He Doesn’t Understand
“He just doesn’t understand.” “He just doesn’t understand the risks.” “He just doesn’t understand the economy.” “He just doesn’t understand the region.” Over the past month we’ve heard these key phrases repeated over and over by McCain and his campaign. It seems the main focus of the McCain campaign thus far hasn’t been an argument of “Why McCain” but “Why Not Obama”. This constant degrading of Obama’s understanding of key issues must appear to be an effective strategy to McCain, because it seems to be the only argument he’s using. While he may be sowing seeds of doubt into the minds of undecided voters who are paying attention now, what McCain doesn’t understand is that this is going to hurt his campaign when it comes to the time that Obama and McCain are debating face to face.
When the debates start, Americans who aren’t familiar with Obama, but have heard how much he doesn’t understand the issues, are going to be expecting to see Obama stumble around the “tough questions” on things like the war in Iraq, universal health care, and the economy. They’ll be expecting this candidate who’s still just getting his feet wet and doesn’t really know what’s going on enough to have clear answers for the questions McCain is boasting superiority on. What they’re going to see is a man who knows the issues and is an eloquent speaker, someone who can move a crowd as though he was talking to you one-on-one, not the bumbling sophomore McCain has set him up to be. This is going to make him seem that much more amazing. It’s going to be like going to see The Dark Night expecting a Jack Nicholson Joker: Because you’re expecting something that’s kind of lame the performance is going to be that much more amazing. This will not go over well for McCain, who can’t really speak to large audiences like Obama can, for a couple reasons. Reason one: Obama suddenly seems amazing in the eyes of the Americans McCain was trying to convince he was inexperienced. Reason Two: People are going to be thinking “Has McCain even met Obama? This totally isn’t the same guy McCain was talking about!” This sort of thing happened in the past with the first Bush when he was running against Clinton, and look how that turned out. Failing economy, ruling party claiming that the opponent doesn’t know anything...sound a bit familiar?
Another thing that McCain needs to steer clear from is straight up lying, because he’s going to be called on it. “At the gym”? Playing ball with soldiers in Kuwait. “Doesn’t visit soldiers without a camera?” Regularly without telling the press, even the hospital that McCain was bullying him about! It’s just not going to bode well with people when they realize that McCain isn’t just stretching the truth, he’s flat out making things up. McCain’s policy seems to be setting him up for a big fall, and it’s not going to be pretty when he starts tumbling down.
Tagged : mccain, obama, election, policy, campaign
