Sunday, November 02, 2008
Embarrassing
Frankly, Sen. John McCain, we found your appearance on Saturday Night Live last night, very painful to watch.0 comments
Poking fun at oneself is a topnotch political quality, but would have been set up better earlier in the campaign when the campaign had vitality, when it was still defining its story, and could control its image. Then, the skits would assist your campaign in defining its message.
To have it come on the last desperate weekend of the campaign, when you're struggling to push the boulder up the mountainside, leaves you with only the conventional unflattering picture of the moment. This, of course, does nothing but reinforce the negative image at a time when you dearly need every moment of the day to shine a positive light on your quickly sinking ship.
The idea of joking about the Titanic while water is lapping at the ship's conning tower only reinforces the idea that you're bereft of ideas on how to fix your immediate crisis. And proves that you're not very fast on your feet, Mr. McCain. It's rather akin to if Michael Dukakis had started laughing about those "wacky" tanks on the last weekend in 1988.
It's not clear how the message that you're broke enough to only afford air time on the QVC channel hurts Barack Obama. It says nothing about him; it says you're underfunded and cannot compete, whether you are or not. You end up looking like one of those whiners that your financial guru Phil Gramm complained about. Gramm may be your long-time friend, Senator, but he's made it clear, he's got no room for whiners.
Then, allowing Tina Fey to insert an aside to the camera about how your running mate has already written this election off and is already pushing PALIN 2012 tee shirts, is something that your staff should have put the kibbosh on by midweek at the latest. You're already having enough trouble with the revolt by Palin forces trampling on your message in the mainstream press, without having comedy shows place that idea in concrete in the public's mind.
I'm afraid, Senator, last night's stint on SNL only proved that, while you may be adept at comedy, your campaign may border on being a joke.
posted by Gotham 6:56 PM
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