Fights and the Fighters Who Fight Them

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At the risk of destroying space and time as we know it, I have to say Bill Kristol had some good advice for the McCain campaign today. Go back to what you do best, Kristol says to McCain. Drop the negative ads and be the happy warrior from 2000. Never mind that Kristol gave the opposite advice just seven days ago.

Let’s be frank; the silvery-haired white guy came into the contest with a built-in advantage — being a silvery-haired white guy. I suspect a whole lot of voters wanted to support him over Obama. The erratic, hateful, nearly substance-free campaign McCain has waged has driven people to Obama, however. And with just three weeks to go, isn’t it a bit late for a complete re-tool of the campaign?

It’s way early to begin the victory party, but if McCain loses in the landslide it’s shaping up to be, gonna be a whole lotta finger-pointing going on. At least, I hope it finally puts to rest the myth of Karl Rove’s political genius, as I believe Rove more than McCain is the one calling the shots in the Campaign to Nowhere.

But what’s really fascinating, in a morbid way, is watching the McCain campaign fire back at Kristol for similar criticism elsewhere — “he has bought into the Obama campaign’s party line.”

McCain debuted his “rebooted” campaign today. The Word of the Day is fight. Apparently in a speech today McCain used the word fight nearly 20 times. Here’s a bit:

I know what hopelessness feels like. It’s an enemy who defeats your will. I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I’m an American. And I choose to fight. Don’t give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight. Fight for a new direction for our country. Fight for what’s right for America. Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington. Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

David Corn:

This new pitch doesn’t even qualify as a Hail Mary. It seems not substantial enough to rate as a real play. It’s as if McCain’s handlers did a focus group and found that the one word undecided voters associate positively with McCain is “fighter.” And that’s all McCain’s strategist have to work with.

And didn’t Hillary Clinton run with “I’m a fighter” for awhile? See where it got her.

The thing is, I believe most Americans feel they’ve already been fighting for quite some time. They’ve been fighting stagnant wages, rising prices, precarious health care, job losses, and in too many cases bankruptcies and foreclosures. They don’t need a leader who is going to lead them into a fight, because they’re already in it. And they’re tired of it. I think they want someone to bring back stability and put an end to the fighting. And it that’s a skinny black guy, so be it.

11 thoughts on “Fights and the Fighters Who Fight Them”

  2. I was fascinated to read McCain’s Senate record between 2000 and 2004 and his Senate record since. It’s hard to believe that it belongs to the same man.

    I’m guessing that in 2004 he made up his mind to run for president, needed the Bush/Baker/Cheney/Bush Republican powerhouse of influence and money to win the post, didn’t have it without echoing their agenda and so adopted it.

    The tragedy, I guess you could call it, is they don’t like or trust him so he’s now out here literally in a boat without a paddle.

  3. yes, I remember watching McCain wrapping up his convention speech, trying to ride the wave of applause over that riff about fighting, and actually appearing quite surprised and confused as to how to do that…

    But the point is people don’t want someone to TELL them to fight. How arrogant. They want someone who’s gonna fight FOR them, to remove barriers so they can carry on their daily fights to improve their lives and their kids’.

  4. I can only repeat Barney Frank’s witticism when McCain pretended to suspend his campaign during the first days of the economic meltdown:

    “It’s the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.”

    Hmm. Maybe if McCain started appearing at rallies dressed as Barbara Bush?

  5. I think Rove is only indirectly involved, and probably not closely. Steve Schmidt is well trained and using the playbook, but I’ve seen Rove off-message too many times to believe that he’s intimately involved.

    In fact, I think the McCain campaign has cut itself off (which makes it understandable that he seems genuinely puzzled and offended when questioned about all the lobbyists on his staff. Well, that and stupidity.)

  6. McCain’s campaign is still running the Ayer’s ad here in Florida. The ad is the most blatant distortion ( a bold face lie actually) I’ve ever heard from any political organization. And at the close of the message in the ad comes the words..”I’m John McCain, and I approve this message.”

    If McCain can approve a vicious smear that robs Americans of the honest exercise of democracy by poisoning the political process with outright lies, then it shows his contempt for the American people, and shows that his appeal to connect to voters is just another attempt to beguile them. If McCain wants to fight he should ally himself with truth and honesty…but that doesn’t seem to be the case, does it?

    Whatever respect McCain might have earned throughout his life time has been pissed away by his current political campaign for the presidency. His true character now shines forth as that of a vacillating liar who holds nothing in greater value then is own self serving ego..Country First,my ass!

    And Palin is even worse… what a sleeze bucket!

  7. McCain is fighting alright, he and the GOP are fighting the 1960s all over again, without realizing that the rest of the country has moved on and most citizens have greater concerns, as Maha notes. I am always amazed how the GOP manages to look backward, and never forward.

  8. McCain is such a shitbag!

    Where does he get the audacity to exhort Americans to fight against the very things he represents? He claims we should fight to clean up the mess of corruption while his running mate has been judged by a bi-partisan legislative panel to have abused her authority according to law. Yet, Sarah Palin flatly refuses to acknowledge the corruption of law that she herself is perpetrating. All we get as a governed people is a big “fuck you, peons”, because of a laws and justice don’t apply to me attitude. It’s the same trash that Alberto Gonzales tried to stuff down the throats of the American people with the dismissal of Federal Prosecutors. …Corrupted law and justice is the hallmark of the Repuglican party.

    And we should fight for what’s right for America ?…I am..I’m supporting Barak Obama for president, and I’m commenting at the Mahablog..Home of the American Resistance. Resisting the best I know how to combat the cancer that’s destroying America.

  9. I watched a recent video of a McCain town hall/rally, and the wingnuts therein were angry. One of them spoke into a mic at McCain urging him, yelling at him to fight against socialism, etc. The wingnut was livid. When he spoke the entire crowd erupted in cheers and applause. McCain was taken back a bit, and said something to help defuse but agree with the wingnut.

    I suspect this is where the “fight” stuff comes from. If he doesn’t he risks losing his base.

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