Top McCain Campaign Manager: "This election is not about the issues"
By SilentPatriot Monday Sep 01, 2008 6:30pm
When your candidate is one the wrong side of nearly every issue, you better hope the election comes down to personalities.
WaPo:
Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.
"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."
Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won't ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has "ultimate faith" in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do.
Unsurprisingly, our own Jon Perr predicted this back in May.
Scorned on Issues, GOP Tries to Manufacture 'Character Gap":
A flood of recent polls suggests the 2008 election will once again display
the "Iron Law" of 21st century Republican presidential politics. That is,
with Americans showing an overwhelming preference for Democratic positions across virtually the entire spectrum of issues, the GOP has to make the race about something else. This year as in 2000 and 2004, the Republicans will try to turn the race into a presidential personality contest. And to win it, they need to manufacture a "character gap" between John McCain and Barack Obama.
The Obama camp unloads on Davis:
"We appreciate Senator McCain's campaign manager finally admitting that his campaign is not in fact about the issues the American people care about, which is exactly the kind of cynical old politics people are ready to change."
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Yeah, if I were McCain's campaign manager, I'd try to stay away from the issues too!
what I mean is... McCain blows!
Nice Try!
No Shit......
big time lobbyist
The corporate media has it's marching orders now, don't they?
George Lakoff has an excellent essay at Huffington Post that unpacks this.
They wanna talk character? About "Songbird?" Forrestal? Keating Five? Yeah, let's go there!
God I hope he's wrong...I thought even the dumb-shits learned their lesson from 2004, or maybe they don't realize they lost their houses due to Republican business practices.
Well, the GOP will really have to do some creative writing on this one. Here's Obama, cool under pressure, vs. Sen. Hair-Trigger Temper. Sen. Obama, married to his one and only intelligent and hardworking wife and mother, vs. McCain, who cheated on his first wife, dumped her after an accident, and took up with a younger and prettier woman he was on record as calling the C word. Plus, Sen. McSame decided to sell his soul to the GOP devil and embrace the man whose 2000 campaign attempted to cast aspersionis on his adopted daughter. Now, who has the better character?
And then there are the issues of the past eight years, including that war McSame wants to wage for another 95 years ...
What he means is, he and his little whore friends will do everything they possibly can to make this election about personalities. They may have met their match, however. And after the Palin debacle finishes playing out, I think one huge, HUGE issue will be McCain's judgment and consequently his fitness to serve in any capacity.
Use something scandalous about your side like the incompetent pick of Sara Palin for VP as an excuse for what you DON"T want to talk about, in this case the issues.
That's Rove 101.
"they need to manufacture a “character gap” between John McCain and Barack Obama." There is already a “character gap” between John McCain and Barack Obama. mccain has proven repeatedly since the 60's that his character is sorely lacking.
Personalities? McCain has none. Is that why they picked a former beauty queen wannabe?
Obama and Biden have very strong personalities.
They should try something else.
Perhaps a contest of who has the most lobbyists.
He's right.
It is not about issues.
If you listened to Obama's speech, on abortion rights he told women to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Thanks.
On Iraq, he said his position is the position now held by Bush and Maliki. Great. Wonderful. When are we getting the hell out, please?
On civil liberties - the loss thereof - the patriot act, FISA, etc. ad nauseum, he said NOTHING AT ALL. Wonderful.
On patriotism - he's for it. He's WAY for it. Yay!
All this, plus the wonderful disclosure that "Jesus died for (his) sins".
But progressives love him.
There was rock music at the convention.
Michael McDonald sang "America the Beautiful".
Stevie Wonder sang.
Issues?
Don't need 'em.
The BIG QUESTION someone needs to ask the GOP pundits is, "Will McCain let the media and bloggers vet all of his cabinet positions or just the most important one--his VP?"
Yeah. Character gap.
Wandering eyes
This election isn't about the greatest work of art (our country) every created and the men and women who created and
sustained it...
This election is a miniseries about the men and women, their loves, their lusts...
That picture reminds me of P. Allen Smith
Issues have a liberal bias.
Isawthelight @ 14:
Isawthelight @ 14:
America does not need McCain. Of that there is no doubt.
