Perhaps, however, rather than trying to postpone the debate, McCain is instead seeking to increase its importance. Surely the drama of the past 30 hours has made it an even more captivating event, probably leading to increased viewership. Moreover, with the subject matter likely to be expanded to include the economy, and the candidates having had less time to prepare, the entire exercise becomes less predictable, with gaffes more likely to occur, but also the potential for “clutch” performances.
So perhaps instead of gambling two polling points on the debate — the average magnitude of the shift in opinion following one of these things, McCain would instead like to gamble four. A two-point swing probably would not be enough to put McCain ahead (though it would be close); a four-point swing probably would.
Bear with me a minute while I hash this out.
Because it reminds me, in terms of strategy, of Obama making his VP selection a big dramatic thing with the text messaging and whatnot. In terms of strategy, it made sense that we had to have some reason to get excited about him picking a very competent old white dude to be his running mate, because without the “who will he choose?!!!11!!” factor, I mean, yawn. I love me some Joey the Shark, but come the hell on.
In terms of strategy, that’s all. In terms of actual stuff we have to deal with, thrumming up fake drama over something thatlast I checked we should all actively be giving a shit about anyway given that it’s about the next leader of the allegedly free world is incredibly condescending and lazy and cheap. It sucks. Taken on its face, if this phony campaign suspension and phony debate drama was meant to put the focus on solving our economic crisis, fucking FAIL, because all the focus has been on McCain.
Which is what he wanted all along. McCain’s not ramping up expectations for the debate. He’s ramping them down. Remember before the 2004 debates, when the Bush camp made out like John Kerry was gonna rip their throats out with his bare hands and piss in their dead skulls, and then he basically did that, and everybody was like, meh? This is actuallyworse.
They have now lowered debate expectations to the point that all McCain has to do is show up. Because after days of will-he-won’t-he, days of OMG WHERE IS JOHN MCCAIN, days of him fapping around like a brain-damaged seagull lost in Kansas City, if he walks out on to that stage all eyes are gonna be on him, and that’s all he needs right now to have scored a victory in the eyes of the deliberately stupid pundit class.
He is making me nostalgic for the high-minded, honorable, issues-based campaign of that hard-working candidate George W. Bush.
Whoever shows up tomorrow, we’ll be crack-vanning as usual.
A.
I’m not sure there’s enough crack in the world to get through tomorrow night. Here’s the thing: all McCain has to do is keep the poll numbers close. Once Obama pulls ahead by 8-10 points, it will be harder (but not impossible) to steal the election.
There’s talk that the million or more absentee ballot request forms sent out by the McCain campaign, along with all the other voter suppression crap they are up to, is being done in order to set the stage for a legal fight that will make 2000 look like a birthday party.
Welcome to the Banana Republic of America.
will the gnews behave?
Um, “fapping” means “masturbating”. It’s onomatopoetic.
Did you see KO on Rachel tonight? All McCain has to do is keep running down the clock so he’s in the running on Nov. 4. No substance, just events, reactions, events, reactions, etc.
(Lots of folks have been saying the same thing, but KO laid it out well)
In the middle of my hellish but much looked forward to move back into the city. I will be in the van if I can (or if I gawd forbid mess my back up any further…).
Peace
Elspeth
I don’t think McCain has any actual strategy. They’re just throwing shit against the wall and hoping it sticks.
I think McCain was trying to distract from two things: rapidly dropping poll numbers, and Palin revealing herself to be just as dumb as almost everyone initially thought she was. With only 40 days left in the campaign, prolonged coverage of either of these stories would have been fatal. So McCain took a chance on this distraction. And of course, the TV “journalists” followed it. He’s a Republican — so no one will point out that just days before he “suspended” his campaign and “rushed” back to Washington he was saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And wrt Palin: GW Bush was a C student at Harvard and Yale and went to a fancy prep school before that. He has been surrounded by smart people all of his life. When he was running for president (and before the cocaine rotted his brain) he knew how to fake it and was at least somewhat articulate. Palin was a C student at community colleges. She can read a prompter. She can sometimes repeat what she heard on Rush Limbaugh’s show. But she cannot think on her feet. Not just anyone can be president.
I think McCain was trying to distract from two things: rapidly dropping poll numbers, and Palin revealing herself to be just as dumb as almost everyone initially thought she was. With only 40 days left in the campaign, prolonged coverage of either of these stories would have been fatal. So McCain took a chance on this distraction. And of course, the TV “journalists” followed it. He’s a Republican — so no one will point out that just days before he “suspended” his campaign and “rushed” back to Washington he was saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And wrt Palin: GW Bush was a C student at Harvard and Yale and went to a fancy prep school before that. He has been surrounded by smart people all of his life. When he was running for president (and before the cocaine rotted his brain) he knew how to fake it and was at least somewhat articulate. Palin was a C student at community colleges. She can read a prompter. She can sometimes repeat what she heard on Rush Limbaugh’s show. But she cannot think on her feet. Not just anyone can be president.
I say Crack, you say Van!
CRACK!
and p.s. to Hap Haploid–don’t be dissing community colleges. Palin would have been a B student at the 4-year college I attended. She’d be a D student in my classes (I’m a badass).
i went out to get cigarettes this morning and saw the newspapers.
usa today was pretty freaking brutal for mccain.
a picture of mccain sandwiched between pictures of dodd and obama. the captions essentially leave mccain holding the bag for the deal falling apart.
i was encouraged.
and they actually ran with the story describing paulson down on his knees before nancy pelosi.
stunning.
but, yeah, i think you’re right about what mccain hopes to have happen as a result of these shenanigans. given the attitude of the population at this point though i don’t give it much of a chance to succeed. mccain is wearing people’s patience thin.
you can only jump people up and down so often in a short period of time, and mccain is pushing that limit.