Who Benefits From Campaign Distractions?

11.07.2008

I think the normally spot-on First Read is a little off in its implication here:

*** The A.D.D Election: It’s another whiplash week. It's amazing how many Fridays we look back at the week and just shake our head... This really is turning into the A.D.D. election. Here’s the week that was… in reverse order… Phil Gramm's “mental” comments (btw, isn't "mental" such an '80s word?), Jesse Jackson “nut”-ty remarks, Iran’s missile tests (and that McCain “killing them” joke), FISA (Obama’s reversal and Clinton voting against it -- so did Biden, by the way), Clinton donors not happy with Obama’s debt relief efforts (and Obama briefly forgetting to mention the former rival at a joint funder), that McCain bio spot invoking the culture wars of the 1960s, the scrutiny of the candidates’ economic plans, more courting Latinos, Webb off the veep list, Carly Fiorina's Viagra/birth control comment, the T. Boone Pickens energy ad launch, the RNC energy ad and the first Obama response of the general election, and, of course, we started the week with Obama announcing he was moving the last night of the Dem convention to a football stadium. Whew. It's no wonder neither candidate has been successful at taking one of their "insert issue here" weeks from start to finish. There are just an incredible amount of distractions even during a supposed slow period like this one in July. ... But seriously, can either of these candidates get the message THEY want out there for even a 48 hour period? Calling you, Wes Clark, Phil Gramm.

It's clearly frustrating for both campaigns that they can't push their respective messages amid all these distractions. On the other hand, elections are a zero-sum game. If the Obama and McCain camps were to trade equally damaging distractions every day from now until November 4, the effect wouldn't be neutral. You'd have to say it helps Obama. Anything that doesn't change the underlying dynamic of the race--like offsetting distractions--probably helps the guy who's winning.

By the same token, if you believe that this week's distractions were equally damaging, then you'd have to say the week was a win for Obama. (I personally don't put much stock in "winning weeks." But that's how you'd have to score it if you do. Also, I don't think this week's distractions are equally costly. Gramm's is hands down the worst, and it's effects will probably linger the longest.)

Having said all that, First Read makes a great point about McCain's dubious allusion to the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line:

*** Speaking of gaffes…: Imagine if Al Gore or John Kerry had changed the facts of a story they told forever in order to appeal to whatever swing state they were speaking in? John McCain is getting killed on Steeler fan forums for claiming that when he was a P.O.W. he would tell his interrogators the names of the starting defensive line of the Steelers. The actual story in his book had to do with Green Bay Packers offensive line. Also, the famous Steelers defensive line that McCain was trying to refer to (Mean Joe, L.C. etc.) didn't become famous until after McCain was out of Vietnam. The actual Steelers front four McCain could have referred to, according to one the Steeler fan forum that is crushing McCain on this comment today: "When McCain became a prisoner of war, the Steelers front four consisted of Ken Kortas, Chuck Hinton, Ben McGee and Lloyd Voss." Not exactly household names. And while we’re sure McCain’s a big time NFL fan and was in the ‘60s, there’s little chance he knew the front four of the then perennial doormat Pittsburgh Steelers. (Irony alert: McCain is in Wisconsin today, where no doubt the story would change before Cheeseheads.)

No question this would have been deadly for Gore or Kerry.

--Noam Scheiber

Posted: Friday, July 11, 2008 1:04 PM with 4 comment(s)

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GSpinks said:

This is because the Republicans have the MSM on their heels by constantly railing against a liberally-biased MSM. As a result, the MSM is afraid to actually say something significantly negative regarding any Republican because they'll get branded a "liberal rag" by Billow or Karl, dismissed as kooks, and that'll be the end of it for them.

July 11, 2008 1:52 PM

geoffgraham said:

Of course such a gaffe would be deadly for elitists like Gore or Kerry - we know without needing to be told that they cannot possibly be fans of a brutal, quintessentially American sport like football. Had the issue come up, the poor schmucks would have produced photos of themselves cheering at a game, would mention a couple of memories of contests they particularly enjoyed, and had a couple of (pinko, possibly gay) football players come out with statements about what great fans they were. But, we'd know this could not possibly be true, because Gore and Kerry are elitists, and cannot possibly like anything as brutal and quintessentially American as football. And did you notice who was sitting next to Kerry at that Patriots' game? Teddy K and Jane F, that's who, and I'm pretty sure that the unidentified person on the edge of the frame was a noted American Indian activist who was indicted in a plot to blow up the Washington Redskins because of their racist (or, if you prefer "quintessentially American") name. (A commie judge released her on the laughable basis, beloved by liberals everywhere, of "insufficient evidence.") If only she had been able to change the name to the Washington Happy Fairies, then Kerry and his pinko friends might have been able to enjoy the spectacle, provided, of course, that the players lived up to their new moniker and refused to engage in the usual orgy of violence that is an American football game.

But McCain? Now there's a football fan - NASCAR too, I'm sure. How could he not be? He's a decent American who loves America, Americans and American passtimes. Doesn't it seem a little unseemly that knowing this, we nevertheless insist on some sort of additional proof? Or that if he completely innocently confuses the Steel Curtain with the Nameless Doormats who preceded them, it's not an innocent slip of the tongue or a memory lapse due to something other than his allegedly advanced age, but instead some kind of proof that maybe he's not that much of a football fan after all? Give me a break! The people making these complaints wouldn't know the Purple People Eaters from the Doomsday Defense, and think the Ice Bowl is what you put next to the ice sculpture at a "Free Huey" fundraiser.

No decent American would question the American decentness of John McCain. Thus, even assuming that it's true that McCain may be forgetting some details or even changing his story to appeal to different football constituencies, I am far more angry at the liberal press for pointing it out than I could ever be at McCain. Real American Heroes should never be accountable to the truth - they are too important for that, and anything that diminishes them, diminishes this great country. As to anti-Americans posing as real, he-man football fans when we know they're not, well truth is a always their last defense isn't it? Anything that can be put to such unseemly uses seems itself un-American. Let's just come right and say it, truth hates America and decent Americans, therefore decent Americans should shun it at all costs. The fate of this great country might just hang in the balance.

July 11, 2008 2:31 PM

tnmats said:

Typical; the MSM falls in the lap of their publican masters. Does that surprise anyone?

I've come to the conclusion the major TV networks along with CNN and the largest news magazines/newspapers in the US are trying to torpedo Democrats no matter what they do. No matter what any Dem says or does it will be suspect immediately and they'll pounce on it. Just look at what is getting all the attention this week, Jesse Jackson and his comments. Not Phil Gramm and was he said, even though Gramm is lip-locked with McRove (now THAT is a scary image). What Gramm says is more important since he's so tight with Mr. Straight talk and will likely be in his cabinet.

The MSM is all converging to being just like Faux news. I see no difference between them, they're all just RNC mouthpieces. Rove won.

July 11, 2008 3:47 PM

jbutler28 said:

does anybody else get the feeling that Republicans don't get called on things like McCains story change because it's expected of them, and not so much of the dems?

July 11, 2008 5:51 PM