When you attack, you control the day's message

[ruggerson]

McCain/Piglen has been on attack every single day since their convention started.

Stupid attacks. Karl Rove inspired attacks. "Lipstick on a Pig is disgracefully sexist!" attacks.

Dirty campaigning? Of course. But it's effective, because it controls the spin of the day and it ends up on the news.

And policy prescriptions don't.

Can Barack and Joe play this game?

Remember Rove's rule is to attack your opponent's perceived strength.

Our guys could start by driving a stake right through the heart of the "maverick" claim.

Joe could be out there, making the nightly news with:

"Since when do "mavericks" claim to stop the Bridge To Nowhere, but KEEP THE MONEY?!"

"Since when do "mavericks" pocket their state's travel expense allowance, when they're actually SPENDING THE NIGHT AT THEIR OWN HOUSE?!"

"Since when do "mavericks" call the far rightwing "intolerant" and "evil" one year and then KOWTOW TO THEM the next?!"

"This isn't the "maverick" ticket. This is the George W Bush POLITICS AS USUAL ticket!"

"These two are about as "maverick" as a herd of sheep!"

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Obama and Biden controlled today's message with the lipstick on a pig business

They made the GOPers look like fools, and took them completely off message.

This was an attack, but it was our side doing it, and successfully baiting the GOPers into an asinine (porcine?) argument. Round goes 10-8 in favor of Obama.

[helderheid]

8. It's chess versus checkers. Obama is masterful at chess.

[nam78_two]

16. That is how I see it

I think Sen. Obama is going to hand these stupid GOPigs their asses...
Obama ran a brilliant campaign against Hillary and won, starting off as the underdog in that case as well and being attacked constantly. I have a great deal of confidence that he is going to pull this off with flair.

Really, what are they going to throw at him that he hasn't deflected once already with ease? This is easily still Obama's election to lose and that feeble GOPuke bounce after their nauseating little convention is going to fade soon. I am not surprised that the Obama campaign is completely unfazed :shrug:-obviously no one should take anything for granted, but this is still Obama's election to lose.

Edit: spelling-shouldn't post when drunk and angry.

[Plaid Adder]

2. They clearly ARE playing the game.

Why do you think Obama made that comment in the first place?

This is what I don't get. After days of agonized pleas for Obama to take control of the news cycle he finally does...and then everyone is in an uproar.

All publicity is good publicity,

The Plaid Adder

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Yup, we need to also get on message to suport their efforts :)

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Exactly right

It forced the McCain camp into a predictable trap, and now everybody's talking about how the mcCain camp has simply put lipstick on a pig with regard to it's change mantra. It was a brilliant move by Obama.

[Plaid Adder]

9. I thought of another way in which it is brilliant.

As I know from long experience, whenever you try to make the argument to a non-feminist that gender bias can be encoded into everyday language (such as the automatic use of "he" instead of "he or she"), the non-feminist typically rejects your argument as over-reading and concludes that you a whining hypersensitive PC enforcer type.

So, Obama has just maneuvered McCain and Palin into the position of having to argue that gender bias was encoded into his use of a familiar idiom. Which would, in the eyes of most non-feminists, make them whining, hypersensitive PC enforcer types. Which makes them less appealing to, say, independents--especially guys. Which the demographic that the "Palin bounce" seems to mostly be about.

As for the feminists, well, they may argue amongst themselves about Obama's intent, but presumably they have also noticed that Palin is rabidly anti-choice.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[ruggerson]

6. And what's getting the press?

My Reuter's scroll reads: "McCain camp: Obama's lipstick remark disgraceful."

They punched right back and they took the news cycle.

I was running around all day not paying attention to the news, and the only thing that seeped in from the outside world was the mangled message that Obama had insulted Palin by calling her a pig.

Then I got home and read what had been said.

Most people don't pay much attention to the story, they hear the headline.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Everybody in the press is making fun of the Mccain overreaction

Even Huckabee is telling Hannity that he sounds like a moron.

Don't invent a defeat when there was a clear victory. Obama baited McCain camp into responding stupidly, and they did, and they're being dismissed as silly in the press.

[ruggerson]

12. Really?

On CNN they were all yakking as if it was a gaffe by Obama until Halperin shut them up.

If earlier in the day, this was making positive news for us, I missed it. If that's the case, it's a start and they should continue it tomorrow.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Halperin told them they sounded like fools because they do

Jake Tapper, a GOP stooge, is also cringing at the Mccain response, likely seeing how silly they will sound to those small town voters, for whom 'lipstick on a pig' is a common folksy phrase. Jane Swift's response is quickly becoming the laughingstock of the internet, as she tries to twist and swerve like a sophomore writing an English paper: "Pailin is the only one of the four to wear lipstick." Mccain himself used the phrase to describe hillary Clinton's healthcare plan, which makes the sexism line boomerang rather nicely. This was a set up from start to finish, and the GOP got played.

