Saturday, September 20, 2008

the plan, continued

Well, McCain is giving us an in. He has a town hall meeting in Scranton, Pa on monday morniing. Not a victory rally, but a bonafide question & answer session. I thought I might have this one girl ready to go, but apparently, she didn't like the idea of speaking in front of a crowd. I still have another 10 yr. old lined up but I'm pretty sure her mother will nix it because of the long drive and her missing a school day. I'd say the odds are about 6% if I had to put a number on it. How sad. I'm pretty sure this will be our only credible chance.
I even modified the fake question that would get submitted. Check this out.
"Senator McCain, who do you like better, the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Philadelphia Eagles?" To top it off, you discreetly tell the organizer that you have a ZINGER of an answer if the Senator wants to use it. You quietly mention he should respond, "Well, that's a tough question? I think I'll have to take a page out of my opponent's playbook and answer PRESENT." This is great shit, because McCain has been nailing Obama with the fact that he sometimes votes "present" rather than yea or nay. This is probably one of his more credible attack strategies. I guarantee - it would bring the fucking house down. This fake answer is even better than the fake question. The Steelers/Eagles question has even more significance becuase of the Scranton location and the fact that they'll play each other the day before in Philly. Plus, politicians almost never take sides in sporting events - it's a no-win. The only one I've ever seen pull it off is Ed Rendell (Philly mayor, PA governor).
Then, instead you fuckin' nail him with the email question or the a stripped down version of the dinosaur question (refer to my previous blog). I actually prefer the dinosaur question - you could even open with the "grandpa" comment. "Grandpa, errr uhh, Mr. McCain, my grandpa and I love dinosaurs....."
Well, the tickets must be acquired today. I'm currently experiencing immense feelings of trepidation. I just have serious doubts that she'll go for it, despite my sincerest attempts to convince her. I hate to pose an open-ended question like this in print, but "Does anyone have a cute 10 year old girl I can borrow for 24 hours? And would you like an all expenses 24 hour vacation trip to glorious downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania?" Someone out there, Please Help Me.
The more I think about it, it becomes apparent that this campaign will soon explore new unseen lows. We've already seen the McCain attempts to mock and ridicule Obama. Ooooh, he's a celebrity like Paris Hilton - remember those ads? They were obviously an attempt to patronize Obama. I thought they were so over-the-top that they lost all credibility. But I'll also admit that, there is a segment of the populace the ads would appeal to. If you think about it, Obama has recently started a routine where he refers to the "old boys" network and that McCain has been in the Senate for almost 30 years. Certainly not a vitriolic attack, yet definitely an attempt to define him as old, out of touch, part of the beltway network, etc. The candidates can't come out and say, "he's black" or "he's old", but the 527s can act with relative impunity. I expect one of the unendorsed 527 ads on either side to go too far. And I think there could be a backlash. It'll probably come in the form of an internet ad, something a little less mainstream. Something to watch for as crunch time appraoches.

No comments: