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This Strikes Us …
A Sojourner’s Truth Editorial
As the Democratic National Convention winds down, it has
become crystal clear what Senator Barack Obama has to do to
win the election in November … he has to sink to the
Republicans’ level and engage in every possible personal,
negative attack against his opponent, Senator John McCain.
The truth is – negativity works and it has been working for
the Republicans since Lee Atwater fashioned the George Bush
attack ads of 1988 and invoked, among other things, the name
of Willie Horton and fixed that albatross around the neck of
Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.
Atwater later apologized for his actions but the success of
his methods ensures that they would be used again and again
by the Republican Party.
McCain knows that negativity works because it worked so well
for George W. Bush when his operatives flayed and filleted
McCain in a pivotal primary race in South Carolina in 2000.
The Bush campaign raised, among other things, the rumor that
a child of color the McCains had adopted was actually
fathered by McCain himself and the fact of Cindy McCain’s
past troubles with prescription drugs.
And, of course, such tactics worked well in 2004 when war
hero Senator John Kerry became a victim of the Swiftboat ads
that he declined to respond to vigorously.
Obama has, for the most part, eschewed the use of negativity
as part of his message that he will avoid politics as usual.
Well, that seems to be the message of the past and we think
it’s wise for him to recognize that at some point he has to
go after McCain if he expects to win. If winning is not
important, if all he wants to do is make a point, then Obama
can continue the same message of hope and change into
eternity. If he wants to win, he has to get his hands dirty.
So the selection of Senator Joe Biden makes a great deal of
sense from the standpoint of the campaign. We would have
preferred Hillary, but that would never have worked for
Obama.
Joe Biden will work. Biden is a natural on the stump and he
has the experience and knowledge to attack the Republicans
relentlessly. Biden himself does not have to be negative to
do so. There are issues of McCain’s closeness to Bush’s
policies, McCain’s support for free trade, McCain’s support
for the war in Iraq, McCain’s support for privatizing Social
Security, McCain’s support for eliminating affirmative
action … all of these issues are fair game and fair game for
Biden’s role as attack dog.
But the Democrats have to go further and dig deeper.
McCain’s allies have already aired ads about the friendship
they claim that Obama has with William Ayres, a former
Weatherman who has been unrepentant about his illegal
activities with that fringe terrorist group. The association
is tenuous at best, but the McCain folks recognize a
weakness when they see one.
At some point, Obama allies must respond in kind to keep
McCain off balance and off message. They have to make
mention, for example, of McCain’s involvement with the
Keating Five – five senators who were accused of accepting
financial backing from Charles Keating during the savings
and loan crisis of the late 1980’s. McCain was criticized by
his fellow senators for his “poor judgment” in interceding
with federal regulators in Keating’s favor.
Obama’s allies have to make a point of McCain’s many gaffes
such as not understanding Iran’s relationship with Al Qaeda,
not knowing there is no Iraq/Afghanistan border, not knowing
how many houses he and his wife own. They must hammer these
points home if Obama is going to have any chance to win this
election.
And if there is an opportunity to point out the fact that
McCain is older than any president we have ever elected
before, then somehow the Obama folks will have to raise that
issue also. We were quite amused by the way Paris Hilton
worked that into her message in response to the McCain
attack on Obama using Britney Spears and Hilton.
We would like to think that this type of campaigning would
not be necessary but unfortunately we have seen so often how
successful negativity is and we have seen already how eager
the McCain camp is to make use of such methods. McCain will
say publicly that the Hilton/Spears spot is not negative
just an effort to draw a distinction between the candidates.
Well, it’s time that Obama’s people started drawing such
distinctions themselves. It’s time for Democrats not to act
as victims once again as they witness their presidential
candidates get Willie Hortoned and Swiftboated to defeat. |
