It looks like the McCain camp is solidly convinced that the “Obama = Celeb” meme seems to be working.
They’ve released their third — yes, THIRD — ad on this subject:
Yes, it’s easy to hit McCain for not being “the original maverick,” but for being “the original celebrity.” Check out his IMDB profile, for instance. Look at that, he was on “24,” and was even in The Wedding Crashers. How nice of him.
But how’s this answer? With a framing like this, we’d stay “positive,” but also go for the jugular:
“There’s nothing wrong with capturing America’s imagination. John McCain seems to be forgetting why Americans are hoping for something new. He doesn’t give Americans enough credit — he takes us for fools, and thinks we’re supporting for Obama because he’s a ‘celebrity.’ The simple truth is it’s John McCain and George Bush’s policies that are causing Americans to dream for something better. And now he has the audacity to blame us for wanting more? He’s telling us not to be dreamers. He’s telling us ‘No We Can’t.’ It’s the ultimate pessimism. That’s not the American spirit, and that’s not what we stand for.”
Clearly this stuff is riling me up, as you can see by the last three posts, all on this subject.
I’ve hesitated to call John McCain out on his age, because I don’t like to be age-ist. I never like to say that a person can’t do something. But after some recent evidence, I’m beginning to think that there’s certainly something to be said about higher cognitive functioning and what happens to the human brain after we reach our mid-70’s.
We know that Reagan wasn’t “all there” when he was serving as president while at the same age. I wonder the same about McCain, and really, anyone who’d be serving at his age — and I’m not the only one.
Then I watched this video a few minutes ago. It’s a collection of McCain’s strangest and weirdest senior moments…and there seem to be plenty of them:
Kind of scary. Seems to diminish any argument about superior judgment, no?
I’ll give you the truth — over the last few days, I’ve become slightly anxious about the presidential race. I’d say that I think the “Obama = Celebrity”/”Obama = Messiah?” attacks are troubling to me. They’re the kind of personal attacks that build a narrative that sticks. They’re emotive enough to elicit responses — it’s got powerful imagery (you can just picture it), and it’s new enough (fresh arguments tend to permeate the most due to a psychological principle called sensory adaption. It’s like when you’re in a smelly room long enough. Eventually, you just don’t smell it any more).
And what’s most troubling is that we, as Democrats, don’t realize that always use nuance and logic to argue against it. Sure, it might win the argument — maybe — but it doesn’t even matter. It’s repeated too much.
Think about situations like the Obama “keep your tires tire inflated” suggestion. Of course, it’s true..making sure your tires are inflated would save energy. McCain’s charge that it’s Obama’s entire energy plan, and his campaign’s handing out tire gauges is of course an oversimplification. But you need to explain nuance to dismiss it. Meanwhile, it’s worked to build McCain’s narrative about Obama — that he’s out of touch with everyday Americans. And while it comes from the guy who says he hasn’t pumped gas in a while and “(doesn’t) see how it matters” that he doesn’t know the price of gas (his defense was that he has Secret Service protection and it had been a while, but in reality, he had only been under protection for a mere two months before that point) somehow it’s Obama that’s “out of touch.”
It then becomes, like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, legend. And as the quote goes, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. (By the way, I did a paper, back in the day, on Swift Vets. It covers a lot of these psychological principles, and has an interview with its creator about the concept and design of the campaign, so please feel free to take a look.)
But the truth is that the Democrats were going to pair any Republican nominee with Bush. Thus, it’s just not personal enough. It’s not unique…and it’s just not as down deep into the psychology of the candidate for it to really resonate.
Most of America still seems to think that McCain’s the “maverick,” so it’d make sense to bring that down — after all, that does go with the Rovian strategy to pull the carpet from underneath a candidate by attacking their core strength — and the Obama campaign has already started to do that with this video, called “Original”:
But I think this again misses the point. There’s one key argument that remains for McCain even if you tear that down. “Okay, so he’s not the maverick he says he is,” it might go. “So, he’s a regular politician. But he’s still a politician that I can trust in these strange times.”
So, I started pondering a bit — is the “maverick” label really what has made McCain successful in this election? I’d argue no — because McCain was the maverick when he was down in the polls a year ago and was branded “washed up.” It was, actually, his gamble on the “surge” that brought him back to life. And he’s still talking about it, because he plays it up as a strength. So far, the success of the “surge” has worked as a benefit for McCain.
But I thought about it for a second. The campaign seems to be arguing that because the surge has worked, our national foreign policy over the last 7 years — which McCain actively promoted and endorsed again and again on television — has been, in his own words “worth it.”
So why not ask the American people if the surge has made the Iraq War worth it? The lives, the dangerous world we now live in — and especially the economic costs. Run an ad on the latest news that the Iraqi government will have a $79 Billion surplus and yet we’re funding the reconstruction — but yet, McCain says the war has been “worth it” for the American taxpayers. How out of touch is that?
The “surge” is the biggest empty suit that exists. And it’s the entire foundation of McCain’s campaign — all arguments about his superior judgment point towards it, in fact. Without the surge, McCain would’ve been nowhere in the Republican primary, and I wonder where he’d be without it in the general election.
Well, I’m really, really doing it — the site is now being cleaned up significantly. As always, I’m playing around with the graphics, this time on the right side. Ideally, the graphics’ fonts will match the style, and I’ll actually have illustrations for each area.
To clear up everything — this is final resolution — I’ve made The Beta Stage is alive and well. It’s been absorbed into this domain, and the old “thebetastage.com” will now redirect here for the time being. All old links will work perfectly, though, and will remain in play. I’ll be importing all of the old posts onto the new domain, too, so that old posts will show up on this site’s archives, too. Eventually, TheBetaStage.com may show new posts, too — I have to see how confusing all of this is before I make the change.
