The Obama team is constantly frustrating progressive bloggers and news junkies by being extremely cavalier about the news cycle. They don't seem especially interesting in pouncing on gaffes or in responding to accusations, and they're not especially quick on the draw or generous with talking points. Instead, they have a very inner-directed approach that's all about building and cultivating the Obama brand to their own specifications and on their own schedule. The McCain campaign's not like that at all. They're obsessed with winning the news cycle and they're good at it. But they're much less interested in the McCain brand. That's one thing you see with the "POW! POW! POW!" schtick -- McCain's war record is a great asset so they don't hesitate to bust it out in all kinds of situations irrespective of the fact that busting it out constantly undermines the asset and creates a powerful negative counter-narrative. What you see with the Palin pick, from a political strategy point of view, is I think the McCain campaign's focus on winning the news cycle taken to a myopic and senseless extreme.I think it was Ken Auletta who said that there was no left or right-wing bias in media--only a bias toward the bottom line. The McCain strategy has pay-offs for both media and for the campaign. Basically McCain's people need only release a fulminating press release or screen a commercial for an assemblage of reporters to get some free publicity. Meanwhile news orgs, get to generate content simply by either quoting dueling spokespeople, "strategists" of dubious repute, or cribbing from the latest press release.
This is the essence of McStory--but it seems to me to have limited returns and serious risks. First, "dominating the news-cycle" is the sort of thinking that flatters reporters and encourages them to give a campaign points whether or not there is any discernable impact. It gives the news-media an unearned sense of importance and makes people think MSNBC was somehow more decisive in the Democratic primary than team Obama's superior knowledge of the primary system.
Second--as Matt says--there is a point when "dominating the news-cycle" becomes a strategy of fear, in which you're just reacting to your opponents latest move. Palin strikes me as exactly that--We'll show the Democrat Party that they aren't the only ones who can make history. I smelled trouble when the McCain camp said they wouldn't name a VP until Obama had his own. We see the marks of that thinking all over the Palin pick. With minimal vetting and only a single face to face meeting, McCain's people picked a candidate who could hold the future of the human race in her hands. The most important rationale for the pick seems to be Joe Biden.
And so it worked--they owned the cycle and Obama's lovely speech was, at least partially, shunted aside. But here is the rub: Getting Chris Matthews to change the subject can't erase the 38 million people who watched that speech, a feat that Obama didn't need to game the "news-cycle" to achieve--he just had to show up. Moreover, expect that after a few days of glowing coverage, and every reporter worth her salt will do the vetting that McCain should have done. At that point, I expect the GOP nominee will learn a valuable lesson--in any game with the news cycle, the news cycle always wins.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
These comments are dead on.
The Obama camp takes their time and never, ever takes their eye off their goal. And it can be frustrating at times. For example, for a couple of weeks I sat frustrated, wondering when Obama would slam McCain with the "nation of whiners" gaffe. And they sat back, took their time, and then pulled it out in front of 38 million viewers. They don't waste their advantages. They are disciplined enough to hold back and use them to their maximum effect.
The Sarah Palin pick is a joke on so many levels. However, it's an alarmingly scary joke. I look forward to the news media doing their job on this one.
I'd add that while he may have owned the news cycle (maybe even pwned it), McCain didn't exactly get a glowing response to the pick. The only folks on MSM television who seemed to really like this were the GOP blowhards who were selected expressly for that purpose. The Biden pick, on the other hand, was met with pretty much unanimous respect. Did McCain really want to own the news cycle with a big, resounding WTF? Two weeks ago, Palin didn't even know what the veep's job was; let's hope she made good use of Wikipedia in the meantime.
What a terrific analysis! Mr. Coates, you are a jewel in the muck that purports to be online journalism. I hope you get over your(and your readers') obsession with grammar and continue posting such informed opinion.
I think one more way the Palin announcement has been a gift to the Obama campaign is that now they can quietly and efficiently go about doing their job and introducing their candidates to the battleground states( via bus tour) without the hyper scrutiny of the mainstream media. Somewhere in the heartland Obama and Biden must be heaving sighs of relief and respite.
Interesting post. I mostly agree. I do think it is somewhat a waste of energy to try and win every news cycle, since most people aren't nutjobs like me and don't spend hours a day scanning political blogs. Nevertheless, it does seem like the stronger memes do trickle down.
