A Disturbing Realization About Politics
Okay, like that narrows the range of things one could realize about politics....
Like so many, I'd found it troubling how much of political advertising is focused on bashing one's opponent. Then it occurred to me: everybody's been saying for a while that it's all about turnout, which seems only natural since only half of people turn out to vote even on a good (i.e., presidential election) year. The point of a lot of political campaigning or advertising isn't to convince a voter of your own value, but to convince them that it's not worth getting off their couch for your opponent.
In this case, I think McCain did a lot of the work to convince his people he wasn't worth getting off the couch for.
Like so many, I'd found it troubling how much of political advertising is focused on bashing one's opponent. Then it occurred to me: everybody's been saying for a while that it's all about turnout, which seems only natural since only half of people turn out to vote even on a good (i.e., presidential election) year. The point of a lot of political campaigning or advertising isn't to convince a voter of your own value, but to convince them that it's not worth getting off their couch for your opponent.
In this case, I think McCain did a lot of the work to convince his people he wasn't worth getting off the couch for.
Labels: random thoughts, rants
posted by Amy at 11:11 PM
1 Comments:
Two of the most influential players in any political campaign are the campaign manager and the campaign's chief political strategist. In this case it was respectively David Plouffe and David Axelrod for the Obama campaign and Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt on the McCain side. Although I am sooo relieved that Barack Obama prevailed I think McCain would have been much more competitive if his campaign had been run more effectively. Plouffe and Axelrod proved that they are masters in the campaign arena. There has never been, in American political history, a more skillfully organized and executed campaign than that which these two men ran for Obama. McCain's campaign, in stark contrast, lacked focus and substance. While the Obama strategists kept their eyes on the issues and coordinated an unprecedented ground campaign, McCains advisers ran a campaign of mudslinging and fear mongering, all in a very ping pongish manner. In the end their strategies proved catastrophic for their candidate, who was, at the beginning of the race, very popular with the American voters. Hooray for Plouffe and Axelrod and a BIG thank you to Davis and Schmidt for all their contributions and expertise (or lack thereof) to this presidential race.
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