Ha! Someone should let him know that you're only supposed to say that behind the scenes when devising strategy!
So I'm watching the Republican convention, and I have decided that every time I see a clearly non-white face in the crowd, I will take a drink of my green apple martini.
So far I have seen two....just two.
It is going to be a looooong night. I think that I am changing the rules.
You mean to tell me this election is about Brady Bunch vs. Good Times? Or maybe Scooby Doo vs. Fat Albert? Or perhaps The People's Court vs. Judge Joe Brown? I just don't quite get it?!!? It's not about the issues?! Really!! Silly me! Did The Lincoln/Douglas debate include a beauty contest? They didn't teach it in my school. But hey, it could be a hole new theory.. You know about "THEORIES" right ;)
Well, yeah they'd like to make it personalities. But when that stops working it will be fear.
Vote for McCain or you will die.
that will be there main point, and we will hear it louder and louder as we get closer to the election.
One of the anchors on CNN actually said that McCain is from the generation that doesn't like to talk about themselves and their extraordinary experiences.Once again they're pulling out this tired myth about a guy who brings up his POW experience as an excuse for..well everything.
Amazing how the election is never about issues for the GOP.
Amazingly lucky, that is.
Issue just get in the way of quick wit and a sincere smile! :)
I think he's talking to the radical fringe evangelical base. The only issues that seem to matter are:
1) Is the candidate born again?
2) Is the candidate pro-life?
So yes, the issues are irrelevant when you put it in that context. McCain will attempt in his uncomfortable and illfitting way to talk the talk of the Bible thumpers, "life begins as conception", "I don't believe that judges should legislate from the bench", "I knew God when I was a POW", and so on.
This looks like an article title from The Onion.
Character? Then this party is over (pardon the pun)
KEATING FIVE! (CRIMINAL)
LEFT SICK WIFE FOR CINDY MCCAIN! (IMMORAL)
PATHOLOGICAL/PROVEN LIAR! (IMMORAL)
DIRECT TIES TO AND RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST CRIMINALS OF ALL TIME - GEORGE W. BUSH! (UNETHICAL)
HURRICANE KATRINA! (IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL)
VOTED AGAINST LEGISLATION TO ASSIST VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA! (IMMORAL)
USES POW STATUS AS A CRUTCH (AND NOT A VERY GOOD ONE)!
SHOT DOWN AMERICANS IN VIET NAM WAR (UNDER-REPORTED) (IMMORAL AND CRIMINAL)
HELD BARACK OBAMA TO EVERY LETTER OF THE LAW AND THEN SOME. HE EVEN MADE UP LIES ABOUT HIM (IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL)
PROVEN HIMSELF NOT TO BE READY TO BE THE LEADER OF THE FREE BY THROWING SARAH PALIN IN THE MIX TO PROVE ONCE AND FOR ALL THAT HE, IN FACT, DOES NOT CARE ABOUT AMERICA (UNETHICAL AND IMMORAL)
lilysmom @ 23:
You may as well go to an AA meeting.
"to win it, they need to manufacture a “character gap” between John McCain and Barack Obama. "
It's already done. Obama has lots of character and McCain has none.
Janice G Washington @ 31:
Isawthelight @ 14:
Unfortunately, Americans are stupid enough to be distracted from issues, and tend not to vote on them. Personally, though, I'm not quite ready to surrender so completely that we all just agree that campaigns should espouse that that's how it should be.
Uh, it's not like he just left it at that. Besides, practicing safe sex in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies is more than the crazy Palin-style conservatives will let you do.
As in Bush has now adopted Obama's position, not the other way around. But yes, I agree that we don't have an anti-war candidate on the ticket whose goal is simply to get us out.
That bothers me too, though he's still better than anything the Republicans have to offer. Frankly, if you really want to avoid centrist candidates like Obama, we need third parties. But we're not going to get them until we revamp the electoral system
You really want a civil libertarian movement? Or a progressive movement? It must start locally, and grow.
Yeah, it's just obligatory crap that they have to say. You can't fault him for saying it. If he didn't, he'd be eaten alive.
I agree. I wish politicians abandoned religion altogether. I'll not be granted my wish any time soon.