I also want to separate out the political from The Beta Stage. That’s now its own self-contained blog, called “Stage Left.” This will be where all of my “politics and new media” posts will go. I think there’s an interest for some people in purely social media, and they might be turned off by the politics, so I’m going to cater to both tastes. If there is any cross-posting, it will be done very sparingly, so don’t worry too much about repeat posts with this solution.
I’m also keeping up with the personal posts.
RSS feeds to come soon. By the way, if you’re subscribed to the old Beta Stage RSS feed, don’t worry, you don’t need to change a thing. II’ve already taken care of the changes and your feed will stay with “The Beta Stage.”
So, it looks like the summer meme has finally hit me.
What’s a meme? That’s a good question. My own, personal working definition is that it’s a concept, theme or idea that is exchanged and passed on. In this case, this meme is about “summer things you like to do.”
Thanks to both Larissa and David for “tagging” me on this!
Here are my answers:
4 things you like about summer:
Summer Yankees baseball — gotta love the boys of summer
Sitting on my balcony and playing guitar
Listening to “summer music,” which generally consists of Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Neil Young, Santana, and roots rock
The beach (I’m from Jersey, so I’ve gotta go “down the shore,” even if it’s technically north these days).
4 of your favorite vacation destinations:
Bermuda (pink sand!)
Western Caribbean
Ocean City, NJ
Bermuda (I really, really like Bermuda)
4 of your favorite summer foods:
Ice Cream (Breyers is the preferred brand)
Burgers
Half and Half/Arnold Palmer (the lemonade/iced tea combo)
It seems like this meme made its way around a few times, so I’m not sure who’s left to pass it on to. I’d love to hear from my very close friends and family — who do not have blogs themselves — so let’s try something else, shall we?
Mom, Jess, and any more of my reader friends — why don’t you add your own responses right here in the comments section of this blog post?
Why? Because the new 3G iPhone comes out on Friday.
Not that it’s got features that are much different than my current one. Really, it’s just 3G (which is actually great for me and I’ll love this), has GPS and has a bigger hard drive if you choose the top model.
I did it, mainly, because an eBay search showed me that original iPhones, as of yesterday, were still going for $350+. Now, the new iPhones will cost $200 and $300 for the lower and top models.
So what did I do? I put mine up, and lo and behold, someone actually bought it for $345.
Good morning, all! I had a great July 4th weekend, with my parents and my brother coming into town to visit me and Jess. We had an excellent time going to the National Portrait Gallery, checking out the fireworks, and visiting the National Zoo. Tai Shan the panda is all grown up now…still cute, but not quite as cute as, say, a baby panda. I’ll get a Flickr stream up soon!
With the weekend gone, I’m putting the focus back on work and, of course, the Internet. I also picked up a copy of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, and it looks like a promising read. I’ll have a review up soon, as well as some content that I’ve written up over the course of the weekend.
Here are a few articles that have gained my interest since I’ve gotten back on the grid:
1. New York Times: The Facebooker Who Friended Obama: An excellent article about a segment of Obama’s new media strategy. The takeaway quote: “You can have the best technology in the world but if you don’t have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose.”
2. NBC: Olympics a new-media ‘research lab’: A fairly basic new report that’s interesting, but lacks some details. I’d love to know what exactly is being tested, no? New media might do the Olympics some good — but don’t they get tons of media attention already? Is “new” media the key to success?
Me last night, talking to my friend Reggie about a new album:
Me: I think I had enough of this record
Me: ha, record
Me: how old am I? 55?
Reggie: hahahha
Reggie: you’re either 55 or a hipper than thou hipster
And today, in regards to different music:
Me: ha — my cousin had a funny statement
Me: “I like the first half of the new coldplay more”
Reggie: i think i agree
Me: I actually like the second side more
Reggie: side?
Reggie: do you flip your MP3s?
Reggie: does your iTunes have auto-reverse?
I guess this is what happens when you’re raised on The Beatles and the classics. But it’s not like we had a working record player or anything when I was growing up (I still don’t).
I wanted to take a moment to wish my (not-so) little brother Gary a very happy 22nd birthday. I couldn’t be prouder of how my little brother turned out and how much he’s accomplished. He just finished his junior year of college (marketing major!), and I look forward to the future days of our media and marketing empire, “Levinson and Levinson Worldwide, LLC.” I’ve yet to get sign-off from him on this specific proposal, but trust me, it’ll happen.
Gary and I last year at my dad’s birthday dinner.
My very first memory, in fact, is his birth. I’ll tell the story, and then my mom will likely comment and tell me that I’m remembering something else — but it’s the sentiment that counts, right? I was around two-and-a-half, and I remember being at our old townhouse with my grandma and grandpa. We got a call from my parents (on an 80’s-tastic brown corded phone with a built-in chalkboard), and I remember being handed the phone and being told that I have a new little brother.
Gary and I, in cuter times.
I was pretty jealous of the new arrival. Being the firstborn of the new generation of both sides, I was fairly used to attention, and he was so fat and cute it was hard for a kid to compete. Just look:
Here’s another first memory: when I was four, I cut my hair with scissors, and then tried to pin it on Gary, who was actually too little to even hold — let alone work — a pair of scissors. Gary, I apologize. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I suppose you were an easy scapegoat. You still are, in fact.
Gary, happy happy birthday to you, I love you and I’m proud of you, always.
