McCain's Outraged and Outrageous Campaign
By Michael Scherer / WASHINGTON
Time
Steve Schmidt, John McCain's bald-headed message maven, made his first mark on national politics in the Bush-Cheney war room in 2004. Schmidt specialized in the generous dispersal of indignation — like a friendly neighbor handing out Halloween candy — to a quote-hungry press. "It is simply outrageous that John Kerry is questioning people's patriotism," he told the New York Times in April of that year. "John Kerry will say anything for his political benefit," he told Reuters in October. "Now his campaign surrogates have taken those attacks to a new low," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in November.
In the heat of a campaign, Schmidt understood that outrage could cut through the news clutter like a buzz saw. It didn't matter much if the outrage was fueled by fact — better if it was fueled by emotion, which would tweak the fury of his base, leading to exciting exchanges on cable television and fresh chatter around the water cooler. Unlike healthcare or foreign policy, the emotional charge of outrage has a magnetic effect; voters are forced to take sides and respond, shifting the debate.
Now four years later, Schmidt and the McCain campaign have returned to outrage, and there is little doubt that the tactic is again having the desired effect. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign crowed about the alleged mistreatment that the press and the Obama campaign were heaping on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (At roughly the same time as the campaign sent out email blasts featuring enthusiastic media blurbs of Palin's convention speech.) After the convention, the indignation only intensified; in the course of 24 hours, McCain accused Barack Obama of supporting "sex education" for kindergarten students and referring to Palin as a pig wearing lipstick. "The McCain campaign baited the outrage hook, and the Obama campaign and the national media bit," says Todd Harris, a Republican political consultant who worked for McCain in 2000 and Fred Thompson in 2008. "Hats off to the McCain guys for completely throwing Obama off."
(Continued here.)
Time
Steve Schmidt, John McCain's bald-headed message maven, made his first mark on national politics in the Bush-Cheney war room in 2004. Schmidt specialized in the generous dispersal of indignation — like a friendly neighbor handing out Halloween candy — to a quote-hungry press. "It is simply outrageous that John Kerry is questioning people's patriotism," he told the New York Times in April of that year. "John Kerry will say anything for his political benefit," he told Reuters in October. "Now his campaign surrogates have taken those attacks to a new low," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in November.
In the heat of a campaign, Schmidt understood that outrage could cut through the news clutter like a buzz saw. It didn't matter much if the outrage was fueled by fact — better if it was fueled by emotion, which would tweak the fury of his base, leading to exciting exchanges on cable television and fresh chatter around the water cooler. Unlike healthcare or foreign policy, the emotional charge of outrage has a magnetic effect; voters are forced to take sides and respond, shifting the debate.
Now four years later, Schmidt and the McCain campaign have returned to outrage, and there is little doubt that the tactic is again having the desired effect. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign crowed about the alleged mistreatment that the press and the Obama campaign were heaping on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (At roughly the same time as the campaign sent out email blasts featuring enthusiastic media blurbs of Palin's convention speech.) After the convention, the indignation only intensified; in the course of 24 hours, McCain accused Barack Obama of supporting "sex education" for kindergarten students and referring to Palin as a pig wearing lipstick. "The McCain campaign baited the outrage hook, and the Obama campaign and the national media bit," says Todd Harris, a Republican political consultant who worked for McCain in 2000 and Fred Thompson in 2008. "Hats off to the McCain guys for completely throwing Obama off."
(Continued here.)
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