Arab". To which McCain recoiled and realized that they had stepped outside the boundaries. While trying to play damage control and indicate that Obama was a good person and capable of being President, the boo birds wafted through the building.

John Kline was there and he's not helping:

After the rally, U.S. Rep. John Kline, a Lakeville Republican, said McCain was like a coach telling his team to calm down. But he said their message that he needed to be more aggressive was "something he needed to hear."

And an 18 year old kid weighs in:

Rich Marshall, 18, a Prior Lake High School student, agreed. "Quite honestly, I think he needs to be more cutthroat," he said.

And if you thought the woman who couldn't trust Obama might backtrack from her question, guess again:

But Quinnell, the Shakopee woman who wrongly called Obama an Arab, was disappointed McCain didn't answer her charges. "He just kind of brushed me off," she said.

Is this still Minnesota?

You know, we have a country in real crisis right now. After this election, no matter who wins, we have to come together as a nation and go down a very difficult path.

McCain got it right this time. We need to be respectful. Either of these men are fully capable of leading this nation and they will need the full support and confidence of everyone.

Time to see if the "Country First" slogan is real.

Category: John McCain

by Dave Mindeman

If you are going to score last night's presidential debates on points, you would probably declare John McCain the winner. However, in the blizzard of facts and names of foreign leaders and talk of tactics vs strategy, there were other messages being sent.

Obama clearly held his ground on knowledge of the complicated universe of foreign policy and military jargon. And McCain was very clearly trying to dissuade voters that Obama had that knowledge.

On this particular point, Obama clearly won.

It may be that the voting public is merely looking to see if Obama can meet a threshold. A competence threshold that quite possibly could be getting lower as dissatisfaction with current policies gets more vocal.

McCain's attempt to distance himself from the Bush administration may get some points, but it is hard to make an argument that a veteran of 26 years on Capitol Hill is an agent for change.

McCain's hurdles seem to be getting higher... while at the same time he is not the runner he used to be.