Campaign Strategy

[Sharmai]

Ok and also I want to add that when the debates happen if Palin has been at the top of the coverage the entire time she is going to be expected to perform. Now they will downplay her again naturally but there will be a ton of people watching those debates and unfortunately for her all those scripts won't help nearly as much. Biden will have his chance to truly shine but he has to do it in such a way as to not seem anti-women while also embarrassing the fact that shes completely unqualified (and not selected by the people). If he emphasizes the fact that McCain deliberate disrespected the entire true republican base by not picking any of the well qualified VP's that existed then it could have a big impact.


Ok thats enough theory crafting for me today.

[Simas]

The McCain camp needs to keep Palin from being interviewed and they will. Palin is best used to buttress McCain's maverick image and as a blank slate for voter's to impart their own values on. The base already loves her and reformer hockey mom is all independents need to know. More information about her has a much greater chance to turn off any undecided voters than to turn them on.

While Palin rallies the base and fundraises McCain needs to continue hitting on the idea that he will provide a safer change than Obama. To do this he will need to continue running ads that paint Obama's record, views and associations in a negative light.

Many of those ads have been called misleading or outright lies by fact checkers. Obama needs to hit back by stating McCain is willing to lie and mislead to get elected and tie that to the problems in washington. Obama can possibly go negative in self defense while still managing to convince voters he has maintained the highroad. Obama should use hard hitting negative ads to confront McCain's negative ads.

At the same time Obama needs to own an issue in a specific catch-phrase manner. He has promised change but it is broad and viewed with extra skepticism since he is a democrat and a new face. "Read my plan on my website" is not enough. Bill Clinton is very good at doing this sort of thing.

Debate wise Biden needs to avoid attacking Palin directly while clearly demonstrating a much better understanding of issues. Palin is free to attack as she will and needs only not to be made to look foolish for her to be considered a success.

Obama needs to find a way to simplify his cerebral answers w/o losing the "its never black and white" lens that shades his answers. McCain needs to point to times he bucked his party and his time as a prisoner .

From here on out McCain camp will be safe change/Obama dangerous change and Obama camp will be real change/McCain out of touch/typical politician.

Assuming, as nearly everyone does, that the election will be close no matter what then it will likely come down to ground game and turn out.

[t0nic]

To be honest,

I gonna say Obama is running a issues campaign as he spends a lot of time talking about his various plans (economy, alternative energy, etc). Its just not transferring well to the media. Obama is a natural speaker and in the day and age of sound bites you never hear his full speeches in detail. Hell they never play in detail his town hall speeches or stuff (To be honest, they don't play McCain's either).

I am gonna offer up a unconventional plan of attack for Obama. Don't go negative directly but wrap it up in a game of let me be more real and personal.

Obama should stop the compare John McCain to Bush part because McCain isn't talking policy anymore and instead focus on becoming that celebrity that talks to the people directly. He should take out adds and new time were he lays out his plans (like his racism speech) but in shorter timeframe.

Answer the attack ads by actually putting out a 30second blurb narrated/told by himself about the "truths" of his plan. Talk policy but at a "dumb" level so even the stupids can understand (ie..you make less then 250k grats you get tax break)

Put him in front of the screen, put him in ads, make the American people associate his speaking skills with intelligence and concern for the American worker. Make America buy into his belief that all Americans should benefit from government.

Shit like that brings his policy down to the level where any American can understand the talking points and also puts his face/voice out there not talking elitist like but more one on one (Sort of like Nixon's checkers speech)

[gn0me]

Originally Posted by Banal

You can post whatever you want, and I can tell you that you're a bitch for bringing your partisan bullshit into this. I don't give a fuck if they lie because they all lie, idiot. Using words like hypocrisy implies a value judgment that draws opposing value judgments and there's already a thread you can shit yours out in.

They are all liars to one degree or another, that wasn't the point, but thanks for flying off the handle about it.

The greater point that went over your head while playing forum mom and thread protector is that the mainstream media has focused heavily this week on the McCain campaign's false statements and contradictions (regular people call these lies). In essence, McCain/Palin overreached and the media called them on it.

It doesn't matter if I think he's a liar or not, or if you think it's all relative. What does matter is that the media has given several of the McCain campaign's specious statements a hard look and found them to be lacking in factual evidence. This has had the effect of directing a lot of negative attention toward McCain/Palin, to some degree backfiring their image strategy, and giving Obama an easy "in" to attack next week and perhaps regain momentum in this election.

Obama played it straight for the most part this week and tried to stick to the issues. You saw some negative stuff come out today from Obama and you'll see a lot more in the next couple weeks. As long as he doesn't overdo it he can avoid a lot of the backlash McCain/Palin received and he might get some real gains from it.

Both campaigns are playing a balance between issues and image. McCain/Palin has focused on image with negative/misleading attacks since the convention. They gained a lot of momentum from that, but it seems to be catching up with them. Obama/Biden has been pushing issues to appear to take the high road, but now is the best time for them to try to turn the tables, and we'll see how well it works the next couple weeks.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Originally Posted by Banal

He needs to have an Obama moment and deliver an address to the public. You know, one that will spark their imagination.

7 posts into your own thread and you've already begun the circle jerk you were looking to avoid. Brilliant.

[Banal]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

7 posts into your own thread and you've already begun the circle jerk you were looking to avoid. Brilliant.

I'm confused. I've stated that I think one of Obama's greatest political assets is his charisma, his ability to make people believe that change is possible. How is suggesting that he utilize that talent initiating a circle jerk?

You must be misunderstanding what I mean by imagination. To clarify, I mean he needs to spark the public's vision of a better tomorrow. He's been quite successful taking that angle.

gn0me,

I'm sorry if my harsh language made you think I was flying off the handle. I'll tone it down for you. Thank you for toning down your own rhetoric in your last post.

Edit: I also disagree with notion I've seen several people posit that Obama needs to get negative, but do so in relation to specific issues. As I stated previously, I think that getting negative is exactly what the GOP hopes Obama's campaign will do. He needs to portray himself as rising above the petty partisan politics, but he needs to do so proactively by addressing the negativity.

If he absolutely has to go negative, let Biden do it. Obama needs to keep his own hands clean.

[BigMovieBuff]

McCain went negative for one specific purpose; to get Obama off-message and wasting time and resources defending ridiculous lipstick comments.

It worked.

Palin will do interviews here and there, but they are going to be very measured with her availability so as to avoid palin-fatigue from overexposure. Her star is shining bright right now and they need to make sure it doesn't burn out before Nov. 4th.