Most American commentators think John McCain is making a terrible mistake – or at least wasting his time – in trying to shift the focus of the presidential campaign from the economy onto Barack Obama’s character.
I’m not so sure.
When Sarah Palin suggested at the weekend that Obama had been “palling around with terrorists” – in the person of former Weather Underground guerrilla William Ayers – most pundits agreed that voters weren’t interested in her charge. Whatever about the public, the media talked of little else on Monday – even as the Dow Jones fell below 10,000 points for the first time in four years and the global financial system appeared to be giving up the ghost.
The Obama campaign spent much of the weekend warning that McCain’s decision to highlight Obama’s past associations would backfire and threatened (for the umpteenth time) that the Democrat was finally about to “take the gloves off”. On Monday, Obama’s team launched a co-ordinated TV and Internet campaign to remind voters of McCain’s links to Charles Keating, a banker who was jailed for fraud in the early 1990’s.
Both stories have been around for a long time but I think the attacks on Obama are likely to be more effective, not least because they reinforce doubts that are already present in voters’ minds.
“Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don’t know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign,” McCain said yesterday.
“My opponent’s touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book. It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there’s always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults.”
McCain’s criticism of Obama may be unfair – and it’s certainly unkind – but it is also shared by millions of Americans, among them many Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania who backed Hillary Clinton even after her campaign appeared to be doomed.
Nobody, on the other hand, thinks McCain is a crook and most Americans are likely to give him the benefit of the doubt over the Keating affair. Some of Obama’s negative campaigning has been more effective, notably his description of McCain as “erratic” and “out of touch” – which chimed with some voters’ suspicions that the Republican is not only old but possibly a little crazy.
After three weeks during which the campaign appeared to slip from his grip, McCain has taken control of the news agenda by going negative on Obama. It’s not especially pretty and it probably won’t last but the Republican’s burst of aggression has cheered up his demoralised supporters and changed the topic of conversation in the campaign – at least for now.
