You wanted him to hit back. Here it is. I can't tell if this works. The closest I've ever been to being an undecided voter was when Freddy Ferrer ran against Bloomberg. That lasted about two hours. Anyway, what does the room think?
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I like it, but it feels a little late. Plus it's a letting McCain dictate the terms: Nuh-uh. I'm not the celebrity, you are!
That said, the ad reaches the sweet spot that Obama needs to hit again and again. McCain is, and must promise his base, a Bush 3rd term. We should see that hug so many times before November the country should be able to sketch it from memory.
"That said, the ad reaches the sweet spot that Obama needs to hit again and again. McCain is, and must promise his base, a Bush 3rd term. We should see that hug so many times before November the country should be able to sketch it from memory."
This seems right to me. Obama can hit McCain on the celebrity angle, but it seems too "I'm the rubber, you're the glue..."
What would be more effective is to use these opportunities to pivot and promote the idea that McCain & Bush are joined at the hip. That hug should really be seen over and over---it's a powerful image.
McCain is fully able to free himself from the joined at the hip thing, it takes a couple speeches where policy issues are laid out and/or the personal differences made explicit.
And the add seems like too little too late, and (imho) conceding the point that people do care about this sort of thing, which I think is basically incorrect (in July/August, a lot of bad media fruit is sold as good, and the McCain attacks may fall in this category).
Given there is little policy difference between McCain and Bush, how do you propose McCain discuss unicorns?
All I know is that the ad is really annoying.
Given there is little policy difference between McCain and Bush, how do you propose McCain discuss unicorns?
I think the ad makes a nice distinction between Obama's "celebrity" (appeal to masses) vs. McCain's "celebrity" (appeal to insiders). It punches up the cronyism angle quite nicely, it makes a subtle but effective hit on the age thing (that old-school Vegas/Johnny Carson music, making sure he is the oldest person in every clip) -- and it keeps a fairly light touch.
And I don't care if he is your president, you should never let a much younger man kiss you on the head like that in public. That was a Tony Soprano/Uncle Junior moment if ever there was one.
Word. That image and at least the audio or a text quote of that clip from the primaries of McCain saying he agrees with 90% of Bush's policies should be in every other ad Obama's running.
I think the most important part of the ad is the line about McCain's campaign being ridden with lobbyists.
Obama has already hit that theme with the Ohio DHL ad and I think he will return to that in both state and national ads. There is ample material to work with and that line of approach combines a process message (the place of lobbyists in DC) with a character message (McCain is an insider not an outsider or maverick) and a policy message (these will vary in different ads).
So consider this a big set-up for future ads.
One more thing to notice: McCain isn't being compared to celebs like Paris or Britney, people known for being known. Instead, McCain's being defined in terms of McCain's links to Bush/lobbyists/the entertainment scene. That makes this arguably less negative and more effective.
"The closest I've ever been to being an undecided voter was when Freddy Ferrer ran against Bloomberg."
And then you voted for...?
I think the celebrity angle is in there to hook and feed the drones of the MSN. They are mindlessly focused on the celebrity story line and this offers them a continuation they can play over and over again.
The real punch in this and one that team Obama will drill on from now to Nov is the McSame message.
Ditto the above.
But, most importantly, how much does it suck to be Steve Carell right now?
Sorry, but I see this in much the same way as Ben Smith at Politico.
The Obama team as in the primary waited until it was universally established that McCain was gonna go negative and keep going negative. So if/when Obama responded, it would not be said that Obama was the first going negative. I bet that once the Obama campaign saw that McCain was gonna go negative during the Olympics that it was time to bring out the guns.
The bad thing for McCain is that because of the Olympics, most of the political show will be drowned out. So his "rebuttal" ad will not be getting as much play as before.
I think this ad is great, and probably signifies that the Obama campaign may be getting ready to take the gloves off, particularly after the convention.
Word. That image and at least the audio or a text quote of that clip from the primaries of McCain saying he agrees with 90% of Bush's policies should be in every other ad Obama's running.
stupid ad. they're practically conceding this whole "celebrity" thing and now thats what the campaign is going to be about.
only now, they won't be able to critcize mccain for running ads about paris and britney because they just ran they're own freakin' version.
stick to the issues. thats what voters care about. but now its turned into a pissing match over who's the biggest celebrity...
one way to hit back would be to hit mccain on issues like the DHL deal thats going to cost ohio 8000 jobs that he, not only supported, but that his campaign manager LOBBIED for.
this ad is just going down to his level. and there is soooo much other things to hit him over the head with that it boggles me why they want the debate to be about "celebrity".
