The Return of the Permanent Campaign (VIDEO)

One of the things Scotty McCellan (aka Puffy McMoonface to you Stephanie Miller fans out there), bemoaned in his book "What Happened" is the culture of the so-called "Permanent Campaign" that's seemed to have taken over politics.

One of the things Puffy was going to look for in a new candidate was someone who was going to end the permanent campaign mentality. Puffy wound up voting for Obama.

Now, in all fairness, the President tried it his way for a couple of weeks early in the Stimulus Package. You see where it got him.

Now, Obama is waging full-on, non-stop assault for his Economic Recovery plan, all four phases of it (Stimulus, Homeowners, Banks, and eventually...Health Care). He's been out of Washington more than he's been in it, signing legislation, holding town halls, driving the Congressional Republicans off the front page, and...more importantly...driving everyone's poll numbers up (including Congressional Democrats, no small feat).

And now, we've got outside groups airing campaign ads...all this when there's no campaign going on.

I understand Puffy's point, but we tried it his way. So...tough [BLEEP]. He who tries it your way goes home four years from now.




Originally Posted on Fort McHenry

Ad: Patriotic Act, & Why I don't want Biden's job

It didn't take the McCain long to jump on Biden's Good Morning America comments on tax increases for those making $250,000+/year and release this ad:



Deni handles well the underlying problem with McCain's attacks in the previous entry (how is paying taxes not patriotic, especially when fighting a war? - just because it isn't on the budget doesn't mean it ain't tax dollars feeding and clothing the military), and the independent Tax Policy Center has already done a better job of debunking the claims made than I could ever do. I just want to talk for a moment about this ad as an ad.

Because the first word that comes to mind is "slapdash." Seriously, this ad could be created on my 3+ year old Mac laptop in an hour. It isn't meant to have a long life, except to be passed among party faithful. It's the photocopied flyer version of a television ad.

Which I take as a recognition, somewhere down in the reptilian brain of the McCain campaign (how you like that illiteration?), that these kind of attack ads are nothing more than jabs, meant to keep the opponent off-balance and reactive while accepting that none of them will be a knock-out punch.

(I think that's why I didn't like this ad much - it seems like a cheap jab, when the opponent actually dropped the hands far enough to be taken out with roundhouse.)

All it took was one moment, one perhaps-not-ideal choice of phrase, by Biden to open up the attack.

And this is why I don't want Biden's job. Because he has to debate Palin.

Do I think Palin will "beat" Biden? The very idea made me spit-take tea all over the aforementioned laptop. No, that's not the problem.

I can't imagine being in his position, knowing you can mop the floor with this clueless, inexperienced candidate, and yet having to do it so carefully knowing that anything that can be spun into a misstep will be all over the campaign ads the next day. If he so much as smirks at one of Palin's ditzy non-answers, he'll be crucified. Hell, if he holds back, he'll still be crucified.

If something so benign as referring to the paying of taxes as a patriotic journey unleashes a flurry of jabs, how much of a minefield will it be to step into the ring with that intellectual flyweight?

Good luck, Joe. My best advice? Ignore the jabs, don't jab yourself, but take that uppercut opening when it comes, then walk quietly back to your corner for the standing eight. Then do it again.

No smirking. And watch your footwork.

AP via Yahoo!: Biden: Paying higher taxes patriotic for wealthy

Ad: Now THAT"S what I'm tawkin' 'bout

Yes, that title is exactly as ineloquent as this ad is eloquent. Show Obama at his best, lays out a vision, and got me on the gut-level in the final moments.



I believe ads like this can make a difference. I'm a skeptic, and a student of advertising, and can usually approach ad analysis with some detachment. But this ad broke that down.

I want to see more of these, Mr. Obama, because I want to call you Mr. President. You had me at "I approve this message..."

Ad: The fundamentals of our economy...

It didn't take long for the Obama campaign to jump on McCain's comment Monday that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Biden started hitting McCain on it later that same day, and this ad has already started airing:

Angela Natividad at AdGabber, from whom I first got word of the ad, called it "dirty press." My first responses to that were a chuckle, as though the dirty card hadn't already been solidly played by the McCain camp, and derision. Personally, I feel McCain is out of touch and likely to do further damage to the economy should he win the White House.

But, the more I think about it, I'm not sure I like this ad. Though not as blatant or laughable as the McCain ad that tried to take mention of a pig and lipstick out of context, I think this too is an example of distorting your opponent's intention.

Look at the whole McCain quote:

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times. I promise you we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street!"

Now, let me be clear - I don't think McCain will clean up Wall Street and I don't think he has any clue how bad things are for average Americans. But, I also don't think he was saying that economic indicators are positive or that there aren't problems to be addressed. Frankly, I believe he meant "fundamentals" to refer to the people and companies that make up the basis of our economy.

And, he's quite possibly still wrong. I'm one that believes that the fundamental bases of our capitalist economy are fundamentally fucked, that the system has bred a atavistic culture that will eat and eat and eat until it consumes itself.

But that isn't what the ad is inferring. It takes that quote to mean that McCain believes that the economy, right now, is strong, which is obviously not the case.

It isn't a terrific distortion, but it feels like one all the same, and that isn't a tactic I want Obama to adopt. The decontextualized distortion is the oldest trick in the poli-ads book, and that's not change, that's more of the same.

Do I want Obama to go on the offensive? Yes. But I want a good clean fight, and this ad veers awfully close to a rabbit punch. Let the other side be the ones swinging for below the belt.

But maybe I'm a minority voice in this. What say you? Do you like the ad? Do you like these tactics? What do you want to see out of Obama ads?

AdGabber: 'The Fundamentals of Our Economy Are Strong.'

ABC News Blog: Biden Rips McCain for Saying the Fundamentals of Economy are "Strong"

That's not change, that's more of the same

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.

Wipe that lipstick off, mister!

Good for you, CBS and Katie Couric. McCain's "Pig in Lipstick" campaign ad - you know, the one that created a bullshitstorm of false indignation with the specious claim that Obama was calling Palin a pig when he used a common colloqialism - has been pulled from YouTube because of a copyright claim from CBS.

The Couric clip was an especially difficult-to-swallow part of that ad, as it implied in juxtaposition that Couric was criticizing Obama for his treatment of Palin, when the clip is from months ago during the Democratic primary.

And while the countdown clock to the first issues-oriented, substantive McCain ad continues to roll, the calling of bullshit must continue. At some point, I want to see McCain publicly called out, asked a direct question, about his campaign's advertising strategy.

MediaBistro - TV Newser: McCain Ad Featuring Katie Couric Removed From YouTube