Thursday, July 31, 2008

Jujitsu

This I like:



This is the payoff for Obama's 'post-partisan' positioning: the ability to throw McCain's snotty little gibes right back at him, as part of the 'old politics' (a politics, apparently, that existed before the invention of color--that's how old it is). Of course, linking McCain to the Bush-era politics of fear and smear also strengthens the link to Bush's wildly unpopular policies (as the ad makes explicit). Also, they use the word 'old' a lot of times, which has got to hurt.

Meanwhile, former McCain adviser John Weaver (whom Josh Marshall describes as "McCain's inner-Reformer, inner-Dem") really doesn't like McCain's ads:

The ad's premise, he said, is "childish."

"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said. "Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags."
I don't know for sure that Obama's strategy will succeed in deflecting these attacks...but I'm happy that, unlike the last Democratic nominee, he at least has a strategy.