I cringed a bit. I don't see the value in getting into a pissing match over who's the biggest celebrity. I do think it's worth getting the message out there that McCain is being hypocritical . . . that he's the true elitist with the mega mansions and expensive shoes, but I'd hit the celebrity thing more subtly. One or two of Obama's well-placed wry observations about how many talk shows McCain's been on, that sort of thing. Otherwise, I'd leave the serious slamming to surrogates. I do agree with other posters that it's time to pick a box (McSame would be my vote) and hit that over and over again in ads and surrogate messages. Every sentence should tie McCain to Bush. And by proxy, they should extend that to how out of touch both men are and use Phil Gramm's "mental recession" comments to make the point. That really should get more play, imo.
A little too subtle. I missed the "WASHINGTON" celebrity angle on the first viewing. Watched it again after reading about that angle and it played much better.
Congrats on the new home. You've definitely come out the box strong.
"Otherwise, I'd leave the serious slamming to surrogates."
I would agree with this sentence---except for the fact that Democratic surrogates seem constitutionally incapable of staying on message. When the Republican talking points go out, it's as if every last one of them has been programmed to spew the lastest bamboozlement---and it creates a pretty impressive and self-reinforcing echo chamber. With the Dems, you have a few clowns getting all this play talking about Obama's weaknesses. Instead of being surrogates and advocating for Obama, they're busy trying to curry favor with the media talkingheads and helping to further entrench this narrative of Obama's problems with certain demographics. Good help is just hard to find if you're a Democrat.
So Obama's team has to dip in the cesspool itself in order to have a shot. Sure, it would love to have surrogates out there taking shots, drawing flak and staying on message. But the Dems surrogates who are out there hustling for his team don't get the same media oxygen as the Harold Fords & Howard Wolfsons. It's hard to stay clean when your "friends" are guys like Lanny Davis.
"I don't belong to any organized party---I'm a Democrat." Those words have never been more true...and it's making things a lot harder for us than it should be.
This ad is perfectly timed, at least to me. If it was released the same day as the original celebrity ads, it would have been lost in the back-and-forth. Now this one stands alone in that it's not about celebrity at all. It's about McCain's willingness to do anything to be liked. He CRAVES popularity. He CRAVES the presidency. And he'll do whatever he has to achieve it. Look for that to be the emerging theme over the next few weeks.
I agree with NSinNY - I want to know who you voted for. I had recently moved to New York at the time of the election and did not get around to registering to vote in time, so did not vote. But, as a progressive Democrat, I would have had to think long and hard about that particular race, based on how well Bloomberg had done up to 2005 and Ferrer's antics in the 2001 primary.
HITTING TOO LATE:
I think this ad is perfectly timed. First of all if Obama had responded to the initial attack ads, then for the past what 2 weeks, all we would have gotten is back to back attack ads which may boost our morale, but would be a disaster for Obama. Let's be honest, what makes Obama a "risky" choice to some people is that people claim to not know enough about Obama. Obama unlike Cliton and McCain is a relatively unknown quanitity to some people. If he had spent the past 2 weeks countering attack ads, what would the people who consider him unknown have discoverd about Obama. The answer: NOTHING! Unlike McCain or Clinton Obama does not have the luxury of just running a counterattack campaign. He has to let those American who are looking for a reason to vote for him other than the fact that yes, we Libs/Dems bloggers like him. The way to do that is not by running a negative non-substantive campaign, one in which all Obama does is counterpunch negative ads all the time. While McCain has been running negative ads, what has Obama been doing, talking about the economy, energy, jobs, etc. He's been giving those voters who wants other reasons to vote for him, exactly what may sway them...policy.
I really think that we sometimes forget that Obama and McCain are trying to reach different audiences. McCain wants to reach the people who are looking for reasons NOT TO VOTE FOR BARACK H OBAMA.
Barack wants to reach the people who are looking for reasons to VOTER FOR BARACK OBAMA, or even AGAINST GWB.
I really think that this should be the eyes by which we view this campaign. Because conservatives will ultimately vote against Obama by voting for McCain (or hopefuly Barr), and Liberals will untimately vote for Obama or against Bush. So I think it's really about who can get out the most of the middle of the road voters.
Obama will not win the people who aren't even contemplating voting for him, but he has a good chance of winning those who are.
lamh31,
wow. thanks for bringing this thread to a screeching halt.
dick.