I've reached it, I'm done. I feel like I've been force-fed nothing but this woman for two solid weeks now. I am now protesting that enough is enough. If the interviews with ABC (here are War Room's transcripts from tonight's part 2) aren't enough to dispel the charm that's been cast over the country, well, I don't know what it would take.
It's not like the bad revelations about her time as a politician in Alaska have let up. Today alone we have Troopergate's main investigator looking to send out subpoenas (one of those being served: Palin's husband Todd); confirmation that Palin had a direct hand in making sure sexual assault victims payed for the related medical exams; and, finally, Alaskan Democrats saying that all of this sort of thing is just the beginning of the Palin rollercoaster ride.
That would be the cherry on top of the sundae, really.
Knowing that Palin has the Republican base enthralled, though, I'm pretty much guaranteed to seeing this political banshee on a constant basis for the next two months. I'm just hoping that the parade of Palin misdeeds keeps rolling along with it.
People have already beaten the Rocky metaphor to death; lots of hot air spewed over the underdog overcoming the odds and emerging…well, not exactly victorious, for that fight ended in a bloody draw, but at least proud and redeemed. That’s inspiration we could all tap into, and why it was applied to Hillary during her rough and tumble campaign.
The underdog-fighting-to-overcome-the-odds has been an oft-used trope in movies and politics before and since Rocky, though there is one movie moment that manages to further distill that moment of inspiration in a manner better fitting the current political atmosphere: Daniel-san getting up after being swept off of his injured leg and struggling to get into the Crane Kick Stance before delivering the final decisive blow.
It’s a weird bully/wimp dynamic, and god knows why it should be so effective, but it’s likely because we’ve been primed to react to it by decades of movie reinforcement. Think about it, the Right has enjoyed its influence largely by whaling upon the Left with trumped up accusation and fabrication after trumped up accusation and fabrication. The Left sticks by its principles and refuses to engage in such dirty pool, to which the Right replies by tackling the left and giving them a wedgie followed by a swirly.
It’s the Charles Atlas ad writ large. It doesn’t matter that we, the general public, know that the Right is being a bully, the fact that we see the Left wobbling around and not doing anything to get back lowers the Left in our collective esteem. The Left is doing nothing to help itself.
This last is supported by McCain’s rising numbers in the weeks before the conventions and in the week after the conventions as well. This is why McCain did not hesitate in bringing out Sarah Palin after being directly challenged by Obama during Obama’s speech; he didn’t want to wait a weekend to let America’s confidence in Obama settle and raise.
To go back to our hackneyed analogy, Rove was in the background yelling “sweep the leg,” in essence.
This is why it’s not enough for Obama to maintain the high road during this election. He’d keep the respect of the majority of the left, but the group of those in the center, the ones who are chanting “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” in the political schoolyard would remain laughing, sneering and cheering on the bully.
The way to win over the center is not by solely catering to them, but by showing that not only could he sustain the blows the Right is throwing, he could land some damaging blows of his own, and when and if the opportunity arises, put the Right away for good.
Obama has shown us he is capable of doing it (not just in the DNC convention speech, but also this week during Operation: Maybelline), his campaign is promising a more proactive agenda for the weeks ahead. The very idea could be revolutionary. Let’s see.
Part of the problematic immediate future for these guys is that they can't just go from safe media haven to safe media haven between now and the election.
Occasionally, they'll have to cross over into unknown territory, else they'll be branded as the campaign too afraid to get cross-examined. Thus Palin's appearance on ABC (Sean Hannity is next, so that should be an easier time for her); and McCain's appearance on The View.
While it was exquisitely painful watching Biden try and fail to get that line into a call-and-response cadence at the DNC, I think it sums up a successful tactic for Obama. Both McCain and Pailn have been touting themselves as agents of change without batting an eyelash at the irony of belonging to the party that actually set the conditions people want changed. Obama needs to reassert control over that rhetorical stance.
And I think this first ad does pretty well. He may take some hits from commentators on the Right who will do their false indignation thing and call this a mean-spirited attack on McCain's age, but I think the combination of images and message resonates, particular when it arrives on the button with McCain riding shotgun in Bush's golf cart.
Still, it is an attack ad, which I could do without from either side (but notice how I'm not holding my breath). I like this second ad even more - simple, straightforward, and a vision-builder. It had better be just one small piece of a strategy to come - I'll be disappointed if this is the last time I see an Obama ad with him looking into the camera and just telling us who he is. It plays to his strength.
Thanks to HuffPo for pointing both of these out this morning. I'm planning on a lot more ad analysis in coming days, finally putting my (and this is no lie) BS in Advertising degree (I arrived at college with math and science credits that pushed me into the Bachelor of Sciences category) to work.
While all that was going on, the MSM and the noise machine played ping pong over a Rove-tactic that started like this:
"I have a fourth-grader and two second-graders at home," she said. "I would not teach them that this is sort of a high-minded debate on policy issues when they are calling people rotten old fish or a pig. In fact, it sounds a lot like some of the least intelligent debates on the playground sound like at our elementary school."
A reporter then reminded Swift that in December, McCain was asked about criticisms coming his way from then-opponent Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and McCain replied, "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."
Was McCain calling Romney a pig? a reporter asked Swift.
Of course not, Swift said.
On the positive side, Obama was able to deliver this condemnation of the tactics, which created the piggyback virus that led to the wave of backlash at the McCain camp maneuvers. Even Bill O'Reilly jumped on that bandwagon, though he still managed to make it feel oily.
You have to admire the timing of it all. It was a desperate and despicable ploy that took care of the 48 hours leading up to the truce on September 11th.
Reports say that Obama has something up his sleeve for Friday, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't curious as to what it would be.
I watched a good bit of the "national service" forum with McCain and Obama tonight. When McCain was asked about the negative swipes at community organizers at his convention from his campaign he decided to, instead of disavow such insulting remarks, he decided to blame Obama for it instead. From the AP story:
McCain said the negativity that has infused the presidential race - on hiatus for one day in honor of the Sept. 11 anniversary - could have been avoided had Obama accepted his proposal for them to tour the country together doing town-hall meetings, a format in which McCain shines best.
"I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different,'' the GOP nominee said.
So what he is basically saying is that if Obama had agreed to let McCain set the rules for the campaign, then McCain wouldn't be out there calling him a sexist and a pervert who wants to teach your kindergartner how to have sex, and generally lying about every other aspect of Obama's life and career.
Um, we can't second-guess Israel? I heard that three times. In a row. So, they have carte blanche and we have to help out in any brawl they start? Man, that's gonna be a little hard to swallow if they propose a "final solution" to the Palestinian problem.
Wow, something so specific as Charlie's question on the Bush Doctrine stumped her*. Obfuscating, empty answer, clearly not understanding the question. And then Charlie educates her a little bit. After which he has to ask her how many times to get a real answer?
Watch for this talking point in coming days - "We must not blink." Came up in her "answer" to Charlie's Bush Doctrine question and earlier to his initial question as to whether she had any doubts on accepting the candidacy. That's no coincidence.
* - Ironically, her first response to his question was to blink.
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