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McCain's Outraged and Outrageous Campaign
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Sep 16, 2008 02:49pm |
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| Category | Strategy |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine |
| News Date | Monday, September 15, 2008 08:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the heat of a campaign, Schmidt understood that outrage could cut through the news clutter like a buzz saw. It didn't matter much if the outrage was fueled by fact — better if it was fueled by emotion, which would tweak the fury of his base, leading to exciting exchanges on cable television and fresh chatter around the watercooler. Unlike health care or foreign policy, the emotional charge of outrage has a magnetic effect; voters are forced to take sides and respond, shifting the debate.
Now, four years later, Schmidt and the McCain campaign have returned to outrage, and there is little doubt that the tactic is again having the desired effect. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign crowed about the alleged mistreatment that the press and the Barack Obama campaign were heaping on Alaska governor Sarah Palin (at roughly the same time that the campaign sent out e-mail blasts featuring enthusiastic media blurbs of Palin's convention speech). After the convention, the indignation only intensified; in the course of 24 hours, McCain accused Obama of supporting "sex education" for kindergarten students and referring to Palin as a pig wearing lipstick. "The McCain campaign baited the outrage hook, and the Obama campaign and the national media bit," says Todd Harris, a Republican political consultant who worked for McCain in 2000 and Fred Thompson in 2008. "Hats off to the McCain guys for completely throwing Obama off." |
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