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Monday, October 6, 2008

The Brawl, the Documentary, and the Polls

posted by on October 6 at 12:15 PM

It’s getting rough out there in politico-land today.

McCain is traveling to New Mexico to ask: “Who is the real Barack Obama?” He also has a commercial out asking lots of other people the same question:

Meanwhile, Palin has been riling people up about the Obama-Ayers connection to such a degree that one man, at a Florida rally today, shouted “Kill him!” (In context it seems most likely to have been a reference to Ayers, not Obama.) And as the Dow tanks, Obama is hitting back with KeatingEconomics.com, where you can now watch this long video about John McCain’s role in the Keating 5 scandal:

What’s driving all this? Polls like these, showing a double-digit Obama lead in Virginia, a state that McCain cannot lose and realistically expect to win the White House.

It’s clear now that McCain hopes to claw his way back up in the polls by tearing Obama down, insinuating that Obama’s a terrorist sympathizer, continuing to call Obama naive, and unleashing Palin to rile up the base with attacks in racist code.

And Obama clearly plans to hit back hard. He’s saying that two can play the guilt-by-association game, and that McCain’s past association with a notorious financial scandal makes him unfit to lead a country in the midst of a financial crisis.

It’s possible that by going tit-for-tat with McCain, Obama will just draw more attention to McCain’s attacks as the media focuses on the brawl. But my guess is that this is going to end up being a wash: McCain said this, Obama said that, both sides are getting rough because the election’s getting close, ho hum.

Given the current polling, a wash benefits Obama.

RSS icon Comments

1

The Keating 5 isn't just guilt by association; McCain was actively involved in trying to intimidate regulators, and could potentially have gone to prison for it. Unless by "association" you don't mean "he's friends with a guy who committed a crime" but instead "he's associated with his own past illegal actions."

Posted by Greg | October 6, 2008 12:15 PM
2

mccain was only associated with Charles Keating? pfffff. that's a stetch.

Posted by cochise. | October 6, 2008 12:22 PM
3

Great doc, but it needs to be cut down to 30 seconds and played in the key states to have any effect. As a website, it's mostly just preaching to the choir instead of targeting undecided voters.

Posted by N | October 6, 2008 12:47 PM
4

It seems the Obama campaign was keeping the best for last all along, and that was a smart move as it will be fresh in voters' minds going into Nov. 4.

All McCain has against Obama are lies -- which everyone knows at this point -- but Obama has the truth against McCain -- and nobody's been talking about that until now.

It's a devastating strategy and it will, at worst, maintain the status quo: Obama wins.

But make sure you and everybody you know gets out on Election Day to make that happen!

Posted by whatevernevermind | October 6, 2008 12:48 PM
5

I almost want to see McCain win now, just so he gets to own the economic freefall that's taking place, which is going to poison the next four years.

Posted by Fnarf | October 6, 2008 12:48 PM
6

This isn't even close to comparable.

Cindy had money in Keating's S&L. McCain wisely keeps their money separated.

Posted by max solomon | October 6, 2008 1:30 PM
7

The thing about the McCain-Palin attacks are that they aren't winning anyone ever to their side. Obama supporters are solidly so, as are McCain supporters, while undecideds who are still weighing McCain at this point who might buy into this likely weren't going to vote for Obama anyway. I mean, if you don't think Obama is secretly a Muslim that hangs out with terrorists already, it's kind of hard to think you're suddenly going to start less than a month before the election, absent some massive smoking gun/October surprise. And this stuff just isn't it. On top of that, these aren't being said as statements in neutral spaces, but at McCain/Palin rallies, where Palin is basically preaching to the converted. Maybe if she had made these statements during the debate, or did so in more neutral spaces, they would actually impact independents. Of course, this does serve to energize the Republican base, but I think the Dems have a big potential turnout advantage (the result of massive grassroots voter registration efforts that are more substantial than the GOP's). Anyway, I just see this shit as desperate -- and that lots of folks will be turned off by it, as opposed to won over.

Posted by bookworm | October 6, 2008 1:35 PM
8

Obama better play it cool tomorrow. I have a feeling that McCain is going to do anything and everything to try to piss Obama off.

Posted by keshmeshi | October 6, 2008 1:46 PM
9

@8

With McCain's famous temper, he needs to watch out for that trap himself.

Posted by Banna | October 6, 2008 2:04 PM
10

Obama's even temper is his greatest asset. The electorate is largely tired of foot-stamping blowhards; unruffled and thoughtful competence is where it's at.

Posted by Fnarf | October 6, 2008 5:19 PM
11

It's too bad people have already started voting, especially in the Western States that hate the Socialist Republicans so very very much.

Oops.

Happy October Surprise, Comrade McCain!

Posted by Will in Seattle | October 6, 2008 10:20 PM

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