McCain's Low Road To Victory

[babylonsister]

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=8536aa6e-9df0-4e2d-aef3-0acb42807caf

McCain's Low Road To Victory
by Drew Westen
The effort to make this campaign about voters' unconscious fears of Obama has already begun.
Post Date Monday, June 23, 2008



Seldom has a presidential candidate faced such long odds. John McCain has repeatedly allied himself with the most unpopular president since the history of modern polling. He has embraced the most unpopular war since Vietnam. The U.S. economy continues its downward slide. Polls show generic Democratic candidates leading by double digits at all levels of government.

snip//

With all that stacked against him, the only road that could take McCain to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the low road, one of the few pieces of infrastructure left in good repair by President Bush. His father paved it against Michael Dukakis, George W. Bush repaved it running against John Kerry, and the GOP repainted the dotted line in now-Senator Bob Corker's 2006 contest with Harold Ford. The path to success for McCain is to make the election a referendum on his opponent, by working in silent concert with 527 groups and media outlets such as Fox News to pursue character assassination, guilt by association, and, most of all, the effort to paint Obama as different, foreign, unlike "us," and dangerous (and did I mention that he's black?).

snip//

We are poised for the nastiest, most racist presidential contest in modern American history. Why? Because John McCain can't win any other way.

Is there an antidote? Yes, and it's fourfold, dictated as much by our psychology as our politics:

(1) Do not let attacks fester, where they can affect voters' unconscious associations and feelings toward a candidate long after they learn that the initial information was untrue.

(2) Create a counter-narrative about who Barack Obama is that makes clear that he is "us," not "them," and that his story is our story. (His first general-election ad appears to be an effort to do just that.)

(3) Strike hard at the character of those who would attack a man's patriotism, wife, faith, and race, so that the issue is their character, not his.

(4) Resist the temptations to run away from talking honestly about race or to speak about issues related to race euphemistically. Our better angels on race are our conscious values. The more Barack Obama can fight this battle on the conscious battlefield, where virtually all Americans oppose racial discrimination, the more he will win the hearts and minds of the American people, and the more they will feel they know, trust, and can identify with him. The more Republicans succeed in fighting a subterranean racial insurgency, the greater their chances of beating the odds in November.


Drew Westen is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University and author of The Political Brain.

[RichGirl]

1. What the republicans need is a clean slate.

A breather. Some time for the public to forget the atrocities of Bush. I think they are trying to throw this election to us so they can start fresh in 2012. I think their plans for the world are huge and long term and four years is just a blip.

That's my gut feeling. My mind tells me to work my ass off getting Obama elected.

[boobooday]

2. They are going down big time, and it is good for them

The best thing they could do right now to redeem themselves would be to prosecute Bush, purge the neo-cons, and become a political party again, so we could have a contest between competing ideas. Right now they just fling shit to cover their shady allegiances.

[democrattotheend]

4. Follow your mind, not your gut

We have a chance to turn Virginia blue this year!

[anonymous171]

7. I believe they will become more libertarian over the next eight years.

I think we will be facing a Ron Paul-type conservative in 2012.

[cap]

3. silver lining to the attacks on Michelle is

that it is turning off a lot of Republican women as well. There are a lot of moderate Republican women who did not like the tenor of the media treatment of Hillary (even though they didn't like Hillary) and they are not liking the treatment of Michelle.

The worse the blogging slime gets on Michelle the more "thinking" Republican women are turned off. It's a huge mistake for McCain to start the bloggers up to go negative on Michelle. Drives these women to vote Democratic.

[uponit7771]

5. RIGHT!! Because they know the "proud" statement is being taken out of context. When reThug women...

...hear how much of an asshole McSame is I think they'll change their minds.

Leaving your wife after an accident because she gained a couple of pounds sounds like someone who lacks character and given his willingness to sell his soul A LOT of votes I don't see him doing anything different today.

[applegrove]

6. He makes some great points.