Over the past week we've found ourselves in a position some of us never thought we would this year; thrown off course by John McCain's Vice-President selection, and the new direction Steve Schmidt has led the McCain campaign. Realizing they could not win on Experience in a Change year, Team McCain made their pick an unknown that they could define to their own ends, and have begun to push the idea that McCain/Palin are the "real" agents of change in this election.
Central to this strategy is the false persona of "Sarah Palin The Reformer". A fabricated illusion built on lie upon lie, it is a fundamental element of their campaign we must try to attack. Barack Obama's campaign started this yesterday with "No Maverick". But one shot isn't going to end this discussion, which brings me to the ad concept below.
Much of the debate has been on whether we should ignore Governor Palin, or attack her -- and if we attack, then how? Linking Bush to McCain has been an effective strategy for the top of the ticket given McCain's pandering and voting record, but the sheer ludicrous nature of the Palin pick has given new credibility to his maverick argument.
So how to combat this? Take the obvious loose ends and tie them together; link Palin to George W. Bush.
The parallels are more than passing -- Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post noticed the correlation over the weekend, and even David Frum (linked by way of Andrew Sullivan) laid down the similarities.
Now granted, the Obama campaign has been stellar throughout the last 18 months, and likely have a much larger strategy at work than we perhaps realize. But one of the central messages of this campaign has been that we all need to be the change that we seek, so why not kick in with a little DIY grassroots ad action?