Where Did The Competent Campaigners Go?
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I keep seeing this ridiculous McCain ad being approvingly circulated on conservative blogs, and I am more than a little baffled at how stupid his campaign thinks we are. The ad claims that Obama is somehow neglecting or ignoring Latin America, as if it were wise for McCain to remind conservatives of his enthusiasm in this area, and it assumes that Latino audiences and the press are both so oblivious that they don’t know that Obama gave a Latin America policy speech in May. There were problems with the speech he gave, but he has certainly paid some attention to the region. Understandably, McCain wants to cut into Obama’s lead among Latinos, and he probably thinks he should be able to win over as many as Bush did, but must everything these people do be so unreservedly ill-informed, lame and clueless?
Filed under: foreign policy, politics
5 Responses to “Where Did The Competent Campaigners Go?”
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It’s not stupidity per se so much as fundamental ignorance. As has been demonstrated repeatedly, the average voter is profoundly ignorant about anything related to politics. Therefore, if someone did not know anything about what Obama and McCain says or does, then seeing this ad would not prima facie be absurd.
As you have pointed out, this campaign is based on biography, not policy. That means evaluating the electoral impact of a campaign based on information, argumentation, and analysis is off base. When assessing the electoral decision that campaign makes the question is: do they identify with me or him?
McCain is going to be crushed among Latinos in November because so many see the GOP as not just against illegal immigration but gratuitously and offensively anti-Hispanic. Even though McCain himself is “soft” on immigration doesn’t help him that much to overcome the party label. So even the stalwartly pro-Republican Miami Cubans are thinking twice about the GOP and races there are more competitive than ever before.
it assumes that … the press [is] so oblivious that they don’t know that Obama gave a Latin America policy speech in May.
In fairness to McCain, that’s not an irrational assumption.
jaloren is right about our ignorance as a population– what is it, 20 percent of us think that the sun orbits the Earth? I am inclined to blame the press’s inability to report the news for quite a bit of our ignorance. But admittedly, much of the fault lies not in our celestial bodies and media stars, but in ourselves.
hilzoy has an interesting examination of John McCain: The Man, the Myth, the Legend today. As jaloren points out, his biography is 100% about biography. His policy-free belief in his own righteousness gives rise to a deep resentment of a man 25 years his junior with the impudence to contest his efforts to ascend to the presidency.
In fact, as good as Bob Herbert’s column was yesterday, that right there is the best argument as to why the crankiness and immaturity of McCain’s campaign is due to something other than dog-whistle appeals to racism– he and his advisors believe that his personality and biography entitle him to the presidency, so their sophomoric ads reflect a genuine jealous infuriation with Obama.
Oh, and as to “must everything these people do be so unreservedly ill-informed, lame and clueless?”
Yes.
What else do they have? They’re behind, they have no policy views that aren’t hated by 60 percent of Americans (other than the ill-informed support for drilling for oil). So they go nasty and stupid. No reason to believe it can’t work.
that “latin beat” is pretty comical.
There are two things going on here – the first is that McCain & Co. try to identify something that the public is not paying much attention to, such as Latin America. They make a quick commercial, and then ask, “Why is Obama not paying attention to this?”
Next, with the Britney & Paris ad, the intention is to catch Obama throw a tantrum. Then, instead of the amiable Bill Cosby type of black man, he suddenly becomes the Richard Pryor “That N****’s Crazy” dude – without the comedy.