Dan Cody - “Left on the Lake” » The McCain Predicament: Feed the Base Red Meat or Appeal to Swing Voters

The McCain Predicament: Feed the Base Red Meat or Appeal to Swing Voters

After digesting some more of the campaign event in Waukesha yesterday, and listening to some of the right-wing radio spin on the event, I think the McCain campaign faces an unenviable predicament.

Do they side with the tactics encouraged by ultra-conservatives - McCain’s base - like those at the Waukesha event yesterday; make the nastiest race in recent history even nastier, ignore issues like the economy, and go in to full character assassination mode? They want more blood, they want to destroy Barack Obama but, and here’s the key, they’re already going to vote for Sen. McCain.

On the other hand, McCain could focus on the economy and other important issues to American voters, especially swing voters. For the most part, these folks are the ones who will decide the election, and in contrast to the voters described above who are characterized by the crowd in Waukesha yesterday, they don’t like the nastiness of the campaign or politics in general.

That’s one of the major reasons they’re swing voters if you think about it.

So McCain is faced with the problem of either continuing to feed the base the red meat of character assassination and nastiness and turning off swing voters, or ignore the base and try to appeal to the swing voters by emphasizing his record, policies, and character.

Like I said, it’s an unenviable position to be in. It will be interesting to see where the McCain campaign decides to go, as well as how a conservative base who was never entirely comfortable with their candidate to begin with, reacts.

Politics | Dan Cody | October 10, 2008 12:48 pm

9 Comments

By Go Celtics, October 10, 2008 @ 8:28 pm

I’ll take a break from criticizing you to say: very good post. McCain was in a tight spot because the base hates (or hated) him, and he could not win with just swing voters.

His performance in Minnesota today was the old McCain, the one I could support. Frankly I wish he had told the whackos he wasn’t interested in the support of people like them. Now the base probably hates him again.

The guy had a tough perdicament, but his campaign has been a total joke to date.
By Yeah Boy, October 10, 2008 @ 9:59 pm

Dan and GC - This person said it better than I can:

“The increased anger of McCain’s crowds is due to the fact that neither the media nor McCain himself is willing to take Obama on. It isn’t dishonorable to tell the truth about a man who is hiding the truth about himself and his record. As a matter of fact doing so, in the face of great pressure not to, is far more honorable and decent than not doing so. If McCain showed some stomach to give us some real straight talk, his crowds wouldn’t feel a need to act out. They’d be satisfied that at least someone was being honest.

This episode brought home the fact to me that McCain is going to lose and probably lose big. In one episode he managed to deflate his base, reminding us why we disliked him so much in the first place, gain no votes and give a nice pr boost to Obama, to boot.

This Presidential race is a mission for which John McCain is not the right man. I wonder if he will able to look back at his “honorable” campaign when he sees that it has handed this country over to the most dishonorable ideology in its history.”
By Dan Cody, October 10, 2008 @ 10:58 pm

Thanks GC. I’ve actually got some video I’m going to post from the event in Minnesota today which suggests Sen. McCain might be starting to change course a bit.

Yeah boy, I don’t see how people shouting “kill him” or “terrorist!” or “bomb Obama” at McCain/Palin campaign events is them really being upset with the way McCain is running his campaign.

Their outbursts, dangerous and un-American in my opinion, aren’t directed at the way Sen. McCain is running his campaign, they’re from a deeper a more visceral place than that. These are people who seriously believe that Sen. Obama is a terrorist and a traitor.

Two very different things.
By Yeah Boy, October 12, 2008 @ 10:44 am

Dan - I agree that banter like that has no place in our country. Your post was not directed at those protestors, but rather McCain’s approach and my comments were as such.

On the topic of the protestors, which I think it horrible … now you are getting a taste of what George Bush has been having to put up with for 8 years. You NEVER commented that it should have stopped then. The only reason you are saying anything right now is because the anger is directed at *your* guy. This is why it is important to be objective and honest. When people were screaming this crap about Bush you should have stood up like an American and said something.

Do you see what I am saying? Just because *your* guy is not the person with the hate directed at him does not mean you should sit idle and ignore the problem until *your* guy is the target.
By Dan Cody, October 12, 2008 @ 9:33 pm

Of course some of my comments were directed at the McCain campaign, for the last two weeks they’ve been stoking the fire on this by saying he pals around with terrorists, is “dangerous”, invoking “Hussein”, etc…

It’s only natural that his most fervent supporters would take the cue and take it to the next level.

As for your take on defending the President, I must have missed it when the things above were said about him. Once again, you’re extremely intent on trying to make this an argument of equivalency. It’s not.

Finally, I’d take strong exception to the argument that not defending Bush is less “American”. It’s my opinion that he’s done more to harm this Country in eight years than anyone could have imagined back in 2000, and we’re all worse off for it.
By Yeah Boy, October 12, 2008 @ 10:24 pm

As for your take on defending the President, I must have missed it when the things above were said about him.

Honestly?! You need to get some more news sources, Dan.

Once again, you’re extremely intent on trying to make this an argument of equivalency. It’s not.

It is. To you, saying “Kill Bush” with an image of GWB’s head chopped off is ok and saying “Obama is a terriorist” is not. WTF??? Somehow I just cannot accept that logic. To me both are wrong.
By Dan Cody, October 13, 2008 @ 10:24 pm

Again, I must have missed the placard of “kill bush” at a Democratic Presidential rally over the past 24 months, or a Democratic candidate going anywhere near that at a campaign rally.

Unless you’re talking about idiots on the Internet from either side, but that wasn’t what I was talking about, and you know that.

You’re trying to equivocate two entirely different things to make a comparison that doesn’t hold water.
By Go Celtics, October 13, 2008 @ 11:02 pm

Yeah Boy,

While I agree with your point - that there are whackjobs on both sides who should have their voting rights permanently revoked upon uttering their inanities, you’re playing a game that never works: you’re trying to make a partisan answer for all the kooks on his side when criticizes the kooks on your side. That is, unless you have direct quotes of Dan saying “Bushler” or all that crap, then you’d have a point.

I mean I get it, Dan probably hasn’t leveled the criticism at the left-wing whackos that he is now at the right-wing whackos, but partisans will rarely do that unless it makes news. Even partisans know there are going to be whackjobs who have to be lived with, but in the end they’re only newsworthy when hay can be made about the other side.
By Yeah Boy, October 17, 2008 @ 4:57 pm

Perfect