Back to the Slime and Grime of Politics

After nearly a couple years of following this campaign, and now with only about 50 days left, it's easy to forget the point. It's easy to get dragged down into the muck of derisive and ugly politics. The calls from democrats for Obama to start hitting back harder and harder have grown louder, mainly because of the level of voracity with which the McCain campaign has sought to make this an election about identies, not issues. Joe Klein of Time went as far as calling one of McCain's ads the "sleaziest" he'd ever seen.

But I just saw this video, and it reminded me why HOPE meant so much to all of his supporters during the primary. It's been turned into a derogatory statement by the right, and of course the left ran from it. But running from that central theme has left Obama without one. Change we need, change we can believe in, whatever, that's fine. But this was about us standing up together to do the right thing, and sinking to their level further muddies that message.

And sure, you do need to defend yourself, and yes you need to hit back. But to no longer be true to the message or true to the goal, only because the opposition takes glee in mocking it, is shameful. It's the same sort of thinking that made "liberal" a dirty word.

So bring back hope. I miss the campaign that was about all of us moving forward together, not just defending our turf.

With a slew of stories being written and commentators noticing the level McCain has gone to in stretching the truth in his advertisements, and this election spiraling into a pile of half-truths on both sides, maybe it's time to rise above it. I'd like to see a national buy, maybe the 2:30 minutes of this is too long, but even a roadblock across multiple networks might be enough of a re-introduction. Instead of announcing to the press that your plan is to get tougher before releasing ridiculous ads about email, maybe it's time to get back to the things that inspired so many to begin with. Contrary to popular belief, I do think it's possible to win without destroying your integrity and solidifying that this will be a deeply divided 51/49 country on November 5th. 

Time to get back on message.

Comments

[Jan]

You may not like the e-mail ad, but when I mentioned to a neocon, that he doesn't know how to send an e-mail, she got scared. Nothing else about McCain's dirty campaign affected her.
If you check history, elections have been lost because candidates did not quickly respond to negative ads.

[Paul McEnany]

Jan- I agree that candidates like Kerry lost elections largely because of non-responsiveness in defending against the attacks. That doesn't mean you can go all attack or let those attacks push you off message.

And i do think the email argument makes sense, or at least it scares me. But I'm not talking about the broadest piece of the electorate, but the swing voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania and the seniors in Florida. Maybe not the best way to endear yourself.