The latest Obama ad, a defensive response to recent McCain ad parodies, is a muddlement of themes: (1) it shows a number of brief clips of McCain's appearances on TV shows, claiming McCain is a favorite of the media and the "real" celebrity; (2) it claims that McCain takes positions from the left or the right based on political expediency, claiming McCain will take whatever position he needs to in order to get elected; (3) it attempts, as all Democratic ads in past national elections, to tie McCain to Big Business (in particular, Big Oil and Big Pharma); (4) it includes a handful of shots of Bush and McCain with and/or embracing each other, in yet another of the months-long futile attempts to link McCain to Bush and his low approval rating.
Media Darling?
There is no doubt that John McCain's trademark "straight talk" reputation vs. conventional political spin and his ready accessibility to the media have helped, particularly given his struggles to raise campaign cash. However, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, during the primary season, Barack Obama got nearly double the favorite story percentage at 62% than McCain. Since Obama claimed the Democratic nomination, both candidates have net unfavorable story percentages, but Obama has gotten approximately 50% more coverage.
However, the media coverage in general seems to be slanted more towards liberal/Democratic candidates. There are two principal salient investigations over the past 2 election cycles where normal due diligence standards were short-shrifted: (1) the Dan Rather/60 Minutes' story regarding President Bush's National Guard Service; (2) the New York Times' investigation of an alleged relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, and whether McCain acted improperly on behalf of her communications clients.
There is no doubt that McCain found it difficult to obtain coverage after he cinched the GOP nod, and he got nowhere near the coverage of Obama's Middle East/European tour. But Obama was able to feed off anti-Bush/anti-Iraq policy sentiment of the Europeans.
Ultimately, the ad's claims of McCain's celebrity fail when in fact, Ms. Daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey, made a first-time, high-profile endorsement of Barack Obama and he enjoys widespread support from the Hollywood intelligentsia and many music-industry heavyweights.
Politically Expedient Views?
Any serious investigation of this allegation shows it to be ludicrous. Most of the serious Democratic contenders were active senators with virtually identical liberal voting records and Bush-bashing rhetoric and only minor nuanced differences on Iraq and political issues. David Ignatius, in an early March Washington Post column, quotes an unnamed Democratic Senator, whom noted that Obama had sidestepped any legislation or stand which would put him at odds with the party's interests groups and then said, "If his voting record in the past is the real Barack Obama, then there isn't going to be any bipartisanship."
In contrast, the media conservatives mercilessly pounded McCain during the primaries for what they regard his breaches of conservative orthodoxy on campaign reform, immigration reform, tax cuts, torture, stem cell research and the environment. Some of his Senate colleagues, irked by his criticism over their use of earmarks, endorsed other candidates. When McCain, the only actively serving politician (other than Ron Paul), publicly backed the surge, which was consistent with steps he had been pursuing since 2003, including the sacking of Rumsfeld, his campaign tanked; as the surge tactics proved themselves, other Republicans, such as Tom DeLay, snarled that McCain was attempting to take credit for Bush's decisions.
McCain's views reflect a mixture of certain Republican Presidential role models, including Reagan's views on limited taxes and government spending and strong defense, Teddy Roosevelt's conservationism and populist mistrust of Big Business, and Lincoln's focus on America first and equal opportunities for individuals.
McCain's reversal on domestic offshore drilling reflected changed facts and a subsequent imbalance among competing views of conservation, populism, and national economic security. Obama's flip-flops, on the other hand, are more difficult to explain, e.g., his general opposition to the death penalty but subsequent criticism of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the death penalty for adult sex crimes against children; his sudden appreciation for guns as a Constitutionally-protected means of self-defense vs. his previous support of a DC ban on guns; his willingness to vote for the 2005 Energy Bill despite billions in subsidies to Big Energy; his decision to reverse himself on whether to accept public financing of the general campaign, once he discovered he was able to pull in more contributions than McCain; Obama's flip-flop on FISA/wiretaps and immunity for the telecommunications industry; and even a recent hint he might be willing to wheel/deal on offshore drilling (this list is by no means exhaustive). Obama's flip-flops cannot be explained by such game-changers as a $150/barrel of oil for McCain in changing his mind about environmentally-sound offshore oil drilling.
Big Business / Big Oil / Big Pharma?
In fact, McCain has stood up to Big Agriculture and opposed their ethanol subsidies to the point he didn't even bother actively contesting the Iowa caucuses in 2000 and 2008. Unlike Obama, McCain opposed the 2005 Bush Energy Bill with subsidies to Big Energy and Big Oil. McCain also opposed the budget-busting Bush Medicare prescription drug benefit. John McCain has had a hand in all major reformist legislation, including campaign, lobbyist and ethics. He has also been the point man on attempting to ban earmarks.
Bush Clone?
I've already written a post analyzing Obama's implausible attempts to portray John McCain as a third Bush term. The fact is that as President, Bush remains leader of the Republican Party and enjoys support of most Republicans, but McCain will head the ticket this November. Most people remember that Bush and McCain had a bitter fight for the Republican nomination in 2000, especially involving some allegations made during the South Carolina primary about McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh. McCain called for more US troops in Iraq in 2003 onwards and the firing of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld; McCain also voted against the 2001/2003 tax cuts, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the 2005 energy bill, and torture policy. He has been critical of Bush on Katrina, unwillingness to confront the Congress over spending and earmarks and not renegotiating Kyoto.
