Since you apparently couldn’t identify a negative campaign if it whacked you across the head, let me give you a clue. A negative campaign is one that focuses more on the opponent than the candidate himself. What do McCain’s Hilton/Spears/Obama celebrity ad, the “One” ad or the tire gauge ad all have in common? They are all about Obama, not McCain. What would you call McCain’s efforts to paint Obama as an elitist or accusation that Obama is more concerned about winning an election than winning Iraq? EVERYONE agrees that McCain has been running a negative campaign for the last month and one-half and that it has worked well for him. Get up to speed with the times.

As for McCain’s housing gaffe, you clearly don’t understand WHY it is significant so let me help you out. It is not a question of intelligence – like you suggest by comparing it to Obama’s 57 states comments. It is an illustration of how incredibly wealthy McCain is and therefore how out of touch he is with the experiences of average Americans going through these dire economic times. Seriously, how many people do you know that couldn’t immediately answer the question – “how many houses do you own”? Add that gaffe to the numerous statements by McCain and McCain supporters (ie Phil Gramm) saying how great the economy has been and it creates a narrative that McCain doesn’t understand the economic problems of average Americans because he is so freakin rich. Look back to 1992 when G. H. Bush made the infamous supermarket gaffe and revealed that he had no idea how much groceries cost because he never does his own shopping. Clinton hammered him on that in the election and it stuck because everyone was worried about the economy that year. Deja vu!

It’s entirely possible that this may be the last time I even consider responding to a comment of yours. Let’s go in order:

1) Do you really think that a graduate of the Harvard Law School, and a standing US Senator, does not know how many states there are? Have you never made a simple mistatement of your own, or are you indeed the perfect human being who has never said anything in his entire life that needed a correction later?

2) “McCain doesn’t own any houses.” Oh, right – they are all owned by his wife, Cindy. And in their pre-nup, which he was forced to sign, she keeps all of them. Smart woman – knowing she was marrying a known adulturer, she forced him into signing away anything he might have gained by abandoning his first wife and three children, and marrying the young, blonde, rich beer heiress.

3) “I never heard of arugula till this came out”. Well, honestly – nobody else can be blamed for your ignorance of a slightly-peppery lettuce that can be bought in any large chain supermarket in the United States of America. (Although I probably stopped with “nobody else can be blamed for your ignorance” – but I don’t like to go there.)

“there has been no negative campaigning by McCain”

Seriously – how do you people get through these entire phrases without convulsing into laughter?

One

Two

Three!

Three negative attacks! Ahhh ha ha ha!!

(end Sesame Street Count)

breschau
numberf of houses, why is that bigger than Obama not knowing how many states there are? And it turns out, McCain doesn’t own any houses. So they can’t claim he owns so many he couldn’t count them. And none of Cindy’s houses were bought by a convicted felon.
I never heard of arugula til this came out and I don’t think anyone in Iowa has either and that goes for Whole Foods stores also.
It’s basically grown and sold in Europe and is not an Iowa crop at all.

Okay, seriously – are you trying to say that Iowa farmers don’t know what arugula is? What next – if you’re a dairy farmer, you don’t know what that exotic “corn” is?

Sure, the quote at the time didn’t go over well – and you were right, it’s probably due mostly to the fact that there are no Whole Foods in Iowa. Maybe those folks didn’t know what a “Whole Foods” was – hell, my mother-in-law might not know either, since she gets pretty much all of her vegetables from either our gardens (tomatoes kinda suck this year, but hot peppers are AWESOME) or the local farmer’s market (one of the advantages of living where we are in DE – we are surrounded by farmers on all sides; the recent corn has been very sweet).

Arugula is, basically, a slightly peppery lettuce. You can buy it in the Super G that is about 2 miles from me. To claim that knowing was arugula is, or eating it, is a sign of “elitism” is JUST FREAKING STUPID. Can we agree on that, in the name of decency?

And the whole point of the argument was: “supermarkets are charging more for produce, but you [farmers] aren’t seeing any increase in your crop prices.” So, I guess pandering to the bottom line for a freakin’ FARMER now counts as elitism?

As a counter point, I will offer a simple example: the “family recipes” from Cindy McCain (themselves the point of a minor controversary, consisted of entries such as “Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage”. So, why is arugula such an “elitist” food, but Ahi Tuna is not?

And seriously AJ – you never heard of this? Hell, your side is selling t-shirts about the damn thing.

Regular folks don’t eat arugula, and Iowans don’t and can’t shop at a Whole Foods, which is a very trendy grocery store with prices that ordinary folk can’t afford, found only in major metropolitan areas. He tried to pander to the working class voters in Iowa and ended up exposing himself as an effete snob.

