Let’s face it: John McCain’s “Celebrity” ad is having an effect- mostly negative. I have to agree with former McCain aide, John Weaver, that the ad appears childish. Has Obama become sort of a celebrity? Yes. Is there a lot of hype concerning his campaign? Yes. But frankly, that shouldn’t concern McCain as much as trying to formulate a political narrative that trumps Obama’s. (And I don’t agree with liberals who think that showing the faces of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Obama amount to a thumbs down on interracial dating or something. That’s a huge stretch of the imagination.)
My own take on John McCain’s angrier turn, is that he is listening to those political operatives who have taken a page from more recent GOP campaigns. There are two problems with this: first, McCain is not George Bush. He is not the loyal Republican trying to get 50 plus one. McCain is more of a maverick that is born to push boundaries. The second thing is that McCain has a history of being civil with those who disagree with him. These latest ads make him appear to be a very nasty human being.
If there any advice I could give to the Senator, it would be this:
What’s crippling the McCain campaign now, I suspect, is that this fiercely independent man is trying to please other people — especially a Republican leadership that doesn’t really trust him. He should give that up and be the person whose voice shines through the pages of his life story.
You can see that in the whole drilling debate. The “drill now!” mentality of most of the GOP is standard, and McCain has had to succumb to that belief even though he didn’t support it. But the thing is, he is not going to ever really please the Republican base. They still don’t trust him. But his failed efforts to try is really making independents and moderates think twice about him.
McCain knows this. He is more comfortable being the free-wheeling Senator that is conservative, but not willing to just toe the party line.
McCain should just throw out the operatives he’s been listening to and start over. He should develop conservative solutions to issues: dump the whole “tax cuts at all times” mantra and try something that is new and well-suited to the times. You don’t have to publicly distance yourself from the President, but you do need to articulate a brand new direction, lest others say you are just the third term of President Bush.
Find your voice now, Senator McCain. Before it’s too late.