John McCain, the biggest flip flopper in Washington history, a man who is a shell of his former self, the 2008 version whom the John McCain of 2000 would never have endorsed, and a man wholly controlled by lobbyists and the Dominionist Dobson right wing as evidenced by his selection of extremist Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket, just checkmated himself Thursday night. Here's why.
The first rule of winning an argument is framing. If the facts are evenly weighted, then the person who knows how to frame the argument the best wins. If the facts are not equally weighted (Ex: Democrats on issues overwhelmingly crush Republicans on issues) then the side that has the weaker argument can still win the argument if it does a significantly better job of framing that argument. We've lost many an election because of the Shrumian ignorance that fails to recognize the importance of image, symbolism, and framing. Elections sometimes do get decided or influenced based on who falls down steps, who looks like an idiot in a tank, or who looks at his watch during a debate. That's the reality like it or not.
In this election, Barack Obama has correctly identified himself as the candidate of change for several months. However, Republicans did not have to accept this frame. Instead, John McCain could have argued that this election was about experience, the only credible and potentially winning argument he could have made to the American public. McCain took away his only potential effective argument 9 days ago when he selected corrupt wingnut Sarah Palin as his running mate. And on Thursday night, John McCain destroyed his own candidacy when he asserted that this election is about change. McCain checkmated himself and combined with Rick Davis' comment that "this election is not about issues," McCain just gave Obama a landslide win barring a disastrous performance by Obama in the debates.
McCain is correct that America needs change. McCain is correct that Washington is broken. McCain is correct that many in Washington have lost touch. McCAin is correct that Washington has been corrupt.
Now who are the people he's describing? Yes, himself, the entire Republican Party, and in fairness a few Blue Dogs.
The GOP has controlled the Supreme Court for the past 28 years.
The GOP has controlled the White House for 20 of the past 28 years.
For 26 of 28 years, the GOP controlled either the White House or Congress and from 2001 through 2006 they controlled all of it. For the past 2 years Democrats could do very little because Bush would veto their legislation.
Now most Americans can figure out who has been in charge the past 8 years and who caused all of the problems people face today. They can figure out that John McCain was part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Yes, this election is about change. And people who believe this election is about change will not elect a 72 year old elitist with 10 homes who has been part of the Washington corruption for the past 26 years as their President.