Not really. Progressives in the party were working hard for Kucinich, Gravel, Dodd or someone with genuinely progressive record. Obama is a center-left charismatic figure, who inspired a lot of cynics and naifs. Hard working progressives, though, don't love him. We've settled for him.
It does all smack of superficiality. Because it is indeed superficial. But if you're not for one candidate or the other ultimately because of issue stances, you're not paying attention.
In other words: Don't vote for the negro!
Issues! How quaint!
Kiss my butt and read my lips Rick Davis - I am sick of thousands of Americans and Iraqis killed to your tune of $10 Billion per month which you're pretending is FREE!
There's a cost, and y'all are gonna pay it by not being in power. The rest of us will clean up the mess. So get out of the way, jerk.
It's not about issues. It's about Hookers and Blow. And snowbillies.
This is a little bit off topic, but a useful peek into the warped mindset of a Free Republic denizen.
rawcatslyentist photobucket page
its pityful to look at the crap he has here, a truly frightening glimpse into insanity.
This sick slanderous anti Obama cartoon was on a FR thread, and gave me his main page with a little editing.
This is the supposed netroots of McCain and the other Repugs, scary stuff indeed.
Its people like these who end up as Regent grads and then into the DoJ and other gov depts.
No wonder Bushco has been so FUBARed over the last seven years.
This shows the utter bankruptcy of Republicanism.
Issues mean nothing to them, because they're hostile to representative government. They despise democracy and worship at the altar of greed, exclusivity, fake religion and power.
Davis paraphrase:
This election is not about rational issues. It is about image, a junior high school popularity contest.
I think there used to be (still is?) a band called Cognitive Dissonance.
the problem for repubes is that McCain has no personality. but lets talk about personality. McCain's largest crowd, to date, 15,000. not a very magnetic personality is he.
every voter i have been talking to is intune with the issues.
Hey Ricky Baby - when you f*** with my pension, and the pensions of thousands of other firefighters and cops and teachers and on and on - you can bet your lily-white a** that this election is about issues; you country-club, humvee driving turdwad. From this time forward, I will ALWAYS vote for the candidate most likely to sink the thievin' Repuke-lickers.
Your party has acted as an enemy to my security; you be my enemy, I'll be your enemy too. Forever and for real!
xoites defends Constitution @ 32:
There is a black reporter from MSNBC! Have another gulp!
uh...ok..they can play it that way if they want...but wtf makes them think that will work in THEIR favor?
Mick Piobr @ 43:
And I second that comment.
I'm not sure, but I thought I just heard the Republican National Committee's Co-Chairman JoAnn Davidson refer to their VP nominee as Sarah PAWLENTY.
Perhaps I just heard her wrong or I'm crazy.
Did anyone else catch that?
lilysmom @ 23:
You're one ahead of me. Maybe we should count black reporters? Seriously, I've seen many, many Republican conventions in my lifetime, and this has to be the the least diverse in recent memory.
Karen Says: @35
"Unfortunately, Americans are stupid enough to be distracted from issues, and tend not to vote on them."
Not so. Americans have no opportunities to vote on issues of importance.
Obama is too timid to express any conviction about civil liberties, civil rights, separation of church and state, ending the war in Iraq, women's rights. He talks about "Russian aggression" in the same simplistic manner as Bush and Condi.
If you care about issues, you don't have a chance to vote on them - unless you consider an alternative to the corrupt two-party (one-party) system we have.
Americans are not stupid. They are not being distracted. They have been disenfranchised.
The last time there appeared to be an issue-oriented campaign - in 2006 - the Iraq war being the issue - Americans voted to throw out the Republicans and to hand the congress over to the Democrats. We got nothing in return.
So - the only thing left for American voters is to forget issues and go with crap like hope, and the appearance of a lesser of evils.
xoites defends Constitution @ 44:
try the word 'maverick'.........you'll feel NO pain mcCain
in NO time
of course, the media are entirely compliant in that game so...it could work.
but I doubt it.
I just listened to it again (I am listening to it on CSPAN through my computer's Real Player) and she called her
SARAH PA-LENTY!
WTF?!? Even the party's own chairman doesn't know who she is!!!