Besides, Iowa farmers raise primarily corn, wheat, soybeans and pigs. (My midwestern farm relatives prefer wheat mostly, some corn) Arugula is a mediterranean lettuce mostly imported from Italy, and is only served in hoity-toity places where plain old lettuce isn’t good enough. There ARE a handful of Iowa growers, but they are all small hydroponic operations. THe only major US growers are some large scale produce operations in California and Arizona. (Arugula doesn’t like hard winters)

Obama didn’t know what Iowa farmers grow. An elitist wouldn’t.

Would those be the same “idiots” that think mentioning the price of arugula (while talking to farmers, who do kinda care about the price of arugula – since they sell it) makes you an “elitist”?

Rezko is old news. It is not going to play like McCain’s new housing gaffe. As breschau said, McCain’s gaffe will be all over the news and late night circuit because it is the type of story the media loves. This will play into Obama’s new theme that McCain is too rich and out of touch to understand the economic problems most Americans are experiencing. Add McCain’s housing gaffe to his definition of “rich” as $5 million and above, his ridiculous statement to Politico that “I define rich in other ways besides income,” and Phil Gramm’s statement that Americans are a bunch of whinners, and that theme starts to gain some traction. I’m guessing we will start seeing a fresh round of McCain is out of touch ads from Obama continue.

I have to admit, I have been amazed that McCain has been able to peg Obama as the elitist. McCain is the son and grandson of four-star Navy Admirals (Gee, I wonder how a poor student like McCain got into the Naval Academy), has been multi, multi, multi- millionare uber-rich since he married Cindy in 1980 and has been living in the Congress bubble since 1982. And he is the regular guy who understands average Americans lives? Yeah right.

Only idiots would connect the national economy to how many houses the McCain’s own. And Americans are not idiots.

Think what you like.

And that’s where Obama is going with this.

“I guess if you think being rich means you gotta make $5 million, and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you think the economy was fundamentally strong.”

Hopefully, this can then work its way around to the fact that McCain’s tax plan is going to save him and his wife nearly $400,000 per year. That should be fun.

Obama History on Abortion and Infanticide … I know some of this has already been out, but the more Obama lies; more people come out with additional facts.

I noticed the blogger list. But these folks represent a small fraction of the electorate. There have been similar blog-bursts on other topics which ended up being a blip on the political landscape.

Yes, negative campaigning can work, but it has to be done right. McCain is focusing his attacks on issues near and dear to the electorate (national security, energy, Iraq).

That’s the subtle difference between a successful effort and a wasted effort that can backfire.

Blog attention means nothing.

Well, looks like I repeated a lot of what you said. Sorry, I responded to AJ before I read your comment.

Wow, do I think you really missed it on this one. Look at the memeorandum list – it’s already huge. I can’t remember where I read it, but one blogger said this was a perfect storm because it’s an easy to grasp concept, and it’s perfect late-night comedian fodder. Leno and Letterman are going to be all over this – let alone what The Daily Show is going do with it.

Steve Benen had my favorite line so far: “By struggling to count his own number of homes, McCain has done Democrats an enormous favor. I’ve seen some equate McCain with Grandpa Simpson, and I’ve seen some equate McCain with Mr. Burns. It turns out, he’s both.”

I don’t care who are you – that’s funny, right there.

Yeah, it’s irrelevant to the issues. But so are lapel pins, and arugula, and bowling scores. So is putting out promotional posters in Germany that are actually in German!!, and taking a vacation in Hawaii. But the Right has been hammering those points over and over and over again, and it’s been working. The whole “biggest celebrity in the world” line has been repeated HOW many times in the past two weeks alone? Since when is “he’s too popular” a bad thing?

Please note that McCain’s approval rating has not gone up recently – the polls are changing because Obama’s approval rating has gone WAY down. Why? Because negative campaigning works.

Detailed, nuanced policy explanations may be the meat that you and I feed on – but it doesn’t work on most voters, and especially not on the public at large. A combination of short attention spans and general overall ignorance means that, if you can’t put a message on a bumper sticker, it won’t work.

“I want us to win in Iraq.” Simple, neat, easy. Now, if somebody asks the follow-up question of: “Can you define ‘win’?”, then it gets trickier. But still, the message sticks.

“McCain’s economic advisor called us ‘a nation of whiners’.” Easy. “Obama wants to kill babies.” Stupid, but easy. And “McCain can’t remember how many homes he owns” – real easy. This one sticks – keep an eye out for polls a week or from now.

You nailed it – the house kerfluffle actually is going to hurt Obama, who looks too distracted and unserious already.

Someone needs to remind Team Obama the number of homes the McCain’s own is irrelevant to the major issues on the minds of Americans.

If you ever wanted to look lost and confused, this is one of the better ways to pull it off.

AJStrata