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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

A "campaign reset," a second look at the Palin strategy

One of the things that has become clear is that Palin was a selection for the base of the GOP, and that practically no matter what information comes out about her, they will support her.

So, is this the new backbone of the McCain strategy? I see two possibilities.

1) McCain takes on Palin to "lock in" the Republican base vote, so he can then rapidly moderate and go after the electoral center.

Or, far more troublingly, 2) They intend to pivot this into a "base election." Palin "locks in" the evangelical vote, and then the McCain campaign goes ultra negative to try and drag Obama's turnout down below the 2004 evangelical turnout line, the idea being to turn off all the newly registered voters, irregular voters, and youth support which make up Obama's turnout advantage. (They've brought in the infamous Roger Stone and Tucker Eskew.)

Feedback?

4 Comments:

  • So in other words, McCain is running a Bush-Rove campaign.

    By Blogger -epm, at 7:50 AM  

  • I assume it's Steve Schmidt's strategy. He was a Rove protege.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:53 AM  

  • Well, you know what I mean. It's that red meat to the fundi base, character smears on your opponent, a focus on military aggression and several dashes of fear, fear, fear. Palin is a sop to the fundies.

    I'm going to have to take a time-out. I've been getting too emotional over the McCain/Palin/GOP stuff. This is their time. I should expect them to act and sound over the top nuts. We'll have to see how next week, and the week after that, and after that... goes for them.

    I think one of my biggest problem is that I simple don't trust the American electorate. I can respect a sincere difference of opinion on policy and priorities, but most of us are just stupid cows with and aversion to reasoned thinking and are too easily swayed by emotion and scary ads.

    Yes. I need a time out.

    By Blogger -epm, at 8:06 AM  

  • Well, that's why I didn't watch the GOP convention last night. I just didn't want to get that tense feeling in my body.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:14 AM  

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