So says Joe Biden, per the front page of MSNBC, validating what Palin's conservative cheerleaders have said about her. If we are to win this race, we must stop propping up our opponents. I am sure those wavering independents who wonder whether Palin is capable of stepping into McCain's shoes found Biden's description of Palin reassuring.
Today Obama said he's sure McCain is a nice guy; he just doesn't get it. I read another recent quote where Biden is asked about McCain's temper and tells his interview he disagrees with his opponents that say it makes McCain unfit for the presidency. No, McCain is NOT a nice guy; he's a liar, he denigrates others. Yes, he is UNFIT for the presidency; just look at his VP pick. Do we want to win or not?
You know, we ridiculed McCain's spokesperson for saying the election was about personalities, not issues, but take a step back and reconsider. He is saying what studies show: many voters choose a candidate not with their head but with their hearts. Isn't part of the reason you are picking Obama because you feel connected in some way? You believe he cares about people like you? Isn't it because you trust him? I do.
In the last two elections, we fielded the better, smarter candidates who offered more on the issues. Yet we lost, because George Bush came across as "just a regular ol' guy," whereas our candidates were perceived as elitist, highbrow stiffs. They had complicated positions that did not fit neatly into 30-second soundbites. Now, Obama has made progress in breaking free of that mold, but not enough. If you listen to his speeches, he still uses too many words greater than 3 syllables. He is too reflective when he speaks. And he's too nice to his opponents.
The Palin/McCain speeches reflect the title of one of my earlier diaries, paraphrasing Shakespeare: tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Palin strings together cliche after cliche; she's all flash, no substance. Everything is canned and rehearsed and regurgitated. But she gets the audience's blood pumping and her catty soundbites secure plenty of replay in the mainstream media. Even I can quote many of their lines by this time.
Did you ever watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? There's a scene where the students are giving oral reports, to be graded via applause meter. After a weak presentation, the resident jock concludes by shouting "San Dimas High School Football Rules!", punching his arm in the air. His fellow students go wild, and he gets an 'A.'
I do not know if Obama's advisers review these blogs, but if they want to fire us up more and sway independents, they need to save the detailed policy plans for the Web sites and use the stump speeches to attract the media's attention. The media are like high school students drawn to the cries of "FIGHT! FIGHT!" They love to be where the punches are being thrown. [NOTE: If this is too long for you skip to the bottom to read my suggested lines of attack.]
We can change the politics as usual once we gain the White House. We'll have 4 to 8 years to change the tone and reshape the debate and the terms. Right now, they own the debate, and we need to play the game on their terms. Unfortunately, those terms include a bit of ugly. It's time to take off the gloves. We must not be afraid to speak the unspeakable. We must not distance ourselves from people like Wes Clark, who say the truth: Being a POW is not an automatic qualification for presidency. Notice that the Republicans have yet to apologize for their line about community organizers; au contraire, they're repeating it. Our candidates must sling the mud without any apologizes. Let the Limbaughs and O'Reillys rant. We were never going to get the votes of people who have faith in those men anyway.
Bay Buchanan explained perfectly what this election is about for conservatives. On Friday, I happened to catch a snippet of an interview with her on CNN. I can't find the transcript, but the newscaster (I believe it was Soledad O'Brien) said something to the effect of "You were always one of John McCain's harshest critics; aren't you afraid if he gets elected, he'll go back to those maverick ways, voting against things that are important to conservatives?" And Buchanan responds that they're supporting McCain no matter what because of Palin: "We're giving him today because he's giving us tomorrow." They look at a vote for McCain as a 4-year investment in Palin. Four years of Palin as VP legitimizes her for 2012. Nobody can then question her experience. Make no mistake; if Palin becomes VP, she will get the nomination in 2012 (absent any major blunders), and the conservative influence will be cemented. Do you want to risk a President Palin?
Here are some attacks we should be running with to personalize things:
*If your wife or daughter gets raped (heaven forbid), McCain and Palin want to force her to have a rapist's baby.
*They want to take money out of your pocket and hand it over to the president of Exxon mobil, you know, the guy stealing money from you every time you fill your gas tank.
*They don't have a plan for education. They don't care about educating kids in America because they'll just import programmers from India and send your kids jobs to China.
*You can't even buy a house, but McCain doesn't want to cut your taxes. He's more interested in cutting taxes for big business, so he can make sure the president of Exxon can afford another private jet--maybe he should have given him that one Palin put on eBay.
*McCain says he'll work across the aisle. McCain couldn't even get his own party to agree to his platform for president; how is he going to get a democratic Congress to agree with him when he's for all the wrong things?
*The McCain ticket thinks its okay for the people who live across the street from your kid's daycare or your kid's school to have AK47s.
*Sarah Palin doesn't believe in the greenhouse effect. If it's up to Sarah Palin, the air in our cities is going to look like the air in Beijing. We're going to have more hurricanes, more droughts, and more deaths.
*They want to put nuclear power plants all over America, and dump nuclear waste right in your backyard. Anyone remember Chernobyl? Three Mile Island? There are other ways with less risk and no waste.
*McCain doesn't care if when you get cancer or you get sick, you can't get chemotherapy or have your tumor removed. He got his cancer removed, he got his cancer treatment--FOUR times in fact--because we have good healthcare in Congress. He doesn't care if your kid dies from a toothache. (Then he needs to launch into the story of the 12-year-old boy from Marylandwhose mother couldn't afford the dentist, so her young son died from an abscessed tooth.)
There are so many ways to personalize this. Our opponents are not nice. They are not smart. They are not good politicians. We really need our candidates to remind people of that. Remember, nice guys really do finish last.