Category — Election 2008

McCain’s recent ad, Man In The Arena, is surprisingly good looking considering his other recent ads. Now, I’m talking from a purely aesthetic point of view. As far as substance goes, this ad offers nothing more than Obama’s American Promise, and everything I said about that ad can be said about this one. But still, it’s very effective advertising; more so, I think, than anything Obama has offered so far.

McCain’s ads to date have been almost entirely negative, usually with a disgusted sounding voice-over talking about things Obama has either done or not done. They were particularly acerbic and difficult to watch. This ad is different though, it optimistic, focused on McCain, and I think it portrays him in a better light to those who don’t really care about issues anyway.
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Obama’s new political ad, “The American Promise” is the single most frightening political advertisement I have ever seen in my life. It’s absolutely chilling. The rabid cultist gleam in the eyes of the supporters nearly weeping as Obama repeats his meaningless rhetoric. Can this be real?

I’ve never had much faith in the political understanding of my fellow man. Admittedly, I’m a horrible misanthrope, of the opinion that the masses are irrational chumps, with about as much understanding of basic economics as I have about the inner workings of the Large Hadron Collider.

Maybe I’m out of touch, but I imagine the average person setting out nachos every Sunday to root for Red or Blue like a political football game; shouting out buzzwords like “More Regulations!” and “Al Qaeda Hates Freedom!”, then talking about it the next day at the water cooler. Why else follow politics if not as conversation fodder, right?

I figured I’d just watch the madness from the sidelines for a while and move to Costa Rica when the shit really starts to hit the fan and the freaks inevitably vote themselves into slavery. I didn’t think it’d happen so quickly though.
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For years, heroin dealers have used “brand stamps” as a way to inform customers of their quality. Even before Frank Lucas’s “Blue Magic” in the 1960s, “good” dealers have found ways to make their product stand out among the poorer quality majority. Once the high quality dealers started doing this, everyone else started as well since it was a low cost way of increasing the apparent quality of the bags. For only the cost of a stamp and ink, a dealer could copy the stamp from the highest quality heroin on the street.

This lack of copyright laws made the high quality dealers constantly have to shift their brand names and stay topical, since the best brands were copied within days. Illustrating this: just recently, 52 glassine bags of heroin stamped both with “OBAMA” and an image of Sen. Barack Obama were confiscated following a routine car stop on Interstate 95 in Upper Chichester, according to Pennsylvania State Police. That’s an interesting way to support your candidate.

Examples of heroin brand stamps:
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“Barack Obama,” an announcer intones, “born of the corrupt Chicago political machine.”
The ad quotes Obama saying, “In terms of my toughness, look first of all, I come from Chicago.”
Then the announcer continues:
“His economic adviser, William Daley. Lobbyist. Mayor’s brother.
His money man, Tony Rezko. Client. Patron. Convicted Felon.
His “political godfather.” Emil Jones. Under ethical cloud.
His governor, Rod Blagojevich. A legacy of federal and state investigations.
With friends like that, Obama is not ready to lead.”

This is McCain’s attempt to flip around the public image factor and bad associations factor. For a while, Obama and the Dem’s have been focusing on the lobbyists in McCain’s campaign and his unsavory friends, using the guilt by association trick. Now McCain has turned that trick around on Obama.
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Obama’s new ad, entitled “Destination”, has hit the airwaves, and it makes some subtle, and some not so subtle, jabs.

The main point is that McCain plans on keeping Bermuda business open, and plans on continuing to allow it as a tax shelter. The subtle sting of this ad is made more harsh, though, by the economic climate here in the US. It makes it seem as if McCain is out and about, living his rich and famous life in Bermuda with his 13 cars and his billionaire friends while the average American can’t afford to pay their mortgage. The underlying message is a continuation of the previous ad about McCain’s 13 cars.
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So it turns out John McCain and his family own 13 cars. The Dems are focusing intently on that partucular nugget for 2 major reasons. Firstly, because McCain previously said he “bought American literally all [his] life.” That highlights a disconnect, even if the cars really don’t belong to John McCain himself. Even if it’s not true, it’s a powerful image. For Example: “Not only does he buy Non-American…he has 12 non-American cars”

But all of those cars except the American-made 2004 Cadillac CTS are registered in his wife’s name. His wife is a wealthy car enthusiast/amateur race car driver and heiress to some of that deliciously thirst-quenching Anheuser-Busch money. So most likely, John has nothing to do with those other 12 cars (besides his Caddy).
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In two new ads, and in a recent speech, McCain is trying to link the current financial badness to Obama. In the first ad, called Advice, we hear that one of Obama’s economic advisors is Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae. The rest of the ad is essentially irrelevant, since all it’s trying to do is show you that Obama is being advised by someone who is connected deeply with the current economic collapse.

The same thing happens in the second ad. We hear about another former Fannie Mae CEO being associated with Obama. Trouble trouble. Guilt by association. This kind of thing works, no matter how logically silly it many be.
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I was wondering when McCain was going to make his play for the libertarian vote. Economically-minded Ron Paul was very popular for a while there, and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr may take some of Ron Paul’s votes in the general election. So it’d be a wise move for McCain to try to appeal to the libertarian mindset.

Surveys show about 15-20% of Americans identify with libertarian ideas, even if they don’t consider themselves libertarians. If McCain can get a good portion of that 15-20%, it could make all the difference in the general election.
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