TPM: McWorse

[dkf]

Tell them to stop. They have to stop saying that McCain is just "more of the same"!

I'm a marketer, and it's through those eyes, to some degree, that I view politics. In marketing, you won't sell anything if say your new product is just as good as it was -- you say it's better and improved. So, in politics, in the sort of inverse marketing that one does on one's opponents, you don't say your opponent (McCain) is the same as the earlier product (Bush): you say he's worse.

This is a serious issue, and a huge lost opportunity for the Democrats. The damage done by Bush has been, to some degree, mitigated by the fact that when he began his first term after the Clinton administration, the country was in very good shape. But when Democrats say that McCain will be "more of the same failed policies" they're wrong: it'll be much worse, because he'd be starting in a deep dark hole that has been dug by Bush. More of the same actually means seriously ... dangerously ... inferior.

Beyond that, saying "more of the same" has no bite at all. It's all gums. Saying, "John McCain will make things worse" means something tangible. Plus, it has the benefit of being, as you have observed, eminently true. McCain wants to do what Bush has done, but more so.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/210626.php

[FrenchieCat]

1. McWorse! I think I'll go with that!

Glad TPM is pointing this out.

[lob1]

2. The problem is, it's hard to imagine anything worse.

[dkf]

4. We aren't even in a "recession" yet. Of course it can get worse.

[lob1]

5. Oh I realize it can get worse. It's just hard to imagine it.

It's sort of like being say, six feet tall, and you're swimming in 3000 feet of shit. Then Captain Crunch floats by in a houseboat and tells me next year I'm going to be swimming in 20,000 feet of shit. I can't imagine that, because I'll be dead before then.

Okay, maybe it's nothing like that at all.

[dkf]

7. lol.

That does sound bad.

[sandnsea]

9. Buffett says we're in one

and have been for a few months and will be for a few months more. It was reported extensively in foreign press, we barely hear a whisper of it.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=buffett+manufacturing+recession&aq=f&oq=

[dkf]

10. We are not in the technical definition of a recession, but we

certainly do feel like we are.

[sandnsea]

3. I usually agree with your marketing analysis

but not this time. We've spent the last 8 years telling the American people that this particular crowd was a bunch of crooks. Now we have to give America a reason to dislike another Republican, for the exact same reasons we told them to dislike the neocons. The quickest way to do that is to connect McCain to Bush. More of the same is usually enough to make people quit jobs, get divorced, or make other drastic changes in their lives.

I'm worried that it's getting boring hearing it and wish they could figure out some different ways to say it.

[dkf]

6. Oops did it look like mine? Its from TPM.

Anyway, I think it would be a good debate as to who can be more destructive to the country, Bush or McCain. John McCain scares me. At least I see that Bush can be retrieved from the edge of the precipice (we haven't bombed Iran yet). McCain looks crazy enough to take us all over it. Who knew there was someone more belligerent than W?

And Bush didn't get into a rumble with Putin, while McCain sounds like he is escalating the situation. Again, Bush more sane than McCain. He tried to see into Pootie Poots soul, but even though he is completely lame, he at least tried to forge a relationship.

Bush refrained from using email over privacy, but at least he knew how to use it. Again, better than McCain.

Bush shows more respect to Laura than McCain showed Carol or shows to Cindy. George Bush is crass, but I never heard him offer up Laura for anything remotely resembling Miss Buffalo Chip.

[sandnsea]

8. Missed that, still disagree

Somebody around here is a marketer who usually has very excellent ideas on how to improve our image and whatnot. Anywho, there is such a thing as overkill and McWorse would be it. We've just spent 8 years saying Bush is the worst President in history, and now everybody's good friend McCain is going to be even worse than the worst? Nah, won't sell in a cazillion years.

Besides, the campaign decided on "more of the same" and the best way to win is to follow the campaign's lead. I don't know when the bloggers who are supposed to be on our side will write about that.