It's backlash time, folks

Folks, McCain just made a major boo-boo.  What did he do?  He has unleashed an ad that's so false and despicable, that it's going to backlash on him.  Big time.  Sheesh, even Chuck Hagel has condemned the ad.

How do I know there's going to be a backlash?  Because we're going to make it happen.  And because I speak with the benefit of knowing some recent history in Virginia.

In Virginia, we recently saw two straight state-wide elections where the Republican candidate hurled scurrilous charges at the Democrat that were so slimy that it hurt the hurler.  And, in large part, the backlash was rightly fueled by the Virginia blogosphere.

A little trip down memory lane on the flip....
First, Jerry Kilgore in 2005 put out an ad with the following script:

   "Tim Kaine voluntarily represented the person who murdered my son. He stood with murderers in trying to get them off death row.

   "No matter how heinous the crime, he doesn't believe that death is a punishment. Tim Kaine says that Adolf Hitler doesn't qualify for the death penalty. This was the... the worst mass murderer in modern times. Being as liberal as he is and the death penalty, he's not representing everybody in the state.

   "I don't trust Tim Kaine when it comes to the death penalty. And I say that as a father whose had a son murdered. And the people of Virginia are entitled to know just what Tim Kaine is and what he stands for."

Now, the ad was disingenuous for a number of reasons, but of course you all see the biggest problem -- the whole "Godwin's Law" thing used to its demagoguing heights.  It was so bad that the ads backfired on Kilgore, and Kaine was able to secure polling leads soon thereafter that led him to the Governor's mansion.  

The next year, Jim Webb faced a different type of nonsense from George Allen.  It wasn't in the form of an ad, per se, but George Allen tried to make a big issue out of Webb's award winning novels as the incumbent's re-election chances (and presidential ambitions) swirled around the drain:

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) has accused his Democratic opponent, James Webb, of writing inappropriate sex scenes and demeaning descriptions of women in his fictional books, the latest character attack in a close and nasty campaign....

Webb, a former U.S. Navy secretary, responded angrily Friday on Washington Post Radio, defending his novels as "serious" works and calling Allen's attack part of the senator's negative campaign that is devoid of ideas. "To take these things out and pull excerpts out and force them on people . . . is just a classic example of the way this campaign is run," Webb said. "Literature is literature. I've made my career as a novelist. George Allen doesn't have a record to run on."

Of course, things like "macaca" and being a total doofus probably hurt Allen more, but this last desperate move really might have tipped the scales for good.  Robert Novak (before he was running over pedestrians) noticed the backlash and downgraded Allen's changes just in time to be prescient.

However, an important part of both backlashes came from the blogs.  One observer of the Kilgore attack aftermath noted how the issue exploded on the Virginia blogs.  And I certainly remember the Virginia blogs defending Webb and bashing Allen for that nonsense (here's one of many examples).  

So, my point is this:  it's time for another anti-GOP candidate backlash for the sort of ad the GOP is making a habit.  Like those turnabouts we see in Virginia when the Republicans get despicable.  And that backlash needs to start with us.  

1.  John McCain is lying. Obama had to cancel that visit of the troops because the Pentagon told him that he shouldn't take his campaign staff there.  Obama wanted to respect the troops and not make this into an issue, so he canceled the visit.  Of course, Obama has visited troops without cameras present in the past, so McCain is simply a liar.  

2.  John McCain is trying to make the troops a political issue.    Totally despicable -- while Obama made a decision to not make the troops a campaign issue, McCain is putting them in his ad and using them as a cudgel!

3.  John McCain's attack is tasteless.  See #1 and #2. Any claim that Obama doesn't care about the troops is pure trash.  

4.  John McCain is desperate.    Why else go so negative three months before election day?  His polling must suck worse than his speech-making ability.

So, let's make sure this one leaves a mark on McCain.  He needs to be answering questions from the press like "Do you really think that ad was appropriate?" and "Do you really think accusing Obama of not supporting the troops lives up to your call for a civil campaign?"  It's time for outrage.  It's time for LTEs and email blasts.  It's time to call into radio shows of all stripes and denounce this nonsense.  And, of course, it's time for several thousand blog posts on this.

Grab the pitchforks, folks.  It's backlash time.

UPDATE: Media contact info, courtesy of FAIR.

Comments

Here's some good backlash! (Lowell - 7/27/2008 2:12:37 PM)