Posted by
mpgerace on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 4:30:48 PM
This can’t be good propaganda for John McCain. Who came up with this one anyway, Phil Graham? Obama’s best response, of course, would be simply to giggle because that’s the sort of response the claim evokes in people. This is just another drop the McCain camp is putting into Obama’s bucket.
The claim that Obama is responsible for high gas prices also makes McCain look inept and a bit out of sorts. It even makes him sound a little crazy.
The ad, of course, tries to link the no drilling in America position with Obama, with the idea being that the lack of drilling (or supply) is the cause of high oil and gas prices. And given that Obama will take the no drilling position, he must be responsible for high gas prices.
This isn’t terribly effective. Aside from the fact that Obama can defeat this ad by giggling at it, the idea that drilling for oil in US territory is going to solve the gas problem presents another problem for McCain—that of cynicism. Does anyone believe that drilling for oil in the US will lower gas prices any time soon, or even at all? All Obama need do is show this ad as proof that McCain is but a continuation of the Bush Administration. Will this help McCain? How about McCain offering a cogent explanation for high gas prices, one that doesn’t play to our ignorance? Dare he?
I think McCain needs a new propaganda strategy—one that features a louder and more vigorous McCain who can hit a home run or two with issues and public appearances, instead of the slightly stiff-looking guy with a grandfatherly monotone who doesn’t seem to be in control over the information coming out of his campaign. A little hair dye might help as well.
The success of Obama’s propaganda strategy is without question. We can build all the criticisms we want about Obama and be correct, but none of that helps McCain or injures Obama’s prospects. Obama’s call for a 16 month time table for withdrawal from Iraq is a case in point. Whether one sees this as insight or opportunism by Obama (read this recent point of view), it was an enormous coup for Obama to have had the Iraqi PM essentially agreeing with him, and Obama’s words on Iraq are in line with the overall public mood. This puts McCain in a real position of weakness on Iraq, even if McCain is right that the earlier surge prepared the way for today’s positive picture in Iraq. No matter with the public.