Me, myself, and I

Hey Charles the Writer,

Like Sugar Ray Leonard stickin’ and movin’ against Roberto Duran (this boxing fan loved your “No Mas” analogy a few postings ago!), you beat me to the punch with your analysis of the now-all-too-familiar post-debate analysis. I’m sorry now that I turned off the Ann Curry-led focus group. Wish I had seen it, but I kind of tuned out around the time David Gregory started talking about how Obama’s smiling might’ve come off as condescending, which led to a third consecutive Pat Buchanan declaration that McCain won the debate “on points.” (Note to self: Don’t go to the horse races with Pat Buchanan. Second note to self: If asked to go to the casino with John McCain, make sure you get a good night’s sleep the night before.)

So thanks for the recap. And I’m with you. The media coverage of these debates has just become laughable. While I’m at it, is there anything more laughable than CNN's zigzagging red, blue and green lines that are meant to gauge voters’ immediate gut reactions to the candidates? Can you please tell me what purpose this serves? If the focus groups allow these so-called undecideds (seriously, my friends, the information is out there, really it is) to pass off, as you say, “intellectual laziness as reasoned thought,” how much must these same folks love this amazing innovation? I suppose users hooked up to the reaction meter have to pay attention for an hour and a half to every word being spoken, but why do I just picture a bunch of "Guitar Hero" geeks tapping the button along to “Smoke on the Water” or whatever it is that’s playing in their heads during these debates. Sorry, I can't get over the ridiculousness of this thing. And how long do you think until CNN gives us something like this?

But, like you, I’ve done my research. Too much of it that, like you, I have gotten to the point of “No Mas.” And because I’ve slogged through a year of political overload, spanning 40-plus debates, 3 a.m. phone calls, Rev. Wright (how many days, my friend, before he makes a surprise appearance?) and the days of "Right Said Fred" Thompson, I don’t have much symphony for people who, like Chuck Todd and the crew of MSNBC’s First Read, wonder why Americans are “cramming six months of a general election into six weeks.” I’m as big of a procrastinator as anyone, but even I don’t get the notion that we’re somehow cramming the most important election of our lifetime into a few weeks. Sarah Palin, "Joe the Plumber" and "Joe Six Pack" might be cramming to figure it all out, John McCain might be cramming to locate a coherent campaign strategy, giddy Democrats might be cramming to find hotel rooms in D.C. for Obama’s January inauguration, but cramming for the general election, NO MAS EXCUSES, PLEASE!

And I’m also feeling like you—at least you several postings ago—when you echoed Mr. "Hands of Stone" himself, Roberto Duran, and said you were "tired of fighting" this guy. I don’t even have the energy to deal with Joe the Plumber right now, though you've peaked my interest with that "developing" story on a possible Keating connection. That would be just too good to be true.

Until we learn more, however, I thought I would share with you a theory, an admittedly unscientific theory, about presidential candidates who repeatedly talk in the first person. My humble opinion is that this approach does not help their cause. I felt this way about Hillary Clinton during the primary season. Remember the famous "I found my voice" line after the New Hampshire primary. That might've gotten attention at the time, but I thought it only highlighted the notion that she felt entitled to the nomination. Remember John Kerry's "I'm reporting for duty" line at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Nice applause line in the hall, but in retrospect, maybe too self-serving? Al Gore's "I invented the Internet." Ok, we know that one was way unfair, but for better or worse, this first-person stuff can be a killer. Again, this is all unscientific, but take John McCain in Wednesday night's debate, whose concluding remarks were stuffed with first-person references. He said:

America needs a new direction. We cannot be satisfied with what we've been doing for the last eight years.

I have a record of reform, and taking on my party, the other party, the special interests, whether it be an HMO Patients' Bill of Rights, or trying to clean up the campaign finance system in -- in this country, or whether it be establishment of a 9/11 Commission, I have a long record of it.

And I've been a careful steward of your tax dollars. We have to make health care affordable and available. We have to make quality education there for all of our citizens, not just the privileged few.

We have to stop the spending. We have to stop the spending, which has mortgaged your children's futures.

All of these things and all the promises and commitments that Sen. Obama and I made (inaudible) made to you tonight will base -- will be based on whether you can trust us or not to be careful stewards of your tax dollar, to make sure America is safe and secure and prosperous, to make sure we reform the institutions of government.

That's why I've asked you not only to examine my record, but my proposals for the future of this country.

I've spent my entire life in the service of this nation and putting my country first. As a long line of McCains that have served our country for a long time in war and in peace, it's been the great honor of my life, and I've been proud to serve.

And I hope you'll give me an opportunity to serve again. I'd be honored and humbled.

Now contrast that with Barack Obama's final remarks to the debate-viewing audience:

I think we all know America is going through tough times right now. The policies of the last eight years and -- and Washington's unwillingness to tackle the tough problems for decades has left us in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

And that's why the biggest risk we could take right now is to adopt the same failed policies and the same failed politics that we've seen over the last eight years and somehow expect a different result.

We need fundamental change in this country, and that's what I'd like to bring.

You know, over the last 20 months, you've invited me into your homes. You've shared your stories with me. And you've confirmed once again the fundamental decency and generosity of the American people.

And that's why I'm sure that our brighter days are still ahead.

But we're going to have to invest in the American people again, in tax cuts for the middle class, in health care for all Americans, and college for every young person who wants to go. In businesses that can create the new energy economy of the future. In policies that will lift wages and will grow our middle class.

These are the policies I have fought for my entire career. And these are the policies I want to bring to the White House.

But it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be quick. It is going to be requiring all of us -- Democrats, Republicans, independents -- to come together and to renew a spirit of sacrifice and service and responsibility.

I'm absolutely convinced we can do it. I would ask for your vote, and I promise you that if you give me the extraordinary honor of serving as your president, I will work every single day, tirelessly, on your behalf and on the behalf of the future of our children.

Thank you very much.

Sure, a few obligatory first-person references in there, but much more of a focus on US. Back in my advertising days, finding that "you focus" was absolutely essential to crafting an effective sales pitch, and it never ceases to amaze me how often our nation's politicians refuse to heed such basic lessons of marketing. And here's where Obama has schooled McCain time and time again. While McCain pokes fun at Obama's celebrity, questions his character, and belittles his experience, these attacks always smack of being for the benefit of JOHN MCCAIN. When he announces he has suspended his politicking, it's not to save us from economic peril, it's to rescue HIS floundering campaign. When, during the debates, he grimaces and cringes at Obama's proposals to address the current economic crisis, it's not because he feels OUR pain, it's because it pains HIM to be losing to someone to whom he clearly feels superior, to THAT ONE.

Again, I've never really set out to prove this theory. It's just a gut feeling I have. Of course, it's probably just as scientific as that CNN reaction gauge.

Talk to you soon!

Ryan the Wanna Be Political Strategist