Small Lines Barack Obama Could Use Against John McCain to Beat Him to The Punch

August 31, 2008
Category: The Situation Room

One interesting strategy that Barack Obama finally unveiled, and successfully used, in his historic convention speech on Thursday (which he brilliantly delivered with both gusto and substance), was to encapsulate each of John McCain’s charges against him into a small soundbite, and provide a rebuttal to each, one by one. One such punch line related to the McCain “Gates of Hell” attack. Obama finally rebutted this in his speech by saying: “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”

I believe that this is the very strategy Barack Obama should continue to use in order to connect much more efficiently with the American people both on the campaign trail and in the upcoming debates. It is also the strategy that will allow him to (finally) be on the attack and stop being on the defensive on every attack that comes his way from John McCain. The idea is for him to turn each attack around, reframe it and boomerang it back to the sender. In this sense, Obama would not even break a sweat since he would simply wait around for an attack to come, and once it comes, he would simply rework it into a lethal blow to John McCain.

The methodology he ere is both one of trivialization of the attacks and one of pointing out John McCain’s lack of substance on the issues.

Below, I propose lines of a similar vein to those in the convention speech that could help Obama undo, in very simple and direct terms, McCain’s attack lines. Because these attack lines are obviously meant to trivialize Obama’s candidacy, and construct a caricature of Barack Obama that would make a joke out of the Democratic candidate, it is important for Obama to trivialize McCain’s trivialization of him.

This page will be used to expand on more such lines whenever one comes to mind (You can contribute yours below). Here we go:

1. “John McCain and the Republicans have been trying to describe me to the American people as though I came from Mars, as though I were less American than they are, and less patriotic than they are. Yet, their fundamental mistake has been that they failed to see that I have been one of us all along, and that patriotism was not a red-state or blue-state thing. It is an American thing.”

2. “John McCain has said that he would rather lose an election than lose a war. However, I now see that, with his calculated choice of Palin as a running mate, and his flip-flopping on the most important challenges of our time, which confirm the old Republican game of politics as usual, John McCain would do anything to win an election.”

3. “John McCain has claimed that he will be a better Commander-in-Chief because he knows how to win wars. I am a bit curious: Can John McCain tell us which war he has won?”

4. “John McCain, in one of his desperate moments, tried to pull me into a debate about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton at a time when the country is faced with pressing issues related to high cost of living, shrinking income levels, a mortgage crisis, high gas prices. If John McCain wants to engage in a debate with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears about who is the biggest celebrity in the world, let him have it; let him make his 3:00am call to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. But at this big election, at this crucial time of our history, we want to debate big things, not small things.”

5. (On the experience factor regarding Obama vs. Palin; this line should be used by Joe Biden)
“There is a fundamental difference between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin that does not even call for a debate. After beating the most experienced field of Democratic candidates that this country has to offer, Barack Obama was voted into presidential candidacy by 18 million Americans in a competitive race in which they believed he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Sarah Palin was nominated into Vice-Presidency by John McCain.”

6. “John McCain and his running mate has sought to mislead the American people by distorting their records. This is surprising for people who call themselves “The Mavericks”. In the face of so much lying, so much distorting and so much misleading, I have come to the belief that McCain should no longer be called John McCain The Maverick, but John McCain the Distorter.”

7. “John McCain has laughed at the fact that we ahev consistently been drawing large crowds, and he almost got a heart attack when we drew 200,000 Germans in Berlin who had come to hear our message of change to the world as our campaign seeks to reclaim the role of leader of the world that is the US’s alone, and which the Bush presidency has squandered. But it is not my fault if McCain is incapable of drawing a crowd. Perhaps he is jealous. But that McCain should be jealous of our crowds and speeches is a testimony to his fundamental lack of message of change, being as he is a prisoner of the lobbyists who have taken Washington hostage under the Bush presidency. It is also a testimony to his stale message, which proposes nothing more than the same old failed Bush policies.”

8. “The disturbing tendency by John McCain and his running mate Sarach Palin to distort the truth and lie about their records has revealed one fundamental truth about John McCain. He is willing to say anything and do anything to win, including lying to the America people. Contrary to his assertions, country is not first for John McCain. It is John McCain first, country second.”

9. “I haven’t really heard from John McCain lately. Have you? I am having a hard time figuring out who is actually running for President on the Republican side. I once thought it was John McCain, but it’s looking more and more as though it is Sarah Palin actually running for President?”

You got lines of your own to contribute? Please post in the comment form below.

OBAMACO.COM

Comments

3 Responses to “Small Lines Barack Obama Could Use Against John McCain to Beat Him to The Punch”

Fireshadow on September 9th, 2008 9:02 am

The McCain campaign has accused me of approving earmarks for the great state of Illinois over a 3 year period.
I am not campaigning on earmarks. John McCain is campaigning on earmarks.
THe question is: \”Why is John McCain lying about being against earmarks when he has chosen a running mate who is from Alaska, who supported the largest earmarks per capita in the entire country?!

John McCain is trying to fabricate the illusion of \”change\” because he has none!
THat\’s not change, that\’s more of the same!
Jackie on September 17th, 2008 10:15 am

Lets see Obama claimed yesterday that it was his ides to give the stimulus checks—he failed to vote on the bill.

Obama got the 2nd most money from Fannie Mae.
Over 400k from Lehman Bros

Take a look at :
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2008/09/best-congress-fannie-could-buy.html

or
where a former co-worker takes issue with how Barack describes his first job in NY

http://www.analyzethis.net/blog/2005/07/09/barack-obama-embellishes-his-resume/
FAYE on October 7th, 2008 9:14 pm

The news has been reporting that Sarah Palin says that Senator Obama is a terrorist because he worked hard along with Bill Ayers to promote Education. So doesn’t that make
John McCain a terrorist because he works with Obama as a Senator, if so why doesn’t he quit his job as a Senator if he thinks Obama is a terrorist? Why did he sign the bailout along with Obama and other things that they have agreed on.