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jcantine (Apollo, PA)

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Thoughts about Obama, democracy in America, and maybe media production

Recipe for Victory?

By jcantine - Sep 13th, 2008 at 9:48 pm EDT

We've hit the ugly part of the campaign. McCain has unleashed his lipsticked attack dog, Obama's "friends" are urging him to go negative, and in the trenches it feels like, well, it feels like we're in the trenches, fighting and scrambling for every muddy yard of no-man's-land.

But like any good war movie, while we're clawing away in the mud fighting desperately for every last "likely voter" the cavalry is up on the hill, looking down, deciding whether or not to ride down and save the day.

In this case, of course, the cavalry is all the kids getting their first chance to vote, all the people who had given up on the democratic process, all the people registering to vote for the first time ever or the first time in years – over 600,000 in Pennsylvania alone. If they actually come out in November they will, in fact, save the campaign like the cavalry saving the day in the movies.

But right now they're looking down at the fight and saying, as only they can, "Eeewww." The Republican machine has hit them with unending slime and personal attacks, and has mocked not only Obama's idealism but the very concept of public service by ordinary citizens. And as the people and organizations who claim to be helping Obama start to respond in kind, it leaves the most idealistic and enthusiastic supporters vulnerable to disillusionment that could spell disaster.
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Why the Obama Campaign Can't Go Negative

By jcantine - Aug 21st, 2008 at 8:02 pm EDT

Also listed in: ORGANIZING for AMERICA and Westmoreland County (PA) for President Obama | Obama/Potter '08 - Wizard Rock The Vote! | Reduce Reuse Recycle

John McCain's pledge to avoid negative campaigning lasted just as long, it seems, as it took him to raise the money for his first ad. His followers have gone almost entirely negative, blasting Obama for being popular, for vacationing in Hawaii, for not being a real American citizen (ignoring the fact that Hawaii was made a state several years before Obama was born there) and so on.

Which has led to a desire within the Obama campaign to retaliate in kind. Emails and stories are circulating about Cindi McCain, about his military record, about whether or not he actually gave information to the Viet Cong after all, and about his not being a real American citizen (the Canal Zone issue). Many Obama followers, especially long-time Democrats who have seen their candidates smeared unmercifully, want the campaign to unload on McCain the way McCain has been unloading on Obama.

This is standard political strategy: instead of wasting time playing defense and trying to parry the outrageous attacks of your opponent, go on the offensive and hit him with equally outrageous attacks of your own. That kind of negative exchange leads to elections like the last two: a bitter, divided electorate goes to the polls and one side – usually the one who went negative first and better - wins a Pyrrhic, razor-thin victory.

But there is a reason why doing so would be disastrous for the Obama campaign: the rules have changed. The new factor in this election is the huge number of young, idealistic (or not-so-young, formerly disaffected) voters. They've been dubbed "Generation Obama," though they don't all fit the under-25 stereotype. They don't care about the way elections have been run in the past. They're not interested in capturing the White House for the Democrats, or righting past wrongs committed by the Republicans. What they want to is to change the world. Read More »

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