Dear McCain Speechwriters,
Written by ChemistryDave on June 4th, 2008You are terrible. What were you thinking with that disaster last night? How many good speeches have been given in history, that you couldn’t even rip one off? Ten million? One-hundred million? How have you managed to survive in Washington this long? Place an ad on Craigslist for some writers. In the Newspaper. Or have some type of “GOP Idol” contest to fill the job with someone talented.
5
AM
Apparently they considered the “vision” speech their masterpiece and don’t plan to write anymore this season.
Frankly, McCain needs to keep his speeches as short as possible (he’s too monotone and rambley to listen to for long) and always end by emphasizing his trustworthiness while undermining Obama’s authenticity:
“…I may not be as eloquent as some, I may not have a degree from Harvard or fill football stadiums with thousands of screaming fans, but I will always give you my honest word as an American. And my honest word is that I love this country and I have devoted my entire life to serving her and making her better for our children and our children’s children. And I pledge to continue to do so as President of the United States.”
I really think he should keep coming back - in as many variations as possible - to this idea that, gee shucks, I’m just not as well spoken as the slick car salesman, or gee, I don’t have a fancy degree from an Ivy League school, because frankly most voters don’t talk like Obama or have Ivy League degrees. So if McCain can hammer home these points, he decreases the extent to which the voters can identify with his competition while subtly planting doubts about whether Obama is trustworthy.
5
PM
Not gonna work if McCain reverts to lying. He built his entire primary campaign on lies. He lied about his reasons for voting against the 2001 Bush tax cut. He lied about Mitt Romney supporting timetables for withdrawal, and wouldn’t back down from the lie even after everyone in the media pointed out that McCain was full of it. He lied about opposing amnesty for illegal aliens after admitting in 2003 that he supported it. He lied about always being consistent about abortion, when in 1999 he’d said that abortion is “necessary” and that Roe v. Wade should never, ever, ever be overturned. He lied about so many things.
The Romney timetables story was the first time I ever saw the mainstream media seriously go after McCain for lying. But that was only one episode, and they treated it as such. If McCain resumes patting himself on the back for his alleged honesty, the media are going to roll out a compilation of the whoppers he’s told over the years, and they’re going to show that the impression most Americans have long had of John McCain–the impression that he’s an honest man–is actually wrong. They’ll look at what he’s said over the course of the campaign, and over the course of his career in public life, and trot out this discovery that–gee, what do you know–in light of his long record of public statements, McCain has actually been a conventional politician all the time (meaning, a habitual and brazen liar), with the added vice of being a hypocrite because he’s always talking about how honest he is.
The media are biased in favor of Obama. And they’re stupid enough to take McCain seriously when he says he’ll nominate more judges like John Roberts and Samuel Alito–so the media think that abortion rights will be on the ballot this year. The media, therefore, don’t want McCain to win. The media built McCain up (though the media will never admit it, McCain’s popularity with independents and his reputation for integrity were entirely created by the media), and with what they think is at stake, they can and will tear him down.
6
AM
Alan, I agree with both your post here, and in the other thread.
I think what I posted above is the best strategy for McCain to use, but I also think he has to pray no one calls him out on his schizophrenic policies over the years. His flip-flopping is enough to make Romney look like an exemplar of consistency and continuity.
For some reason McCain’s rhetoric about honest and friends and “straight talk” seems to work with the masses. No one seems to notice that the straight talk express derailed years ago. If he can continue to get away with it (and that may be a big if), the honesty rhetoric will be very effective against a liberal Ivy-League Yank who hangs with Rezko and Wright. That’s all I was saying.
6
PM
I apologize for my superheated response. It’s a reflex at this point, due to my hatred for McQueeg.
4
AM
I AM A DEM ABOUT TO CHANGE MY VOTE TO MCCAIN, BUT PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE HAVE HIM STOP SAYING MY FRIENDS 25 TIMES IN EVERY SPEECH-
IT IS BEING TALKED ABOUT MY MANY PEOPLE
I WILL BE COUNTING TONIGHT, I WANT TOP HEAR THE FACTS, NOT MY FRIENDS