John the Ripper Attacks Barack's Balloon

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/07/john-the-ripper-attacks-barack.html

John the Ripper Attacks Barack's Balloon

By Craig Crawford | July 30, 2008 2:00 PM


Weeks ago an adviser to John McCain told me they would go "hard negative" against Barack Obama because "if we don't puncture his balloon this summer he will float right out of our hands."

Make no mistake about it. McCain's recent attacks are not isolated incidents. They are part of a long range plan to develop several story lines, or "narratives" as the political pros say, aimed at making Obama seem to be a risky choice for the White House.

Other campaigns I've seen embark upon such a strategy actually plotted this stuff on a calendar, methodically unveiling new charges just as the opponent and the news media were untangling any misrepresentations (or lies) in the last round.

This strategy depends on finding negative narratives that feel sort of true to a lot of voters, concerns that are usually surfaced in focus group polling. Once a promising story line is identified, every day you look for anything -- no matter how minor or misleading -- that might support it. Even stretching the truth, or worse, about a particular episode can work if it fits into a narrative that voters already believe about your opponent.

This is how Al Gore became seen as a serial exaggerator in the 2000 campaign. Many of the charges leveled at him, such as taking credit for the birth of the Internet, were overstated at best. But they fit a pattern that voters saw in Gore.

Consider the Obama arrogance narrative that Republicans are now developing. Even Democratic Party research has shown some voter unease along these lines. That is how McCain might get away with stretching the truth about why Obama didn't meet with injured troops on his foreign trip. (That episode also fits another narrative that the GOP is nurturing -- accusing him of indifference to the military.)

Still, with McCain doing so much of the heavy lifting in his personal remarks and television advertisements, he runs the risk of feeding his own negative narrative as ill-tempered and angry.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Balloon stealers never win

GOBAMA!!!

[Gabi Hayes]

2. why isn't HE on TV with this, as it deconstructs EXACTLY their itinerary.

and WHERE are the dems, not talking about this EVERY Time they have a chance

it's SUMMER, and if this continues, the Obamalloon is going to be deflated

[Gabi Hayes]

3. ho de ho.....he's on KO right now

[babylonsister]

4. Yep, saying the same stuff in this article. I wonder if Milbank will

be mentioned tonight (I hope), and not in a good way.

[Cha]

7. Great! Ask and ye shall

get.

[Cha]

6. This article needs to be sent to the Obama Campaign now..

I hope they already know this.

[babylonsister]

8. I'm sure they have people monitoring the 'tubes'.

;)

[Cha]

10. Right..and the nets where a lot of the

good stuff it.

[Cha]

5. REC-O-MMENDED!

I couldn't believe it when I saw some section in US mag that featured "historical exaggaerations" and they had Al Gore "inventing the internet"!

And this is from Jann Wenner's mag like Rolling Stone that endorses Obama!

And after the m$m shoved the anti-Al Gore theme down our throats they served us bush for 8 years and the War On IRaq..I'm hoping Americans are ready to think for themselves and not let mccain's appeal to the Ugly side of Americans take over.

[ErinBerin84]

9. I enjoyed him on KO tonight.

[Triana]

11. "Define your opponent/enemy" - abusive partners/spouses do the same thing....

...and it's so - REPUBLICAN.

gets the opponent/enemy all riled up trying to defend him/herself against the false and negative definitions - and in doing so, (s)he only validates the negative definition that has been slapped on.

For how to handle this (and Obama is pretty good at it) - see verbal abuse, abusers and the definition of abuse (hint: it's definition!).

Abusers define another person - then proceed to launch criticism based on that definition (no matter now baseless the definition is). It tears the other person down mentally, emotionally, and leaves them reeling trying to defend themselves (which only validates the abuser's negative assertion about his target) - IF the target of this type of abuse isn't aware what is going on and how to handle that type of abuse.

I think Obama is aware of these tactics and pretty darn good at handling them. But - he can use all the help he can get.