Credit goes to Howard Dean but here is the best one liner of the entire campaign.
The John McCain of 2000 Wouldn't Even Consider Voting For the John McCain of 2008.
Obama should repeat it often, as too should all his surrogates.
Why is this one line effective?
- It's true.
- It's funny.
- It links McCain to Bush's Third Term.
- It shows McCain's lack of integrity.
- It reminds people that John McCain is the world champion flip flopper.
- It reveals how unelectable McCain's 2008 stands on position are.
- It reminds people of McCain's radical associations.
- It eviscerates his prior claims of independence and bipartisanship.
- It's pointed without coming across as negative.
- It serves as a gateway to a litany of talking points.
- It demonstrates that John McCain will say or do anything to get elected.
The John McCain of 2000 Wouldn't Even Consider Voting For the John McCain of 2008.
I thought "a noun a verb 911" and "Bush Third Term" were the best two lines of the year. We now have a new winner.
UPDATE: Thanks to all the readers who see how effective this line is. It can be shortened to simply say that the John McCain of 2000 would not vote for the John McCain of 2008. (MCcain 2000 would probably call MCcain 2008 an "agent of intolerance" considering McCain's grovelling to Dobson, Hagee, Parsley, Insanity, and now Coulter)
The message is not targeted to the choir. You are targeting people who 1) voted for McCain in 2000 or liked McCain in 2000, and 2) People who supported Bush in the general in 2000 or would have voted for McCain over Gore in the general, and 3) People who now recognize that George W Bush is the worst president ever and his GOP policies have been disastrous.
These undecided voters become Obama voters if they are convinced that the John MCain of today is not the same man they thought he was in 2000. It is irrelevant that the McCain of 2000 was not who he pretended to be. What is relevant is the perception of these undecided voters and what will make them decide. This is, to borrow someone else's label, "The Decider."