Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Worst strategery EVER

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Could the McCain campaign chosen to have run a less effective ad at this moment?  Supposedly, this ad is going to “run in key states.”  To me, what it does is prove that Barack Obama is willing to reach across the aisle where appropriate, and to give credit where credit is due, even if credit is due to Republicans.  It boosts Obama’s bipartisan cred, thereby undercutting McCain’s claim to be the only guy in the race who has that ability.  What do you think?

Also, as TPM notes, “[t]his ad might have been more effective if Joe Lieberman had been McCain’s running mate, instead of somebody who denies man-made global warming.”

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  1. There’s this Republican dude in WA (sorry no time to look him up) who is running on being on Obama’s side, in his ads even. Because he wants to associated with Obama and not Bush, or even McCain, or the entire Republican party really.

    <

    p>But to have…Obama’s actual opponent…trying to run as an Obama-linked candidate…OMG…we’re in upsidedown world…haha ha ha…

    • Last night Colbert recommended that McCain endorse Obama to show what a maverick he is.

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      p>Although it’s probably too late to say he was doing it before so many other Republicans jumped on the bandwagon.

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      p> – Dan

      • Running for Rep.

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        p>He won the GOP primary but chose to run as the nominee of the Oregon Independent Party.  Apparently he supported Obama from the beginning.

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        p>I think Gordon Smith has run ads saying he can work with Obama and other Dems, but hasn’t gone so far as to endorse any of them.

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        p> – Dan

  3. McCain sold his soul to get the nomination.  In the process he had to disavow all the maverick tendencies that he brandished after 2000.  In the process he’s shown himself to an overly flexible opportunist without core values he’s willing to stand up for.  Perhaps there never was a ‘right’ McCain after all

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    p>Ezra:

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    p>

    … The principle problem for Obama at that time [October 2006], and in the actual election, was a lack of notable achievements in national office. That’s not to say he hadn’t passed bills and done good, but he had nothing on the scale of, say, Joe Biden’s Violence Against Women Act.

    Imagine, then, what would have happened if Barack Obama had ended up running against the senator who brought the first cap-and-trade bill before the Congress, passed one of the most important campaign finance reform bills in history, voted against Bush’s tax cuts, championed the Patient’s Bill of Rights, fought for comprehensive immigration reform, and was the Senate’s most effective opponent of torture. Catastrophe, right?

    Luckily, Obama didn’t run against that guy. John McCain, who did all that, spent this election refusing to mention any of his accomplishments. He argued the virtues of experience without pointing to its fruits. He bragged of being a maverick without explaining how his independence had resulted in tangible achievements. The reality of his record is that he was an ineffective Senator until the aftermath of the 2000 election, when his anger with the Republican Party led him to construct odd-bedfellows coalitions with Democrats and his national celebrity — yes, celebrity — helped him pass the legislation, or at least get press for breaking with his party. The resulting achievements proved deeply unpopular with the conservative base. So when he ran as the Republican nominee, he clammed up about global warming and flip-flopped on immigration. He stopped talking about campaign finance reform and started supporting tax cuts. His resulting criticisms of Obama fell flat: Unable to detail his own record, he couldn’t connect with his critique of Obama’s history. Unable to explain why it was good to be a maverick, he came off like a pro-wrestler trying to promote his new nickname.

    It’s easy enough to imagine an alternate election where every voter in America knew of McCain’s accomplishments, and they were deployed to make Obama’s record seem small indeed. That may have worked, or it may have failed. But if Obama began this cycle as a leader without much of a record of leadership, McCain ended it as a leader who’d disavowed his own history of achievement. A leader who chose to stop leading. That he will lose as a generic Republican, rather than as John McCain, is an odd outcome indeed.

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