I have had an exciting political week, what with the VP debate and Seth McFarlane (the creator of Family Guy) came to Miami to promote Obama. I found the debates interesting and thought both candidate held his/her own. Personally, I think that through Palin’s beauty pageant training and debate boot camp, she pulled out a decent debate. But I can’t help but wonder how genuine her knowledge is. How many times did she avoid questions or change them around to something she could answer. We knew Biden would have to be careful and avoid the possibility of looking demeaning toward Palin, which would have given the Republicans a field day. He did this by attacking many of McCain’s policies, but only directly challenged Palin once when he asked her to clarify her war policy. One thing I noticed and don’t quite understand is that Palin says Obama points too many fingers. Seriously? If we look back at past elections, the Republicans constantly slur the Democratic candidates, and the Democrats just take it. Why aren’t the Dems fighting back? One of my current reads, The Political Brain by Drew Westen looks at this phenomena in more detail.
Basically, one conclusion that we can draw is that those who participate in polls don’t want to see slur campaigns. But the Republicans keep doing it, and they keep winning! One definite conclusion I’ve come to regarding activism, is that it’s much easier to rally people around an injustice, ie against a war, rather than something positive, like say, raising money for an orphanage. I think the same goes for political campaigning. When one party slams the other, everyone gets riled up and cares about the flaws of those who are being attacked. When a party says something good about policy, the result is generally more lukewarm because it’s not marketable.
When I think of the type of person I would like to see as president, it’s someone who has good ideas and a well laid out plan; not someone who can only point out the flaws of others to make him/herself look good. I think this must be the general consensus of humanity, based on the polls saying just that, but this doesn’t work out in reality. Emotion decides SO much in politics. People see the attacker as strong, and when Dems don’t defend themselves or counterattack, they’re seen as weak. Maybe people don’t want to think that that’s how their brains work, but the facts are undeniable. Westen points out many campaigns in which the Dems have a policy of not attacking Republicans and decides this needs to stop. There are so many issues on which Democratic candidates can call out Republicans for their hypocrisies, like how Republicans often tout Dems for being unpatriotic when the actual person they’re speaking to has served in the armed forces while he avoided military service. Let’s take a look at this in action.
3 comments:
It looks like Barack Obama is planning to strike back on Monday Oct. 6 at noon (See http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo for a preview). Do you think this is the right way to go?
I checked out the website you suggested, and yes, it is certainly a lovely Aryan baby of the Republican Party. I think its quite clever actually. How they modeled it after facebook... do you think they are perhaps attempting to appeal to the youth vote? I've got to give them credit for this creative approach. Although, every time I go on the real facebook, I see Barack Obama's smiling face and not anything positive for the McCain-Palin campaign.
I agree with you, as well, when you say that both VP candidates did well in the recent debate. It always makes me laugh when I am next to strongly partisan friends and observe something about the election. You are very correct in saying that emotions play a role in our decision making. I, too have been reading Drew Weston's book. It is quite sad that I pretty much know how people will react, based upon their partisan leanings. Reason truly is slave to emotion. I am guilty of it as well, I'm afraid.
I also think that the Democrats should grow a pair... of think tanks that can better frame their rebuttals and occasionally play offense. People do pay attention to negative campaigning. But I think it is a fine line between calling out injustice and immorally smearing one's opponent. The key is to get everyone noticing this difference.
Ann,
I agree that Sarah Palin pulled out a decent debate, if you consider being cutesy and giggly a solid debate strategy. I don't think that she really knew any of the information she so diligently reiterated. I'm sure she spent the few days before the debate practicing for her big debut. In avoiding the questions, she attempted to address the issues she had actually been drilled on (Drill, baby, drill! Right?!). Joe Biden was spot on with his logical answers; he sounded diplomatic and even, at times, appealed to the emotions of the voters. When he was responding to Gov. Palin about his hometown, his wife and daughter's death, raising children on his own... he was sincere and used his emotion to relate to the American people. I don't think many people would have predicted this behavior from him, except maybe Drew Westen.
I also agree with you that the Republicans are 'bullying' the Democrats. I disagree, however, that the Dems are 'just taking it' and not fighting back. It seems to me as though the Obama campaign is responding to some of the allegations while upholding its integrity. Instead of polluting the political arena with targeted negatives toward the McCain campaign, the Democrats are defending their own character. I would agree with your conclusion that it is easier to point out the negatives over the positive (why do you think people complain so much?). I think that people assume the positives are implied. And, by having to address the negatives, perhaps the McCain campaign is hoping that Obama will spend his time defending himself and not have time to promote himself. I almost feel as though Obama should hire Westen to write all the responses to his campaign attacks -- why hasn't he done this?!
Perhaps it's too late to have any effect... Time can only tell how the public will respond to the continued use of the negative campaigning by the McCain campaign.
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