Maybe Obama should re-think his "McCain is just like Mister Wilson" ad . . .

That ad is silly, but I think McCain's larger ad campaign is having its intended effect:

http://strategy08.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/why-mccains-ad-strategy-is-brilliant-and-im-serious/

Resenting people because they're rich, successful and popular? Isn't that the kind of class warfare the GOP always imputes to Dems?

I'm shocked it's not working.

Do we know where this ad is playing? I know that Greg mentioned yesterday that McCain supposedly bought a not insignificant chunk of air time/space, but does anyone know anything more concrete?

Or is McCain playing the media, again?

Time has a poll on its front page asking whether the McCain "celebrity" ad will help or hurt Barack Obama. McCain is milking the media for all its worth, isn't he?

Okay, I'm going to vent here.

We are seeing a repeat of 2004, and Obama is playing the helpless, hapless role of John Kerry.

This stuff works people! The McCain camp has finally created a narrative and a technique that works. The repeated slamming by surrogates, the consistent press releases hammering the theme home, over and over again. The web videos shot on the cheap that receive max effect in the media. This is how Bush won in 2004 and how McCain will win in 2008 unless Obama fights back, relentlessly. Obama has to stop defending himself from the McCain attack and instead, shift the debate and tie McCain to Bush. He's the front runner for Christ sakes!

Promisingly, he released an ad yesterday that seems to do that, but he has to follow through with more ads and press releases harping on the same narrative: McCain=four more years of Bush! This is the path of victory and the way to counter the Bush/Rove/McCain playbook.

Obama has to drive the debate. Screw responding to these baseless attacks. Keep pushing the meme, day by day, that McCain is Bush, McCain is Bush. The surrogates need to be trotting this out, the press releases need to be trotting this out, and the candidate needs to stay on message about how he's going to offer America a change from all that. THAT'S how we will win.

I don't wanna see another defensive response to this garbage from McCain. Let McCain wallow with Britney and Paris, let Obama tie the milestone of Bush to McCain's neck and keep it there.

I watched a presser today, ostensibly about Iraq, where lapdogs and supra-surrogates Liebermann and Graham continued the theme of Obama's "celebrity" to devastating effect.

We need to be on the offense too, but rather than saying how unfair it is--OF COURSE IT'S UNFAIR, BUT THIS IS POLITICS!!--We need our surrogates out there saying repeatedly, ad nauseum, a noun, verb, and Bush/McCain. Until it sticks.

like - should have been "lick"

Tena,

Consider the source. I wouldn't trust the judgment of Lowry and Pommeru if they were the last wingnuts on earth.

The McCain camp has found a powerful narrative to weave about Obama. It's being helped out by folks like Dana Milbank and Richard Cohen, and the late night jokesters, who are feeding the meme of the celebrity laden, dilettante politician, who is simply acting his way to the top. If you don't see the danger here, then you certainly well come November 4th.

I'm not overreacting. It was this time in the 2004 cycle when the Bush team defined Kerry to devastating effect, and they are starting to do the same with Obama.

The way to fight this, since Obama dominates the media, is to counterattack, not to the specific charges made by McCain, but by defining McCain on our own terms--as an extension of Bush. Otherwise, we seem defensive and weak.

I sure as hell don't want a repeat of 2004, and the last week has not looked promising from where I'm sitting.

I think this ad confirms that John McCain is the one who is not the adult in the race for President.

He approved this ad--really? It reveals so much about McCain.

For your consideration:

The Crash of 1929 occurred at the beginning of Hoover's watch, not the end. You could argue that his predecessors laid the foundation, or lack there of. For the next 20 years the Democrats controlled the White House, and by extension, the Supreme Court.

The Crash of 2009 will occur at the beginning of the next president's term. Do we really want to be the party in power for the 2009 Crash only to be denied the White House and the Supreme Court for another generation?

I hate to be the one to rain on the would be campaign managers in this group- but I think it might be a good time to take a deep breath and remember how Obama got here. He out campaigned the Clintons. That is not a feat that happens by luck. This team knows how to win a campaign- and they are going to do so, in convincing fashion in my humble opinion. Senator McCain is throwing excrement at the wall and hoping something sticks- but so far it hasn't. And if something does, I am confident that Obama's team will respond accordingly. I am not, repeat NOT, saying that Obama has this election in the bag. I am saying however, that we should show a little faith in the tactical and strategic abilities of the only political campaign that has been able to take down the Clintons.

Unfortunately, mcbush's attacks seem to be paying off in the polls. Obama has to define mcbush, like mcbush is trying to define obama. It doesn't have to be overly negative, just define him for what he is, not what he is portrayed as in the right wing media. Mcbush is no maverick and he is 4 more years of the king. Obama's got to do it before it is too late.

This ad - 2 pretty white girls juxtaposed with Obama - is the Harold Ford "Call me" ad all over again. Just a little slicker.

Totally agree, Chrisnbama. The Obama campaign is making a huge mistake.

I agree with ChrisNBama. This stuff does work. The narrative, described elsewhere, is the Obama is superficial, fluff, elite, no-substance, and a girl. It has all the earmarks of the Bush reelection team. McCain=Bush should be the theme with the picture of McCain hugging W as a centerpiece. And Bush got us into Iraq; Obama will get us out.

Republicans usually can't win on the issues; they must win on fear and on going for the deepest animal responses of us vs. them. All this elitist business boils down to: He is Other; he is Not One of Us; not American. If anybody gave it a moment's reflective thought, they would see that this approach is ridiculous. Does a major political party representing at least half the electorate nominate an Other? Someone who Other, Not One Of Us? Of course not. But people don't think reflectively when faced with images and appeals to sub-conscious beliefs, fears, etc.

It works. And I'm not so sure that Obama doesn't need to develop a similarly repuslive narrative on McCain featuring his wealth, his abandonment of his wife, his marriage to a millionairess, his houses, his shoes, and his dependence on Bush people who got us into war and his apparent love of aggressive foreign policy. Bush=neocons=Mccain=elective warfare=war with Iran.

Obama should get on the air right now with a series of ads with these two themes:
1. Tough ads against Ahmadinejad and
2. Linking Bush/McCain

He can do this w/o sacrificing his intellect and principles. Why not turn the "security" page against McSame?

You know, Paris Hilton with all her money and drug problems isn't so bad. If she could just steal herself some up-and-coming navy lad, and fund a few campaigns for him, she might find herself in the White House some day.

The point of this ad is the "electricity tax" bit. That's it. It will be the part that's not even talked about, but will be what's heard by the people out here who actually worry about the price of electricity and take celebrity stupidity for granted.