Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama will be airing an ad that is part of a preemptive political strike against several reports — confirmed by campaign rhetoric over the past 48 hours — that GOP Sen. John McCain’s campaign is planning a major negative offensive to try and to make Obama himself the big election issue rather than the ailing economy.
Branding his opponent as “erratic in a crisis,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is preempting plans by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to portray him as having sinister connections to controversial Chicagoans.
Obama officials call it political jujitsu – turning the attacks back on the attacker.
McCain officials had said early in the weekend that they plan to begin advertising after Tuesday’s debate that will tie Obama to convicted money launderer Tony Rezko and former Weathermen radical William Ayers.
But Obama isn’t waiting to respond. His campaign is going up Monday on national cable stations with a scathing ad saying: “Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject.
“Turn the page on the financial crisis by launching dishonorable, dishonest ‘assaults’ against Barack Obama. Struggling families can’t turn the page on this economy, and we can’t afford another president who is this out of touch.”
Then Obama says: “I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message.
This response is closer to what many Democrats have sought for many years. Democrats often criticize their losing candidates’ operatives for waiting far too long to respond, even when attacks were virtually telegraphed — as the new McCain onslaught has. The Obama ad– with the exception of a few adjectives — is mostly a collection of attributed newspaper quotations. The most damning quote is the one from a source from the McCain side about closing the chapter. The ad did NOT use the actual quote where an official even specifically stated that the goal of the attacks on Obama will be to “change the subject.”
Can the ad work? You can boil down what is being said in this ad in a few words: “Can’t you folks see what they’re really trying to do?” The answer will be known within a week — after a McCain-Obama debate which has the potential to get quite ugly.
At this point, McCain and Obama could probably break into a Las Vegas hotel room with friends waving guns and, while it’s being taped, demand the return of personal items being offered to collectors and (unlike O.J.) not be convicted if the jury was composed of their supporters. Both campaigns now desperately need to win over the increasingly slim number of independent and swing voters who have not yet made up their minds as they’ve watched this campaign unfold.
If the Obama response is a one-shot deal, it may not have much impact. If the Obama strategy is to keep telling voters the McCain campaign is trying to change the subject for the next 30 days as the McCain campaign runs its attack ads it could be effective — and maybe the response would become a new prototype used by campaigns of both parties in combating negative, personal campaign ads. It depends on a) how aggressive this counter argument is b) how aggressive the Obama campaign continues to be on the economic issue and other substantive issues.
Posts we did on the McCain campaign strategy are HERE and HERE. And here is the ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1185304443" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1836680040&playerId=1185304443&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>
And here is some reaction from a few weblogs:
–-ABC’s Political punch:
The McCain campaign said that its new TV ads would focus on Obama’s associations with Ayers and real estate developer Tony Rezko, recently convicted on corruption charges.
“We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,” McCain adviser Greg Strimple told the Post. “We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama’s aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.”
The Obama campaign plans on taking Strimple’s expressed desire to “turn…a page on this financial crisis” against McCain, to characterize all attacks on Obama as desperation to change the subject.
As first reported by Politico’s Mike Allen Saturday evening, Obama has a new TV ad, too, that says: “Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject. ‘Turn the page on the financial crisis’ by launching dishonorable, dishonest ‘assaults’ against Barack Obama. Struggling families can’t turn the page on this economy, and we can’t afford another president who is this out of touch.”
This is a powerful anticipatory move, no doubt. And I suspect it will be very effective. But how much more effective would it be if McCain’s whole range of character issues, including his integrity and his lack of loyalty to veterans were on the table as well? Because that’s the way it ought to be. And if the blogosphere truly wants to have Obama’s back in the week ahead, it’s what we should be talking about, above and beyond the issues Obama himself raises.
This is rather brilliant by Obama. Every time McCain launches a negative ad, a negative attack, that has nothing to do with the economy, Obama can then see “see, I told you so – the man has no interest in talking about the economic crisis.” This is going to be fun.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.