Did It Work?
I didn't watch it, but Mark Steyn doesn't think Obama's Big Night did the trick:
For what it's worth, I don't think the night worked for him. The last time anyone did this — Ross Perot — it was so weird a world unto itself (strange-looking guy with pie charts) that, beached between Cybill and Murphy Brown (or whatever it was back then), it had a kind of integrity and distinctiveness. This time round, The O Show followed by the Phillies followed by Jon Stewart cumulatively undermined the candidate.
He concludes with:
This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama's burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn't really need to spend a dime given the wall-to-wall media adoration. And tonight Chris Matthews' doctors announced that his leg tingle has metastasized leaving his entire body like a vibrating cellphone whose ringtone is locked on "I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy."
And yet an old cranky broke loser is within two or three points of the King of the World. Strange.
posted by VermontGuy @ 5:37 AM
4 Comments:
What a surprise, the National review doesn't think that the candidate it opposes did well. It doesn't really matter any way, the ad as it was intended took over the news cycle chatter this morning. (who's the other guy again?)
While Obama-fans no doubt don't understand why he is not more popular at this point (though he has had a substantial lead throughout apart from the Palin splash which disappeared after Katie and Tina), it is important to remember he is young black man with a combo African/deposed dictator name. Its amazing he defeated the Hillary machine and speaks to other strengths of his appeal. Against a true blue conservative right now, he might be up by 10 or 15 points, but McCain still retains his maverick and aisle-crossing reputation and appeals to the middle (despite the efforts of his campaign and party to sabotage this).
BTW does it make sense for the Repubs to make fun of the overflowing adoring crowds? Obviously a whole lot of somebody is looking for something, and mocking it and calling it stupid seems not to be a great strategy. (Also even people that agree with Chris Matthews think he's an idiot, I'm pretty sure if Obama could control it, he give him to McCain).
I watched it, mostly from a sense of curiosity. It was easy to miss, but the key to the whole show was the 15 seconds they spent showing a photo of Obama as a child with his Kenyan father, with a voice-over along the lines of "I only knew my father when I lived with him for one month when I was 10." They then immediately moved to multiple photos and stories of him with his white, Kansan family, and then on to his relationship with his wife and kids. The idea, I'd guess, was to allay the fears of those undecideds who are inclined to support him on policy grounds but have been receiving viral fearmongering emails about his background that still give them some doubts. The rest was all fluff that won't convince anyone who wasn't already sold.
Re Chris Matthews, he's essentially unwatchable no matter your politics, but the democrats owe him one this cycle -- he's singlehandedly delivered a congress seat that was thought safely republican.
If you're talking Michele Bachmann, it's not clear to me (living in Minnesota) that she will lose. I'm hoping, though. It would be nice if the "us vs. them" categorizing elicited a swift retributive smackdown for once. At a minimum, she is scared, and her latest commercial has her pleading with tears in her voice, declaring that she knows her "heart is right."
Yes, I was referring to Rep. Bachmann, and you're right that "delivered" was the wrong word. He's singlehandedly put it in play.
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