You know, no matter how jaded some of us have become with the current two party system and American politics as usual, we may still find ourselves getting sucked in when the media continually paints a narrative. One of the current classics seems to be the idea that John McCain is following the usual GOP path, with shadowy 527s conducting smear campaigns on the Illinois Senator and his wife while Obama floats serenely along above the fray, preaching a somewhat vague but highly luminous message of hope and change. I received a bit of a slap in the face, though, while reading this article from the ABC News Political Radar blog. They posed a question which might give you pause: Is Barack Obama running for George W. Bush’s 3rd term and McCain running for John Kerry’s first?
Not on policy, of course (not that Team McCain would much mind that perception these days). But in approach, in temperament, in stability, in take-no-prisoners mindset — inside which campaign would Karl Rove recognize a piece of himself?
In the one with tightly controlled access, the jugular-aiming (drama-free) political shop, and the temerity to cast aside a fundraising pledge en route to breaking all campaign-finance records?
Or the one with rolling press conferences, scattershot messaging (with missed zingers), and complaints about the other side not playing fair?
We have found the new politics — and it can spend half a billion dollars to win an election.
The question seems farcical, of course, if you’re already thinking in terms of the “conventional wisdom” of the media. But they do raise some interesting questions. McCain’s team, short on cash and national organizational infrastructure, keeps pushing for more debates and decrying their own supporters who perpetuate stories about his opponent’s wife, his suspicious sounding middle name, etc. Meanwhile, Obama has received widespread – if not heavily covered – praise for the “clinical” way that his team managed congressional districts to win primary states, wrangled a national fundraising effort never before seen, and demonstrated the will to simply walk away from a signed pledge regarding campaign finances while blaming McCain’s team for the failure.
If we didn’t know the names of the candidates being described, you might suspect the latter was an organization under the guidance of Karl Rove, no?
I will take this opportunity to point out once again that McCain’s failure to fully capitalize on the Obama finance flip rests squarely on the shoulders of his own campaign. On Saturday, June 7, Hillary Clinton stepped off the stage. If McCain’s handlers were half as clever as people accuse them of being, they would have had the Arizona Senator on every Sunday morning show saying the following:
I would like to congratulate Senator Obama on securing the Democratic nomination, and I look forward to the spirited debate which lies ahead. And I will also take this opportunity to invite him to make good on his signed pledge for both of us to accept public financing for our campaigns. I’m directing my staff to contact his people about that today to finalize the details.
Instead, Team McCain let the horse get out of the barn and Obama was able to get out ahead of the story. He made a pitch about people “negotiating in bad faith” and clouded the issue until the media turned it into a massive case of “he said she said.” Had McCain locked this down on June 8, Obama would have had no choice but to swallow a bitter pill and give up massive amounts of campaign cash or risk being labeled a flat out liar. But now the moment is gone and the story will be flushed down the memory hole.
Well played, I admit, and it will likely work in Obama’s favor. But it certainly does have more of the scent of Karl Rove to it than anything the McCain team is cooking up.