RCP’s Jay Cost notes (as noted here) that John McCain’s campaign still seems like a pudding without a theme, but also argues that Barack Obama’s campaign “is built around a faulty, occasionally absurd meta-narrative”:
Obama’s narrative should be similar to [Bill] Clinton’s [i.e., generational change can invigorate a tired government and grow a sagging economy]. It’s tailor-made for a year like this and a man like Obama. But that is not the Obama campaign’s message. Its message seems to be: this great man will unify a divided America around himself.
This is not entirely bad. A message of unity could be effective, even though it is tricky to sell in a partisan campaign. The trouble comes with the part about Obama himself. His campaign’s emphasis on his greatness is creating three political problems.
RTWT, but Cost’s points in summary are:
- “Everybody thinks the economy is lousy and a strong majority thinks George W. Bush has done a poor job, but not everybody thinks Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread. To get to half-plus-one, he must persuade people who are resistant to this claim. He must frame this election in a way that appeals to them.”
- Obama’s implicit “claim of greatness carries with it an implication of distance. If Obama is great, and the rest of us are average, how can we identify with Obama, or he with us?”
- Ironically, the “great man” rhetoric occasionally interferes with the message he seeks to convey in his speeches.
Cost notes that Obama’s original narrative was more modest, casting him as an imperfect candidate “mobilizing the public in a social movement for the sake of the common good.” I agree with Cost that the original narrative is better, not only because it ties in with his background as a “community organizer,” but also because it would help close the gap between his core voters’ cultish adoration and the reality of his undistinguished public record.
Obama is nothing but a marketing ploy.
Be honest, Karl. You’re just dangling the Hope Shaft™ in front of thor like a cape in front of El Toro.
heh!
Obama runs the risk of becoming the “Black John Kerry,” although he doesn’t sound anywhere near as pompous. Perhaps he’ll go to Philadelphia and ask for swiss on his cheese steak with an arugula salad.
We can but hope.
Obama is nothing but a marketing ploy.
It’s true. It’s all about people coming to his events. He’s like the Miley Cyrus of politics.
You know, Obama should do a 3D thing like Miley Cyrus did last Saturday night. Can you imagine the vibrations?
Baracky is fueled mostly by the media’s anti-Republicanism, really. His supporters don’t really care what his policies are. Ask them… they don’t know what Baracky’s positions are at all.
“I can’t take my camera crew into the wounded vets? Well, I have both my arms, and now I’m going to go sculpt them.”
Hammer this! Only a total idiot would not go visit the troops. “I was going to visit the troops, but on the way, my convoy hit a pig, and it looked like it was dead, but then I gave it mouth to mouth, and revived it. But then I looked at my watch, and I had reserved the Victory Fitness elliptical machine at 4:00 pm. What do I do? Lose my place on the elliptical? Not fricken likely. Obama’s gotta look good on the trail.”
This man who has no ability to feel embarrassment, must be ridiculed until all those around him are embarrassed.
The message is actually “Come and Worship”, and that is a little off-putting if you don’t happen to have the emotional maturity of a teen-age girl, to say the least.
This man who has no ability to feel embarrassment, must be ridiculed until all those around him are embarrassed.
It’s shocking, though, that actual reporters seem to be buying his campaign’s line that the Pentagon told them something that suddenly made them realize they may get criticism, and thought the safer option was to not visit.
I asked one reporter that buys this line if she thinks she would have written criticism of such a visit. She answered other questions, but not that one.
He really could just say he made the wrong choice, but that would leave his press apologists with nothing to do.
#2: BJTexs,
Not at all. I’ve put thor on notice that if he can’t post anything but personal attacks in my threads, he should stick to other threads.
On that point, I note that Jeff mulched a jackass as comment spam just last night — and that jackass had nowhere near the track record of personal attacks against Jeff as thor has against me.
[…] the man, but I recall his posture as a head of state during my childhood, and I knew that he was a religious figure for the Rastafarians. I’m wondering if those of you who do know something about the man […]
Obama is having a schizophrenic problem with his message: he can’t both be the everyman candidate, the regular guy… and the godlike messianic figure who does 10 sets of one-arm curls with 70 pound dumbells.
It’s shocking, though, that actual reporters seem to be buying his campaign’s line that the Pentagon told them something that suddenly made them realize they may get criticism, and thought the safer option was to not visit.
This is the absolute crux afaiac. Teenagers stay in bed and put their head under the pillow when they face a tough situation. They may even fake a tummy ache.
The other thing that’s pissing me off is that Johnny Mac has the market cornered on crotchety, and he can’t even spare a little more to put some spicy mustard on his criticism of Barry O’s Traveling Gymboree. Hey John, point your finger and say, “What a fucking tool! Wants to earn the trust of the soldiers, but can’t even step over a 3″ speed-bump to get into a hospital where the soldiers that gave most would just like a visit from anyone. Obama is two-faced punk!”
There’s your line, Johnny. Let’s hear it.
Obama is two-faced punk!
I suggested this line to help McCain solidify the Native American vote.
What I still fail to understand, and fail to understand how other people can’t see through this, is how can one claim to be great before one has ever actually done anything?
Usually, a candidate with a thin record of experience/achievment would run on ideas – saying that they have a great set of ideas/policies. Here, Obama is not running on any policies or ideas (indeed, his stated positions seem to change daily), but on his persona – i.e., by virtue of his being elected, problems will be solved.
I can understand how the far left support this guy – regardless of what he currently says his positions are, they know he is one of them -thus they know he will try to enact far left policies.
What I don’t understand is how the moderate left or the mushy middle is swayed by Obama at all. He is not offering experience. He is not offering ideas. He is only offering himself. What evidence is there that his person has achieved anything great? that problems have been solved by virtue of his presence? that divisions have been healed by his glance or touch?
I understand that the moderate left, the mushy middle, and even the moderate right are tired of the Iraq War, upset about the recent economic travails, and tired of 24/7 Bush hatred, and thus are more than open to voting for a democrat for president.
What I don’t get is how that translates to this particular candidate? Have we sunk so low in average intelligence that people truly believe that someone with no ideas and no experience can solve the world’s problems simply through his presence in the oval office?
Great Banana: The personality thing works when you have a good hype machine running, and your target audience has all the emotional maturity and stability associated with a fourteen year old girl.
After that you hope to drag along someother voters with brand identification (party loyalists) and then hey! presto! You’re in the White House.
Perhaps.
Except that Miley is actually blessed with a great talent. That little girl really can sing her ass off.
O! can barely make sense without a teleprompter.
He’s more the I-Phone of politics. Better stuff out there, costs less, but is being sold as being “cool” rather than “worth the money.” All hype, no substance. They started so early that by the time the elections swing around people are gonna be really burnt out on halo pictures and Obama’s hopey changenitude.
[…] strategy is worth viewing in the context of Jay Cost’s argument that the portrayal of Obama as a Messiaianic figure reinforces the perception of many […]