The man who led McCain’s vice presidential search team said he thought everything that came up as a possible red flag during the background check had now been made public. “I think so,” Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. told The Associated Press. “Yes. I think so. Correct.”
LOL!!!!!
Q: How many houses do you own?
A: I don’t know. Ask my staff.
Q: Who is your VP choice?
A: I don’t know. Ask my staff.
Isawthelight @ 49:
we don't get a chance to ask sarah palin about issues
"And to win it, they need to manufacture a “character gap” between John McCain and Barack Obama. "
Manufacture a character gap?? Are they kidding?? Theres' a character gap big enough for Ms. Cindy Lou to fly her plane through!
It's pretty evident now with all of McCain's flipping and pandering: Obama's got character and McCain's flew the coop when his blind ambition kicked in.
I've been wondering why the Republicans seem to have such a twist in their panties over Obama supposedly being "a celebrity" or "a messiah."
He's got followers, like any politician. And he certainly has an energetic vibe around him, the way that Reagan and Clinton did.
But my sense is that there are very few people saying they want to vote for Obama because they're personally entranced with him in particular.
It doesn't seem that they're agreeing with what he says because they're responding to his charisma. It seems to be the other way around: he's saying what people want to hear and they're warming up to him because of it.
So, it's marketing envy, isn't it? Of COURSE you don't want the election to be about the issues. Of COURSE it has to be about personalities and personal narratives and who's got the best Hallmark Movie of the Week script.
Problem is, Obama seems to be winning on that score as well. Or, at least, holding the line.
"Oh, oh, huff, puff, puff, he's, he's, he's 'The One' snark snark snark...you're just entranced with a CELEBRITY snark snark."
Um, sorry Repubs, but that's YOUR game: falling in love with a pretty face, voting for the guy you'd like to have a beer with. We're electing the leader of the free world, not picking our favoritest boy band EVAR, here.
So, look, Repubs, just because someone happens to be beating you at your main game doesn't mean that that's THEIR main game. You reveal yourselves in your celebrity obsession, your jealousy.
You also show a remarkable lack of respect for what is now the bulk of the American electorate. You're suggesting that about 50% of the country is just entranced with a celebrity. You're saying that people who vote for Obama are fools who have been duped.
Tell me, why do you hate America?
xoites defends Constitution @ 44:
Can you at least drink beer when you see, say, a white person under 50?
constituent @ 50:
OK Ricky. So the forty or so percent voting for Sidney McShame don't care diddly about issues. But guess what ass-hat. The rest of us do.
Methinks Little Ricky's in for a beeeg surprise.
Rico @ 48:
An unbelievable sea of old white.
Don Webber @ 54:
Exactly.........ask the lobbyists....i mean staff....
The Republicans are hosting a funeral.
I hope their taking away all the shoelaces and belts before the delegates enter the hall...or it could get very ugly.
lilysmom @ 59:
I did not miss the point.
You missed my joke. :)
I just don't get these people at the convention that are able to talk about her with a straight face. Seriously, did they put something in the water?
If the hookers start leaving the Twin Cities early you'll know that the GOP is done.
they have sleepy fred thompson slotted to speak
get that southern vote inspired by there ridiculous
v.p. ultra pro life pick
xoites defends Constitution @ 53:
Then he lied, a journalist went to the ADN, asked to see their clippings on Palin,
and was shocked to discover that he was the first to do so.
WcCain is an amateur, a fraud, a failure, and has morons for staff.
Fanon @ 65:
Straight face?? These people look like they had their cheeks numbed to keep them from frowning.
I had no doubt the Republican National Convention would be almost entirely white men. It is the party of white men for white men and nobody else. It has been so since before i was born in the 1950s. One thing they can't possibly run on on is "Change."
They are dead set against it.
The convention hall looks like what Jonestown might have looked like once folks realized what was in the Kool Aid.
Issues have a liberal bias? That's the most ridiculous comment I've ever heard and I'm being nice. Obviously, the McCain campaign can't focus on issues because they have no answers. Just listen to Sarah Palin, has she spoken about anything important? The woman can't come up with s Supreme Court case except for Roe vs. Wade, or any publication (not even one), but said she reads all of them. Now her tactic is the same fear mongering used in the 2004 campaign. No matter what anyone says, I still think that issues are important to most Americans. Besides, if it does come to personalities, Obama wins hands down!!!
