McCain: Mark Penn's lessons
Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
The Washington Post's Balz examines the Atlantic-Clinton memos and wonders what McCain could learn. "McCain's campaign appears to have less hesitation than Clinton's did in going after Obama. For the past few weeks, it has run a series of negative ads -- some humorous, some not so -- that portray Obama as a famous but empty suit who is wrong on many of the issues Americans care most about. The ads, at a minimum, may be getting under Obama's skin. It's possible they are doing real damage. Penn seems to believe that, based on what he wrote for the Politico. ‘Fair or not, as advertising it did its job,’ he said.”
“Just how far McCain's campaign will pursue this strategy isn't clear. There are risks for him, just as there were for Clinton. Obama has proven over this long campaign to be a difficult target to hit -- at least on anything more than an occasional basis. So the mileage may be limited long term. More fundamentally, McCain risks damaging his reputation as a politician who has eschewed the politics of negativity. But what was considered out of bounds in a Democratic primary campaign may be less so in a general-election race, in which other voters come into play. McCain will have to make some difficult judgments about this in the final 82 days."
The McCain campaign is going to hit Obama today on this being the one-year anniversary of his comments accusing our troops of killing civilians in Afghanistan. From the McCain folks: "One year ago today, Barack Obama accused our men and women in Afghanistan of 'just air-raiding villages and killing civilians' in this country's fight against radical Islamic extremism. Whether those words were a product of inexperience or just bad judgment, they were not the kind of words we expect from any candidate for our nation's highest office."
The campaign’s research: “One Year Ago Today On August 13, 2007, Barack Obama Said American Troops Were ‘Just Air-Raiding Villages And Killing Civilians.’ Obama: ‘We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.’ (Nedra Pickler, "Obama's Statement On Civilian Deaths In Afghanistan," The Associated Press, 8/14/07)
But we point you to this fact-check (by the AP’s Pickler a year ago): "A check of the facts shows that Western forces have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians. The U.S. and NATO say they don't have civilian casualty figures, but The Associated Press has been keeping count based on figures from Afghan and international officials. As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can't be attributed to one party. Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his concern about the civilian deaths during a meeting last week with President Bush. 'The president rightly expressed his concerns about civilian casualty,' Bush said of Karzai. 'And I assured him that we share those concerns.'"
McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann's ties to the Georgia government -- via a lobbyist contract -- are getting more attention. The Washington Post writes: "The McCain campaign said Georgia's lobbying contract with Orion Strategies had no bearing on the candidate's decision to speak with President Mikheil Saakashvili and did not influence his statement. ‘The Embassy of Georgia requested the call,’ said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.”
“But ethics experts have raised concerns about former lobbyists for foreign governments providing advice to presidential candidates about those same countries. ‘The question is, who is the client? Is the adviser loyal to income from a foreign client, or is he loyal to the candidate he is working for now?’ said James Thurber, a lobbying expert at American University. ‘It's dangerous if you're getting advice from people who are very close to countries on one side or another of a conflict.’”
Tom Friedman hits McCain for his missed votes on renewable energy bills.
McCain brought up Obama’s "bitter" comments while on the trail in Pennsylvania yesterday.
The Los Angeles Times picked up on McCain's talk yesterday about working with Dems, including Kennedy.
