Touring the Low Road
Lee on Jul 31 2008 at 1:37 am | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page
The Obama campaign has a new video response to McCain. It’s an interesting approach. The heart of the ad is the beginning, in which quotes from major pro-Obama media editorials are superimposed over McCain, calling his (unspecified) criticism “baseless,” “baloney,” etc.
Since there is some evidence in the polls that the positive press attention Barack has been receiving may be having a counterproductive effect, might it be unwise to let your press advocates perform your defense in your own ad? Given the situation, it might seem like a further blurring of the separation lines between independent media and political campaign. Naming the spot for a line taken from a profoundly and explicitly partisan New York Times editorial can’t help either.
This ad may hint that a system of mutual reinforcement has emerged between the Obama campaign and certain media organizations that is essentially ineluctable and indissoluble. If so, the more pressure and stress that is put on that relationship as symmetry, the more brittle and uncomfortable it may become for both parties. Were I McCain, I’d attack that point harder than he is.
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