Celebrity

[pamela]

I've been thinking a lot lately about one of the main things we've learned about Rove's tactics and how this is playing out in the McCain campaign. We know Rove always attacks the other guy's strengths. It's sometimes hard, however, to tell which strength they are attacking until it's almost too late. I think we are seeing this play out with McCain's attack on Barack's "celebrity" and also with his choice of Palin.

Now by "celebrity" I don't mean the artificial and superficial. That was the Rovian frame with the Paris/Britney ad. I mean the enthusiasm and excitement, the big crowds and great speeches. The fact that I am even having to defend this type of celebrity shows how effective their tactic has been. Barack is trying so hard to show that he is more than just a great speaker with throngs of enthusiastic supporters that he has played right into their hands. Meanwhile, McCain is embracing the very things they criticized Obama for.

As a bit of a side note, Republicans always mock Democrats for our celebrity supporters. One reason they do this is because they know the power of celebrity and pop culture and they know they will never, ever be able to match us in this area. We are always going to have the coolest and most popular celebrity supporters while they always have lame-assed B-listers. So they mock and deride our celebrities and yet embrace theirs. Hell, they ELECT theirs. Meanwhile, we distance ourselves from ours.

I say it's time to call their bluff and bring out the big guns. Round up some celebrities and get back to the huge crowds and dynamic speeches. Get the 2004 Vote For Change musicians back together and have some kick-ass concerts. But this time, have Barack show up at the concerts. Sure they'll make an issue out of it but so what? McCain himself was using musicians to get crowds and Palin was chosen for no other reason than her celebrity potential. They turned Barack's strength into their strength and we didn't even know what hit us. Classic Rove.

[sandnsea]

1. Astute n/t

[pamela]

2. Thanks.

Just some late night ramblings. Thanks for reading it.

[sandnsea]

3. Kick

Cuz I think you're so right and that maybe the best ad the campaign could put out would be snippets of Mile High Stadium.