Double-Speak

Thomas Shaller of Salon's War Room makes a point today worth considering -- can the relentless attack of McCain put a permanent dent in Obama's image, leading many to question his character and thus vote against him? American politics over the past few decades has been dominated by the distance between image and reality, with the image appearing to win out much of the time. Can McCain beat the truth, the pundits and the issues right out of this campaign, as appeared to be the case in 2000 and 2004? It is certainly possible.

Lest us forget that most Americans believed Hussein was directly involved in 9/11 and that they further believed at least one Iraqi was on one of the planes (even as pictures of them plastered papers for weeks) long after both those lies had been exposed. I've gotten emails from conservative friends with the "Obama is a Muslim" line and warnings of a terrorist takeover of the country. The truth is we are a country that hates intellectual elites and loves monied elites (particularly of the celebrity type). And if McCain can make it stick that Obama is cocky, elitist (remember Hillary started that theme), a flip flopper (from the ultimate flip flopper of recent memory) and not really ready to lead; we could certainly see a shift in the favorite after the conventions. At the same time, the press (with the notable exception of Fox) has certainly started to at least question McCain for his increasingly dirty campaign. And even some in his own party are impugning his tactics:

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) criticizing John McCain's latest ad on CBS' Face the Nation, "I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives and when we start to get into, 'You're less patriotic than me. I'm more patriotic.'"

By the way, it turns out McCain has been to fewer Afghanistan meetings than Obama over the past two years (0), even as he is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services committee. And he has now entered a new level of double-speak by denying his own words in an ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos yesterday (see clip here: http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/election_central_sunday_roundu_25.php).