In a few hours on a Friday afternoon my email in-box can fill up with literally hundreds of emails from the campaigns, bloggers, outside groups and the like. Obama ate lobster in New York! ACORN is stealing the election! Joe the Plumber is a fraud! It all has a rather hysterical tone, and none of it seems like the stuff that moves voters at this late date.
Sure all of this is intended to influence the media mavens who in turn influence the voters, but let’s get real. The number of people who didn’t realize Obama was an elitist until they heard the lobster tale is . . . well . . . probably zero. The number of swing voters who might be inclined to listen to McCain’s accusation that his opponent is an wealth re-distribution addict if not for the fact Joe the Plumber doesn’t have a plumbing license is also zero.
Do the campaigns think this stuff matters? Well, they all have jobs to do and news to “move” but sometimes you wish there was a moratorium on issues that only political insiders or die hard political junkies care about. How about a day, an entire day, in which the McCain camp talks about nothing but energy policy and the stupidity of dragging our feet on domestic oil development? Or a whole weekend in which the McCain camp talks about judges? Might that focus voters who are really in play? Perhaps, but it certainly would be a restbit from the babble of political staffers. Hey — here’s another picture ( oh, it’s the same one actually) of Obama not putting his hand over his heart during the pledge. You think that’ll swing Ohio? Me neither.
