Monday, June 09, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN

Evaluating McCain's 'I Hate War' General Election Debut

Thom Mozloom of The M Network, who talks regularly about branding strategy on XM's POTUS08, raved about McCain's first general election ad.

JOHN MCCAIN: Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war.

When I was five years old, my father left for war.

My grandfather came home from war and died the next day.

I was shot down over Vietnam and spent five years as a POW. Some of the friends I served with never came home.

I hate war.

And I know how terrible its costs are.

I'm running for President to keep the country I love safe.

I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Mozloom predicted what we all expect - that because of his stance on the Iraq war, Obama and his allies wil attempt to cast McCain as a warmonger, while their man will end Iraq and attempt to bring peace — the newspapers in San Francisco are assuring us he's a "Lightworker," after all, "who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet." Mozloom called the "I hate war" statement a "pivot" line, and noted that without beating you over the head, the ad made clear that McCain brings firsthand experience and knowledge to the table that Obama simply can't match. (I would ad that this makes the warmonger charge look silly, as the experiences of McCain make clear that no one in their right mind could suggest that he is insensitive to the high costs of war.)

I bring up that jaw-dropping San Francisco Chronicle column for a reason - that when Obama is at his most lyrical, poetic, intangible and ethereal — ""We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal" — that this ad and its theme reminds us that we're not electing a shaman or a poet or a guru; we're electing a commander in chief in a dangerous world.

06/09 10:04 AMShare