Candidates say the darndest things

Tag : Brands Shirt


At the recent Personal Democracy Forum , journalists Ana Marie Cox and Ben Smith agreed that Barack Obamais the most packaged, most marketed candidate we've ever seen. Heis all about message control.

The Obama campaign is deceptive. Based on his "Yes We Can" image , you might think the Democratic candidate for president is open asa book. Yes, my.barackobama.com has millions of users, but it's aremarkably controlled environment. There is very little opportunityfor direct feedback to the candidate or his staff. It's afantastically executed word-of-mouth marketing campaign. Thisextends to reporters, who I have heard say that Obama provides lesspress access than George Bush, who was famous for his lack of presstime. I initially supported Hillary Clinton, because I worried thatObama was more of a marketing idea than a change agent.

Obama's brand resonates with an extremely marketing-savvygeneration. I say "Obama", you say "change", "young", "newpolitics". I can't go to a tech gathering or party in New York,Washington or Boston without being flooded by hipster T-shirts forObama. John Kerry didn't benefit from this kind of ambientmarketing. So, yes, Obama seems up there with other great brandslike Apple and the new, ubiquitous Sigg water bottle. I wear Obamaon my chest, and that makes me cool. I'm also 31.

Which brings me to the senior senator from Arizona, John McCain. Heresonates with Americans for entirely different reasons. It's beenconventional wisdom around political circles that McCain's brand -Mr Straight Talk, the Maverick - is tried and true but somehowstill works for many Americans. Few want to buy his T-shirt, but hehas an incredible amount of leeway. The strength of McCain's imagehits home when one reviews the things that come out of thesenator's mouth and never seem to damage him. Unlike Obama, McCainfeels shockingly uncensored, but this only adds to McCain'smystique.

This candidate reportedly called his wife a cunt . This week, in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, he made a poor joke about beating his wife , in response to a question about why he didn't choose his pal,governor Jim Gibbons (who is in the middle of a messy divorce), tochair his Nevada campaign:

Q: Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are runningfrom him like you are from the president?

McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple ofweeks ago ... .

To be fair, McCain was riffing off an old saw in Washington, the fictitious leading question: "When did you stopbeating your wife, Senator"? So if anything, McCain was playing oldboy more than he was truly joking about laying one on Cindy, butthe fact that he consistently feels comfortable enough to makeoff-colour jokes speaks to something. My feminist friends haveconsistently been outraged when McCain talks like well, a salty oldman, but thus far, it doesn't bother me. It reminds me of my Dad.

From "Bomb Iran" to flubbing al-Qaida , McCain's record is more full of faux pas than bon mots, but itburnishes his identity as the Straight Talk senator and enhanceshis brand. I think it's also directly connected to forgivenessgiven his age. He has said : "Of course I'm gonna misspeak. ⬦ I've done it on numerousoccasions. And I probably will in the future. I regret that when Idivert attention to something that I've said from my message. Butthat's just life. And I'm happy, frankly, with the way I operate.Otherwise it'd be a lot less fun."

It lends him a humanity that is so rare in politics today. Intruth, McCain is an anti-lobbyist advised by lobbyists, a fakemoderate who is so conservative he doesn't support equal pay for American women. But he's "fun".

Some months ago, Obama quickly called a female reporter "sweetie" . Outrage ensued. It made me kind of sad that Obama was socompletely shut down from what I noted as a very human utterance.

A candidate's brand is so controlled and their speech so monitoredthat it's dangerous to ad lib. No where was this more evident thanin Hillary Clinton's recent campaign, where the candidate's everyword was parsed and criticised so that she could not veer offmessage. As a result, she became so scripted that when shedisplayed a human moment by crying in New Hampshire she wasinstantly accused of being manipulative and manufactured.

Like most modern candidates, it is difficult for Obama to veer offscript without getting beaten up, and not only by his Republicanopponents. As the campaign gets tougher, Obama is going to struggleagainst encroaching forces that want him to shut up because it'ssafer. His image, so carefully crafted, depends on it.

But McCain will continue to say sometimes truly offensive things,and get away with it, just because he can. His brand is structuredin way that his outrageousness complements his image. I hope soon,he will go too far and damage his burnished image once and for all.