LITTWIN: Robo-call strategy . . . and the phone is ringing again
rockymountainnews.com
By Mike Littwin
Columnist
The Rocky Mountain News
Published October 18, 2008
In these times of deep crisis, I can offer only a few words of advice:
Caller and ID.
Caller ID is perhaps the greatest invention of our age. Sure, it allows your children to screen your calls, but, hey, you can screen your parents' calls, too. It's a tradeoff worth making.
And yet, it's not foolproof. If you come home after a hard day of work - or, in my case, a hard day dining with a "source" over an expense-account lunch - you pick up your phone messages, and there it is, despite all the technology at your fingertips: The dreaded robo-call.
I know. You can click past it, but I dare you to try.
You have to listen. You're outraged. You're sputtering. You might even be spitting and sputtering - a dangerous combination to anyone standing nearby.
But you're transfixed. You're suddenly Joe Maddon, the Tampa Bay Rays manager. You see the disaster playing out in front of you - but you can't seem to make a single, solitary move.
And so you listen as the McCain campaign's recorded robo-voice intones that Barack Obama "has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans."
But . . . but . . . but . . . .
"And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington."
But . . . but . . . but . . .
Obama, the calls in North Carolina go, voted against treating "babies born alive after surviving attempted abortions."
But . . . but . . .
"Barack Obama is double-dating with Judge Nottingham."
But: OK, they're not actually making the Nottingham call. Not yet, anyway.
And if you're confused as to why John McCain - who trades on honor, who trades on dignity, who trades on eBay (wait, that was Sarah Palin) - has gone to robo-calls despite the fact that as recently as last January he ripped the robo-calls used against him, go to the Gallup poll's Web site.
It's not simply the overall polling results, which, for McCain, are scary enough. You have to look deeper, where you'll find the stats on white independent voters, the Hillary Clinton white hard-working Americans, Ronald Reagan's Democrats. Then you'll understand what desperation looks like.
It looks exactly like Obama's 48-46 lead among white independents - the first time a Democrat has led in this category since Gallup began asking the question.
McCain is running out of time and possibly out of ideas.
But . . . but . . . but . . .
Since the economic crisis hit, the polls show independent voters moving toward Obama. These are the voters that have made Pennsylvania now such tough territory for McCain. These are the voters who have given Obama the polling lead in Virginia, a state no Democrat has carried since LBJ in 1964.
And so we get Joe the Plumber, whom McCain is now defending, saying the Democrats are coming after him. I thought it was just the TV producers going after him or maybe the movie producers, too. Or maybe the guy from the Toledo plumbers-licensing division.
And so we get even more Bill Ayers. I'll admit to being confused by this strategy. Joe the Plumber was a shrewd move. But Bill the Bomber? Everything seems to show that Ayers isn't helping McCain, so why does he keep using him? Even David Letterman, in his smackdown with McCain on Thursday night, demanded to know why it was any worse to pal around with Ayers than for McCain to pal around with G. Gordon Liddy. (For you youngsters out there, that's G. Gordon the Nixon White House plumber, who wields his own kind of plunger.)
It took a while, but I think I finally get it. Ayers is the 2008 version of the '60s culture wars. He's meant to appeal to, say, Obama's "bitter" western Pennsylvania voters. Of course, if it's me, I don't get bitter until I get a robo-call.
And here's the kicker. According to Sam Stein of The Huffington Post, McCain may be using the same firm for his robo- calls that smeared him with robo-calls in the South Carolina primary in 2000. Would that be irony - or simply politics?
In any case, there's no shortage of people who seem to be abandoning McCain - and I don't just mean Letterman.
Peggy Noonan is the latest conservative columnist to say Sarah Palin is not fit for the job. Chris Buckley endorsed Obama and quit his job at National Review. Kathleen Parker wrote that Buckley's dad would be proud of him. David Brooks all but endorsed Obama. And so it goes.
The buzz is that Colin Powell may well endorse Obama Sunday on Meet the Press. The Chicago Tribune endorsed Obama, the hometown candidate, which wouldn't be news except it was the first time the Tribune had ever endorsed a Democrat.
And what's the answer for McCain?
Well, Sarah Palin goes to a fundraiser in North Carolina and tells the folks there how much she enjoys visiting the "pro-America" parts of the country. Tina Fey probably sent her a thank-you note.
Palin would later tell reporters that she was sure Obama loves America. But Minnesota Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann went on with Chris Matthews to say Obama "may have anti- American views." She called for the media to investigate. Joe McCarthy would have sent her a thank-you note. I'm sure McCain will remember not to.
I don't know if you saw the clips from the Al Smith dinner in New York. McCain roasted Obama. Obama roasted McCain. They were both funny - McCain was funnier - and they both seemed to genuinely laugh at the other's jokes. It also made you believe that you could have a civil debate in American politics.
And then you woke up from your dream. Yeah, it was the damn phone ringing again. |
