Bird’s-Eye View

John McCain’s new web ad attacks the media’s apparent love affair with one Barack Obama:

So let’s say this works. Let’s say John McCain is swept to victory in November because the electorate sees the media swooning over Obama and gives the sympathy vote to McCain. By the way, are we forgetting that McCain once called the press his “constituency?” I digress. Let’s say this strategy works and McCain becomes president. Now what? How does complaining about Obama’s media coverage help the middle class recover the $1,000 per family in lost buying power the last 8 years? How does it bring down the price of oil? How does it bring the thunder down on a resurgence Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Oh heck, why talk about issues? Let’s just carve a “Chris Matthews Loves Barack Obama” on a tree and hope it ticks a lot of people off.

Moving on, here’s a newer McCain ad about gas prices:

McCain lays the blame on soaring crude oil/gas prices on OPEC? Speculators? American consumers who want to drive big, fast, gas-guzzling vehicles? A homogenous fueling system for American transportation? Rising demand in developing nations like China?

Nope.

The blame apparently goes squarely on a single person, the junior senator from Illinois who, by the way, during his first two years served in the Senate minority. Blame apparently shouldn’t be placed on Congressional Republicans who held a majority in both chambers during six years of a Republican administration.

Okay, so McCain wants to exploit an advantage he has over Obama, mainly that he has stronger credentials than Obama on energy policy (although the GOP plan for more domestic drilling is dubious at best). But isn’t it more correct to either blame all Congressional Democrats since they’ve held the majority since January 2007, or question Obama’s plan going into the future?

I watch this ad, and it becomes apparent why so many people are turned off by politics … ooops, I may have stumbled upon one of the underlying strategies - go negative early and often, drive down voter enthusiasm for the election which in turn could keep turnout low, favoring the nominee from the unpopular incumbent’s party.