The link between political freedom and economic prosperity is by now well-established. It is no coincidence that capitalism and democracy developed at roughly the same time and in the same place — 18th-century Great Britain and to a lesser extent the 17th-century Netherlands. It is hard for a country to prosper if it has a political system intolerant of the kind of intellectual freedom needed to generate good ideas and to attract freethinkers.
That news doesn’t seem to have reached the United Arab Emirates, which has announced plans to ban Blackberry e-mails and text messages because the state-security services find them hard to monitor. Perhaps as a Crackberry addict. I’m biased, but I have to say that this is one of the dumber decisions that the UAE could make given that Dubai — its principal city — has built its wealth on its reputation for being freer and more business-friendly than the surrounding Arab states.
If this decision stands, Dubai’s long-term future, already endangered by reckless real-estate speculation, could be further put at risk.
I am not so convinced that the recent stream of Obama’s negative ads will fail. Negative ads work. They’re what people remember. Particularly effective is negative campaigning under the cover (pushed by the media) that the other guy’s the dirty one. If McCain doesn’t run an “Obama’s a dirty player, so much for New Politics” ad soon, the McCain-as-Rove meme is going to take hold. You can see it starting already.
I agree. McCain MUST go “negative”, whatever that means… It should be remembered that his return to the status of serious contender began with his first “negative” ad on celebrity.
Perhaps it is time to unveil Jeremiah Wright’s greatest hits album, complete with pics of him and Obama together?
Obama is keen to tell us of his superior judgment re: the Iraq war. It might be useful to run a voiceover of Obama making that claim in this Obama Hearts Wright ad.
Did anybody even see Obama’s ads? The notion that fence sittiing voters actually exist is ludicrous. The notion that they would vote for Obama based on his latest ads is utter stupidity.
Dream on, Obamatons.
Nonsense. McCain is right now courting the independents who haven’t made up their minds. He does need to defend himself and his running mate. But that doesn’t mean he needs to stoop to their level. Mudslinging really does turn independents off. If he can hit back without “going negative” whilst sounding and acting presidential, he will keep the momentum going. Bottom line is that quoting a bunch of media outfits as to their opinion about a Republican is like asking Charles Manson what he thinks of the Los Angeles Police Department. Remember: 70 percent of people and more than that in terms of independents think the media is in the tank for Barry.
The “Celebrity” ad, BTW, isn’t really what I would call negative. If he can do another fun one, maybe that would be helpful. He does have to stay serious, though. I just think there’s so much material to work with, from the gaffes, to the media, to Barry’s invisible footprints…they ought to able to spool out one after another with whatever tenor they want.
This campaign is fascinating b/c it’s turned conventional wisdom on its head so many times, in so many ways.
This is another one: who would have thought the McCain campaign would have the much better, more frequent & timely, and much better “buzz” ads over and over again, given the dollar advantage, and the “hip” advantage the CW gave Obama’s campaign coming in?
Here is Obama promising not to run negative ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHhRdaO_Gs
Wow, that seems like a long time ago. Oh, for the days of hope and change, or how soon we forget.
Here’s Obama himself on negative ads, apparently without his telepromomter:
“If we’re going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily,” Obama said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5803765&page=1
#6,
I think Steve Schmidt is to be largely credited for the effectiveness of the McCain campaign.
I think Obama’s attacks, if entirely unanswered, might eventually work. I think they are tedious and very, well, typical. I generally agree that they are weak. I also don’t think they will go unanswered, and for every hit Obama scores, he’s tended to leave himself open for an even bigger counter-punch. In general, because his initial brandwas that he was a different kind of politician, he tends to suffer greater self-inflicted harm from negative ads.
Example: “Mccain Can’t e-mail”.