And I can't help but feel that biased reporting does influence elections. Not sure that was necessarily the case with Obama/Hillary, but MSNBC has gone off the rails. Their bias is so obvious it's approaching FOX. They're just not as vitriolic, hateful, or extreme as FOX. Seriously, though I do think that when the talking heads incessantly ask questions like, is (Insert Democrat)patriotic enough? that a discourse is framed in the minds of certain aspects of the electorate. Whether or not it mattered previously it is instantly given credence by well dressed professionals allowing it oxygen in the name of balance. John Stewart had a great joke about Fox where he pointed out all the crazy accusations they would make and just add a question mark: Obama, a Muslim? Your mother, a whore? We report you decide.
A flyboy like McCain no doubt knows a thing or two about OODA loops; I think his campaign is mistaking 'rapid response' with getting inside the other guy's loop. On top of this...GIGO.
OTOH, I have yet to see a strategy for gathering 271 electoral votes coming out of the McCain campaign. Its Dole '96 all over again, right down to George F. Will recommending the clarion call "where's the ridicule?" subbing for "where's the outrage?" Old White Men At Sea...
What we need is a recall system to replace chief executives as needed rather than on a timetable.
Well the problem is that the American people are also obsessed with the news cycle. These format, blogs, 24 hr cable news and news websites make money otherwise media organizations wouldn't do it. The most disgusting part is we've arrive d at a point where substance is weighed equally with nonsense. A moment where one of the most dynamic and historic moments in American history can be overshadowed in the short term by the selection of Peggy Hill for VP. This upcoming election is about where we want to head in the future and the consequences are clear to anyone who can lift there head out of the haze of content and opinion to see it.
I keep see this talking point of Palin not understanding what the position of VP is. A reading of the full quote isn't as simplistic as the left wing hacks at Kos and Open Left would lead you to believe.
Here is the full quote
Palin: "[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P .slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question."
It appears to me that she is questioning what her role would be in an administration and she doesn't want it to be the John Adams model of sitting around waiting for the President to die. Different VP's have vastly different roles, Gore's was reinventing government, Cheney started with the Energy Task Force. When asked about a hypothetical VP job, the person doesn't know what the job is about until the boss tells them.
All those geniuses like Chris Bowers who think this answer shows Palin's stupidity, please enlighten us all on what the VP does "every day". It is impossible to explain that because not only is "every day" different, every VP has different tasks.
I think her answer shows she really didn't think she would be chosen because its audience is obviously her fellow Alaskans. It seemed like it was her way of saying I am putting Alaskans first, more to improve her standing in her home state.
Moreover, expect that after a few days of glowing coverage, and every reporter worth her salt will do the vetting that McCain should have done.
Don't hold your breath.
DougEFresh:
The VP breaks ties in the Senate. Often times, they go to state funerals and the like. Speak in front of all sorts of groups. I think you get the picture. Did you see Colbert last night? He summed it up like only Colbert can. He said the VP only has to break ties in the Senate and shoot people in the face(which he then butressed by showing a clip of Palin shooting a gun .. she is a lifetime NRA member after all). He then declared her ready from day one.
excellent points, but i would agree with msw on his cautionary note.
waiting for the mainstream media to do a competent and professional job on a particular subject is a losing game.
the last 7 years have shown that the media will gladly avoid doing its job.
for instance, has there been a single network news report on the fact that the pentagon used former military personnel to provide propaganda to the american people on the iraq war?
this was the subject of a front page new york times article but it has been totally ignored - to the best of my knowledge - by the mainstream media.
if there is one thing we have learned recently it is that we cannot depend on the media conducting itself professionally.
I think the Palin candidacy should be a long overdue opportunity to finally judge politicians appropriately: by their knowledge, character, beliefs, policy positions and what they'd most likely do with the power they're seeking.
That said, WTF! Wasn't Jesse The Body Ventura available?
Yep! You called it. Obama & Team has been very deliberate as you suggest & Team McCain does have a "focus on winning the news cycle taken to a myopic and senseless extreme."
This was evident with the recent discord in Georgia, McCain was outspoken to a fault and Graham and Liberman visited with little if any press; Obama was restrained and on vacation, Biden visited and suggest $1B in reconstruction assistance. The story faded. Remember Cokie Robert's exotic remarks on Obama's vacation to Hawaii, same nonsense.
