Last updated on August 11th, 2014 at 12:03 am
The McCain campaign continued their strategy of negative attacks against Obama, but putting out a statement which implied that Obama considers himself too big of a celebrity to appear at joint town hall events with John McCain.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, “John McCain looks forward to debating Barack Obama as often as possible, but it’s disappointing that Senator Obama has refused his offer to do joint town hall meetings. We understand it might be beneath a worldwide celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude to appear at town hall meetings alongside John McCain and directly answer questions from the American people, but we hope he’ll reconsider.”
Rogers implied that Obama was all talk, “The American people expect and deserve no less. Unfortunately, it appears that Barack Obama’s tough-guy talk on ‘duels’ this week was just more empty words. Americans are quickly coming to the conclusion that it’s better to look at what Barack Obama actually does and not listen to what he says.”
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The McCain campaign may get some short term help from these negative attacks on Obama now, but if they intend on doing this up to Election Day, they better be prepared for a backlash. McCain supporters compare his attacks on Obama to the swiftboating of John Kerry. The big difference between the two is that the negative attacks in Kerry didn’t start until after he officially accepted the Democratic nomination. This latest attack isn’t about debates. The point is to paint Obama as a celebrity who thinks that he is too good for regular people.
John McCain as the common man doesn’t really play well. Most people don’t wear $500 loafers to work. Most people aren’t married to a wealthy heiress, and enjoy a life of luxury the way John McCain does. To me, all of the McCain campaign’s griping about Obama’s celebrity sounds like sour grapes from a former media darling. Mark today down as another day when McCain decided to focus on negative attacks instead of the issues, so much for the clean campaign that he promised to run.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