I hope this one was fun to produce, because the blowback is going to be brutal. Team McCain’s biggest dilema is which tack to take:
1) “How dare he! I’ll have you know that Sen McCain has injuries sustained in the service of his…”
2) Deadpan: Total white backgrond, black letters. Simple FYI that Mccain has been involved with more high-tech laws than Obama and, BTW, can’t lift his arms above his head because of war injuries (the trailing “, jerk” is left unsaid, but is understood).
3) Humor: lighthearted McCain can’t do certain things, like raise his hand to ask for earmarks, vote “present”, make the “O” sign or type email. Close with “stay classy, Team Obama”.
It points to an underlying problem: would-be Messiahs, and the left in general, tend to be poor humorists. Sure, they are quick with the laugh at running down others (Chimpy McHitlerBurton…hahaha!!!111!!!), but not so much in the self-deprecatory humor. Obama’s campaign ads are pompous and self-important because HE is pompous and self-important. He’d be leading right now if he could just take a joke.
#2: Negative ads work when they reinforce existing perceptions. Obama’s cult-like status had become apparent to the mainstream public before the celebrity ads. In contrast, the vast majority of those outside the hard left view McCain as a decent and honorable man. Telling these voters that they are “wrong” and quoting a bunch of liberal media outlets to “prove” the point is liable to cause a backfire on BO.
This is what I hear when I watch these new Obama ads:
“I’m Barack Obama. I’m the new politics and I will not run negative ads, unlike that lying, non-eMail using, disgusting, vile, very old and nearly dead from cancer candidate John McCain.”
McCain cannot go negative. Period. The idea should not even be entertained.
McCain needs to tie Obama to institutional failure.
If McCain wins, it will be on the strength of his reformist credentials.
Stay positive. Stay constructive. Stay clever. Stay funnier.
And then we need a win in the debates.
I’m with you, Ross. Except for every now and then, like Bob Dole’s comment about creating gridlock for President Clinton.
Ross is right. But the furor over ads is fading into the background as we type. The financial crisis will put Obama back on top in the polls, insuring his status as favorite as we go into the first debate. And Republicans never win debates by the MSM’s lights.
McCain needs, at all times, to come off as the adult in this race. He needs to retain as certain gravitas. So there is a limit to how negative he can afford to go. The better tack is for McCain to use Obama’s undisciplined aggressiveness against Obama, as McCain did with Obama’s celebrity status and messianic pretensions. Portray Obama as desperate and slightly ridiculous in his desperation.
By the way, it will be very interesting to see whether Obama brings to the 1st debate the angry persona we saw at the DNC and that he is projecting now.
A very effective ad would be him and Cindy sitting around the fireplace with her doing the typing responding to a request for an earmark. Then he could have her send an IM to Governor Palin about drilling in ANWR — after using Google Maps to view the moonscape there. Then he could forward an email from someone claiming that his uncle is the King of Nigeria to Senator Obama –because he tends to go for that type of stuff.
Really, you’re all insane.
I’m Voting Barr. I hope you enjoy your big government. You and the Democrats are too busy looking for government to solve all of America’s Problems. Issues, I’ve seen more from Obama on ideas and solutions…. I don’t like em but at least I know where he stands. McCain? Not so much. He’s too busy trying to co-opt the ‘change’ mantra to actually have a platform.
How about getting a cogent platform that’s more than Guns, Babies, Drilling and Russia is bad?
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an economic crisis, and I’m hearing the fundamentals of the economy are sound from the McCain Camp?
And really, McCain doesn’t have much room to speak as a Charter Member of the Keating five. which I know he was pretty much absolved of guilt, but it lead directly to the debacle that is McCain – Feingold. which by itself makes me question his decision making process. because in this case, the cure is certainly worse than the disease.
Mark,
In all seriousness, how can you call others insane when the person you are voting for will not, under any circumstances, become President? To me, I see no distance between this and writing in your own name. I have medium-sized problems with McCain, but I have huge problems with Obama and the direction he would try to take the country. Don’t like the choices? Work at the grass roots for better candidates.
So much for “post-partisan”