Palin's nomination is much the same, the difference she will not go away nor will it change the fact that 38M plus watched Obama's speech. McCain may have gained some control over the news cycle but Gustav may soon gain control of the news cycle and save them from Bush and Cheney. The trade off may be Katrina without hecka-of-a-job Brownie, but he will be left with Palin; the 38M folks who heard Obama will still remember the speech, and Bush.
This is typical Republican/Rove crap.
Obama has said, repeatedly, that he is a realist. I'm increasingly convinced that this is a bedrock belief.
Ironically, for someone noted for his rhetorical skill, Obama's campaign, and Obama himself, have remained ruthlessly focused on the bottom line: how much closer does it get us toward victory? How much will it cost. After the Iowa primaries, he quipped in debate "I'd gladly measure my return on investment (ROI) against Governor Romney's." The quip was a lot more revealing than it may appear.
Perhaps Obama's rhetoric and his 'loose' and authentic manner on the stump is not the core of his game, but rather a benefit of his being confident that, in the end, speechifying doesn't matter as much as a good organization, tight budgeting, and a well-thought out basic strategy.
If so, it is one of the reasons Republicans have much to fear. It's terribly easy to underestimate "Obambi," but (as they used to say of Gorbachev) he has sharp teeth.
DougEFresh is right. I think this is one of the things that Democrats are going to use to argue against Palin, and it could backfire. One of the things that drove me away from Republicans was this sort of asinine tactic.
It seemed to me that Palin didn't really think she was on the short list, mainly because McCain hadn't even told her what his vision for the vice presidency was.
Presidential candidates have their own vision of how the Vice President will work. VPs are only required to break ties in the Senate, and that happens so rarely that really all they have to do is call the White House every morning to see if they've been promoted.
Cheney is a perfect example of how a Vice President can go from bench-warmer to active participant in policy making. Of course Cheney is a piece of shit, but that doesn't change the fact that he (with Bush's blessing) has absolutely reshaped what the office means.
I think it's worth noting that Obama has clearly defined to the public what role he expects Biden to play. We are only left to assume that Palin is a product of tokenism, since McCain hasn't really told us what she's going to be doing if he gets elected. And I find it hard for him to come up with something as well. She could lead the charge on more oil drilling domestically, and then... that's about it.
Gidget and Gramps go to Washington! I love it. But as Michele Martin said last night, Obama supporters underestimate Gov. Palin at their own peril. Everything I have read of her own words tells me this (see NY'r blog post.) First she is perky, what don't Americans love about perky? Second she looks great on tv. Mitt Romney makes McCain look like a garden gnome, Mike Huckabee's Andy of Mayberry schtick turns McCain into "Sen. Worthington "Curly" Fuller" (check out the most prescient political movie ever made "A Face in the Crowd".) The ticket to run against is still Bush/McCain. Send out your female surrogates to talk about the issues that Gov. Palin espouses and basically ignore (without patronizing) her until the VP debate. Then all Joe has to do is imagine he is debating his own wife.
Spot on analysis, T.-N. Which suggested an analogy to me -- Obama is like Apple: "very inner-directed approach that's all about building and cultivating the Obama brand to their own specifications and on their own schedule."
McCain is Microsoft: creaky, difficult, and inclined to roll out a new product without enough testing.
(Guess you can tell what I'm writing this on.)
Well said Mr. Coates.
The Obama campaign received one night of general praise (except for FOX, that AP writer, and a few others who shall remain nameless) and the speech will probably stand AS IS because the news cycle didn't have time to rip it to shreds, to over examine it and generally reshape it.
McCain truly did Obama a great service in that regard.
Well that doesn't inspire confidence. There aren't a lot of times Obama can have all the eyeballs like the convention between now and the end and they were losing before that.
So unless Team Obama focuses on winning SOME news cycles, it's going to be a brutal election day.
JoeKleinCons said The VP breaks ties in the Senate. Often times, they go to state funerals and the like. Speak in front of all sorts of groups. I think you get the picture.
That is an old-fashioned, simplistic view of what a VP does. That hardly describes what even Nixon did while VP 50 years ago, much less explain the greatly expanded role the VP has in recent politics. According to lefty talking points, GHW Bush traveled to Paris to stop the Iranians from releasing the hostages until after the election. These same lefties often state that Cheney is running the government because W is too stupid to even eat a pretzel.
Do you really think Al Gore's job was simply to break a few ties over 8 years and to make sure Air Force 2 was gassed up in case the President of Norway bit the dust?