|
We are all a little to blame, but it's also the media's fault, and McCain's strategy.
Everyone focuses on a different issue every week. We keep talking about Palin, or her husband, or the baby, or McCain's health, or Alzheimers, or Spain-gate, or a dozen other issues that aren't going to stick with people. The focus is off Obama's economic message too often, and even when the focus is on the economy, we get so caught up in what BushCo did wrong and what McCain is likely to do wrong that we don't talk about what Obama needs to do right.
Clinton had the slogan "It's the economy, stupid," everywhere during his campaign. Every time a new issue came up, they steered it back to the economy and what Clinton would do to fix it. When the media got so caught up in the personal attacks on Clinton that they wouldn't cover his economic strategy, he refused to speak to the press, and instead went on Donahue and MTV to take his message straight to the general public. That way, everything people heard about Clinton was what he wanted them to hear.
He still had to handle the scandals and nonsense, but he did that through fax machines and phone call by his aides to the media. Every time a negative story broke, he flooded the media with his rebuttal and counterattack, so that by the time most people heard about the scandals, they heard Clinton's counter-attack, too.
Obama stays on message well, but he isn't effective at forcing the media to stay on message. We hurt him, with out constant crap about McCain and Palin. Democrats never win elections by trashing the other guy--it's just not what we are good at, nor is it what people find appealing in us. We win by staying on message and promoting our economic policies. None of Obama's supporters are doing that. McCain is controlling the message just be letting himself and his VP become the object of our attacks. It puts the cameras on him, gives him a chance to make tough statements, and makes everyone forget about Obama's message. That's part of how Bush won, too.
|