Just curious, why and how did my comment get moved way down to the ones that were made on September 1? I wrote mine today, October 8, 2008. It really doesn't make sense mixed in with all the comments about the convention.
He has ran one of the worst campaigns I can remember.
To see someone who clings to lies and focus on how much mud he can throw is a shame. Palin is no better. What she lacks in brains, at least she makes up with guts.
Neither are a pretty picture once they open their mouths. If the Republicans want to win me back, they will need to clean up their canidates first. Till then I swing for Obama!
Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman?
This will be a sleep-a-thon.
jesus! I have not seen this much tap-dancing since, I don't know, ever! Are they issuing stock answers to each room?
The answers have to be for the incredibly stupid, or the party faithful, or both.
If I see one more fat florid-faced, double-chinned white man give a "things are fine" answer, I'm gonna toss. I love the way they are skirting around the "McCain will not be Bush, not that Bush is bad" line.
Amitola @ 56:
An example of Obama' character: He campaigned for Lieberman in 2006. He said that Lieberman had a "keen intellect" and that the citizens of Connecticut should reelect "Joe" to the Senate where he could "continue to work in our behalf". ("Our" behalf!) He threw the entire anti-war Iraq movement under the old bus just so he could get in the good graces of the boys in the democratic party who pull the strings. Character - my aunt fanny.
No - all we got is the worn-out mantra that he's better than McCain. Hope on.
These rich white men look so sad. I guess the bondage gear delivery has been delayed due to the hurricane.
Liberal AND Proud @ 69:
Botox?
No, I am not even talking about the convention people. How are some of the talking heads doing it without laughing outright?
Of course it's not ; why should now be any different than the past 40 years ?
If any election were about the issues , no Republican would have ever entered the Oval Office during that time period...........
Fanon @ 76:
Their bosses are watching them. You remember their bosses don't you...those are the rich white guys that run the media...you know..Republicans.
Most honest statement from a Republican all election cycle.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s @ 36:
Seriously. In all ways Obama has more character, personality and charisma. The only thing McCain has to offer the 23percenters is:
I'm a pastey!
Cripes, I'm as pastey as the next half-Irish guy, but I couldn't give a flying fart through a rolling donut. McCain could dip himself in flour and it wouldn't make him a better, more even-tempered and unflappable candidate than Obama. Just...well...pastey!
That being said, it's all about the way we want to see this country move. Having at the very least a centrist president ostensibly working with a Democratic-led Congress is one way to make it happen.
Isawthelight @ 14:
Wow, I've never thought of it that way before, but, you're right.
We should totally jab into the only candidate of 2 that might do some good, and disaffect any voters who may not go out on Nov. 4th. We should 'definitely' remember that America is a 3+ party system, with many choices that all have realistic chances of becoming the President. We should all do our best to demoralize people about voting for Obama. Because, I mean, come on. He's practically McCain. Just how Gore or Kerry were just like Bush. It makes no difference.
Spot on.
BTW, just gtfo of the house and vote D on 11/4. Pragmatist 08!
The delegates are more conservative then 4 years ago - Chuck Todd
The GOP is finished. Even Chuck knows it. Done. Fini. Arrivederci. Waiter...check please.
George W. Bush set out to destroy the nation.
Unfortunately, the GOP incurred the collateral damage.
Mick Piobr @ 7:
And Hundred years of war? Bomb Bomb Iran? Suck it up whiners, there's no recession? Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan sounds good to me? The list of this senile goon's mental lapses and ineptitude is endless.
"Character Gap"?? Oh, heaven, let it be the same kind they tried to manufacture before. Let them please try to return to the "character issue" and "family values" when the top of their ticket is a womanizing, wheelchair-bound-wife leaving, estranged-from-children, home-wrecker-mistress marrying hypocrite. Put them side-by-side with Obama's first-wife, beautifully adjusted kids family. C'mon, reps, you made morals, character, and family values hyper-important issues; let's judge you by your own measuring rod!
Finally, we see McCain's last hail-mary pass in this election. Shifting to Character and away from Issues.
With Palin in the race he can get away with this because he has chosen to g