Without Election Central, I know that a lot of you were starved for political news this summer. If it makes you feel any better, you didn't miss a whole lot. There was a lot of talk about celebrity, homes, Germans, arugula, Hawaii, and Paris Hilton. It was as serious as it sounds.
Candidates rarely win or lose an election in the summer. One exception, and clear model for the McCain campaign, is our most recent election in 2004. The Bush campaign managed to peg John Kerry in the summer as an out-of-touch flip-flopping elitist who may have been overstating his military credentials. True or not, these allegations managed to stick with Kerry into the fall.
This summer, John McCain's camp aggressively tried to paint Barack Obama as out-of-touch, flip-flopping, and (you guessed it) elitist during the summer. They had one additional "asset" that Bush's campaign could not have dreamed of: Barack Obama's worldwide appeal. The McCain campaign released the now-infamous advertisement "Celeb," which visually compared Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and asked, "But is he ready to lead?" Any time Paris Hilton becomes a recurring political topic, something is seriously wrong. Such was this summer.
Needless to say, the Obama campaign was not happy with the coverage this ad received. Neither were Hilton's parents, who are big-time McCain donors. Coverage of the ad dominated the news, from Entertainment Tonight to TMZ to Politico, for several weeks. The election became a referendum on Barack Obama, who was severely overexposed during the month of July thanks to his trip through Europe and the Middle East. His one-week vacation to Hawaii (his home state) just before Russia's invasion of Georgia did not help either: McCain got to play commander-in-chief, while the only stories coming out about Obama concerned shaved ice and bodysurfing.
Polls responded to this shift. The end of August was a rough time for the Obama campaign: Every major national poll tightened, and McCain even took a brief lead in the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll (46-44 percent, Aug. 25). The next two big events of the campaign, the announcements of running mates and the conventions, took on added significance for Democrats because Obama needed to pull himself out of his summer rut.
2008 Woodie Awards
Mark
posted 9/04/08 @ 10:14 AM EST
I guess the speech by Sarah did not happen last night and no reason for polls to be taken.
Obama has divided the waters and we can now all march forward to the craddling hands of the Democrats from birth to the grave. (Continued…)