[sandnsea]

5. You must have seen the recent commercial

Where they ridicule the maverick label and end with the fact that they're just more of the same.

Didn't it get played all day - the way they do for McCain?

[grannylib]

7. Steal the "Straight Talk" theme. Obama is the REAL truthful, straight

talker in this election; take that right out from under McAnus and what's-her-name.

[rufus dog]

11. Nothing near strong enough

A surragate needs to come out and question McCain's manhood!

He has benefited from his wife's wealth his entire post POW life and is now hiding behind another women when Cyndi's money couldn't get him to be president.

Mean, hell yes, dirty - yes, sexist - yes. Sorry it will play in the rural areas.

[scheming daemons]

14. Their last ad did exactly that.... attacked them on the "Maverick" theme

Did you miss it?

[ruggerson]

17. Yep

the news shows were full of an ad where Obama is teaching kindergarten kids about sex.

I saw nothing debunking the absurd "maverick" claim.

[scheming daemons]

19. Here ya go... ad has been playing here in Pennsylvania all day

...and 14 other states.

perhaps you are not in a "swing" state.


http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/mccain_is_no_ma.html

[ruggerson]

20. It's a good ad

and it's not playing in my state. But I should have seen it on the news -instead I saw the sex ad. Three times. And I was channel surfing. Surprise. The Repuke message gets through and ours doesn't.

[scheming daemons]

21. This Obama ad was all over the news yesterday.... including the link I gave you....

In addition, it was on firstread... time's blog.... and last night, on CBS Evening News.


They played it this morning on CNN.



I think you're intentionally being obtuse here. You watched 5 minutes of news tonight and you think that was the entirety of the past 48 hours.


The reality is... the Obama campaign won the last two news cycles. The fact that every Republican is squealing like a pig tonight (pardon the pun), is proof that it is working.


They're crying. They're whining. Obama's campaign punched them in the nose the past two days and they're lashing out.


Someone as astute as you should be seeing that.

[ruggerson]

22. I'd like to think you're right

but my Reuters scroll tells me otherwise. Matter of fact, this went by while you were typing:

Analysis: Obama is back on defense

If you think we won the news cycle the last two days, then I'll defer to you, as I haven't been paying attention. But what seeped through to me (and by extrapolation, the average guy who never pays much attention until late October) wasn't terribly positive.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. Yes, it's always negative

Thanks, average voter.

[ruggerson]

25. Well the average voter

is whom we have to reach, no?

Which is why sarcastic soundbytes work so well. I agree that "lipstick on a pig" was a start. Then they counterpunched, and their counterpunch seems to be making a lot of news. We'll see how this shakes out tomorrow.

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. And that's you

We will indeed see. I suspect we will see two very different things, as we generally have since way back, yes.

[ruggerson]

32. what's with

the hostility? I'm expressing my point of view, which seems to be shared by folks in other threads, since you are berating them there too. Chill.

[ladywnch]

24. I saw an ad last night during the Denver/Oakland football game

that my mother said is playing in PA too. It only seems to have played that one time. It is my favorite to date.

it has the music "don't know much about history"


don't know much about history
don't know much about the economy
don't know much about the price of gas
or the struggles of the middle class

But I do know that I love you
And if I could be more like you
What a wonderful world it would be


it shows graphics about McCain voting with Bush more than 90% of the time and McCain hugging Bush at the end. it was PRICELESS!!

If anyone has a link for it I'd appreicate it.

[scheming daemons]

15. We won the day, ruggerson... we won it big....

[Ichingcarpenter]

27. Yes, but we must remain vigilant

This battle now will last 57 days

or more if they try to do a coup.


This is the final chapter in the battle
we have been fighting against in the last 8 years


Today is A Heinz 57 variety.

Tomorrow another wall and number.


WE NEED A COUNTDOWN CLOCK!

[amborin]

18. of course

which is why responding, or defending, or whatever

is always a 10-down position

the underdog position

the other guys are controlling the discourse and shaping the agenda

that's why WE need to initiate the attacks, day after day

[DeepModem Mom]

26. K&R

[LiberalHeart]

28. Here's the Free Dictionary's first definition of maverick...

An unbranded range animal, especially a calf that has become separated from its mother, traditionally considered the property of the first person who brands it.
___

So obviously McCain's not a maverick because he's a mama's boy.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. Yes but don't attack them using their terminology, their framing. Make your own framing. . . nt

[flamingdem]

31. I love it when I see Obama quoted on Google News, Yahoo News

He's got to keep at it ... I remember how well this worked with Hillary at one point.

[patriotvoice]

33. Yes: Biden should be an attack dog while Obama stays on message. EOM