Obama to set up anti-disinformation SWAT team:
Barack Obama is recruiting senior staff to a new unit which will combat virulent rumor campaigns on the internet that threaten to cost him votes in the presidential election against John McCain.It's become hackneyed to say this, but the underlying dynamics of the election do favor Obama. We'll see if he begins to get a bounce in his state-by-state polling over the coming weeks. I think he very well might, and we may wind up talking about an endgame in which in order to win McCain will either have to (i) wait for a mistake; (ii) play perfect Election Night poker and sweep the swing states, or (iii) go negative.
The unit is part of a huge expansion of Obama's campaign team as he shifts from the Democratic nomination race to the campaign for November's election.
But as McCain himself does not seem inclined to go negative, he'll have to rely (knowingly or not) on off-label elements on the Internet. Hence, Obama's SWAT Team (you'll have to excuse me for being a little Giordanoesque in my prose). We do not know exactly what the SWAT Team will consist of (the Obama campaign probably does not want us to know), but a safe guess is some combination of: public relations staff, law-enforcement officers, hackers, Internet security experts (i.e. more hackers), bloggers, and lawyers.
One wonders if this is a response to the recent plagiarisms and fabrications from the well-trafficked anti-Obama site NoQuarter, which gained enough traction to provoke a question from (and a repudiation of) a McClatchy reporter. If I were a proprietor of such a site, I would be thinking about retaining an attorney.
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John McCain has actually been going reasonably negative compared to the calendar. I think by crunch time, he'll be making 2000 and 2004 look like child's play in terms of personal vitriol. This is because he has a real anger management problem, and the 527s will be more active than ever trying to keep the most liberal candidate in years out of office.
Is it wrong that I enjoy watching the Obama campaign's tactics and strategy at least as much as I enjoy his stance on the issues? I just love watching a smart, thoughtful, no-nonsense operation go about its business.
There's a certain irony to the idea that John McCain, victim himself of a scurrilous rumor campaign eight years ago, might choose to rely on such a strategy to make him president this time around. But then again, he did hire a lot of Bush's people, and I suppose he knew what he was getting.
I have NO doubt it was that stupid Whitey tape smear that Larry Johnson started. I couldn't believe that reporter was actually stupid and disrespectful enough to bring that up with Obama himself.
This whole underground campaign against Obama is, I think, a really huge deal. Without the misinformation, I think he would be up like 15 points. If everyone in America figured out that he wasn't Muslim then he would win in a landslide.
The National Review Campaignspot site that Nate links to above, also has an interesting take on the McCain/Davis electoral map that was critiqued here last night.
Davis sounds a lot more coherent in that interview than he did in the McCain website presentation.
Basically, it highlights some areas that might be of genuine concern for the Obama campaign - 12% of PA Dems saying they won't vote for Obama in the general, for example, though that number is probably from an April or early May poll - and some overly hopeful rhetoric on behalf of the McCain campaign. However, it does give a good rundown of the states McCain & Davis are targetting, and why.
Worth checking out, in a 'know thine enemy' fashion.
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I doubt that Obama is considering legal action. I think that raises the profile too high and would convince some people that the stories are true.
I think they will respond openly, but only in written form. I'd guess that staffers will release written responses and encourage supporters to pass these around in emails, on social network sites and on sites like Digg.
Mac Z.: "I think by crunch time, [McCain'll] be making 2000 and 2004 look like child's play in terms of personal vitriol."
McCain has an adopted black daughter, whom I'm sure he doesn't want to shame with his campaign.
Instead, McCain will let the Republican ground teams loose with the personal vitriol. If anything rises to the level where it makes, or is fit to discuss at, the level of the national media, McCain will deplore it and demand that the people doing it stop. This way, he gets the benefits of the vitriol *and* of 'taking the high road' when it's brought to his attention.
Maybe - just maybe - Obama will be able to get under McCain's skin and provoke a gaffe-filled temper tantrum. But the McCain campaign will be working very hard to prevent that (they must know it's a risk), probably with coaching to help McCain keep his temper under wraps, at least in public and for the duration of the campaign.
Of course, that doesn't mean they'll be successful...
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I'm somewhat concerned about the Hillary supporters who will vote for McCain. There seem to be so many of their blogs popping up ever. I tried posting on some to convince them they were acting against their own interests. I was promptly branded an 'obamabot' and told, in a harsh fashion, to go away. Nate, do you think they'll be a big factor in november?
Hmph. Wrong link for that McCain/Davis article I mentioned above at the National Review Campaignspot.
Try: this one.
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I want to offer a correction to jgabriel: McCain has an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. She is not "black," in that she is not of African decent.
But I agree that it would not be in his personal interest to wage a racist campaign.
However, they can do so more subtly, by suggesting that Obama will be soft on crime, easy on terrorists, and that he doesn't possess real American values, or that's he's not patriotic enough, like they did with Kerry. The guy who made the Willie Horton ad that took down Dukakis is already working on one for Obama. It's going to get UGLY.
I predict Obama's SWAT team will have as much success in countering the rumours as ISP's have had at reducing email spam.
Face it, once a rumour spreads it is nearly impossible to dispel it. Even more difficult when those who believe the rumours have already tuned you out, and when you're not reaching them through the channels they heard the rumour from. You think the working class whites in Ohio and Virginia are going to surf their broadband connection and read some pro-Obama blogger and realize they've misjudged Obama? The only way to change their minds would be to get the friend that told them the rumour to make a compelling endorsement of Obama.
Likewise, that voter thinks McCain is a war hero and an independent. Unless he hears some real dirt, his image of McCain will not be shaken by any number of TV and radio ads about the "Bush-McCain economy". It is Obama who will have to go negative subrosa if he wants to swing the rumour-mongering voter bloc, not McCain. McCain is sitting pretty with these guys and has no need to push more rumours than are already out there.
"McCain has an adopted black daughter, whom I'm sure he doesn't want to shame with his campaign. "
His chief strategist worked for Ferdinand Marcos, the man has no morals. Also, his daughter is Bangladeshi IIRC, not black, so any anti-black racism wouldn't be against his daughter. Also, I'm not suggesting McCain will personally say overtly racist statements, but he will go incredibly negative.
A week or so ago, you stated in your NY Post article that the general election was going to be a toss-up. Now you say that it's favoring Obama. What caused the sudden change of opinion?
I have this fantasy ad: Dark, dangerous opening like the 3 am ad, a menacing voice warns about crime or terrorism or whatever, and then suddenly the screen goes white, out steps Obama and says, "Recognize these tactics? They've been used by Washington politicians for decades to scare the American people and distract you from the real issues that matter, like your health care, the economy, and ending this war. Republicans want you to listen to these false attacks and smears because they don't want you to pay attention to the problems their policies are creating for this country that we love." Slam dunk! Kills the swiftboat ads before they even air. Plouffe? Axelrod? Gibbs? Are you reading? :-)
I think the best campaign move so far is when Obama called McCain's bluff to have 10 town hall meetings. Granted, the details have to be worked out, but Republican policies rarely sound inticing when they are not said in 30 second sound bites.
For example, when McCain has to explain in great detail his idea on the "gas tax holiday" he will look very foolish. Tax cuts on gasoline sound great until people realize that there will be less money available to build and repair our crumbling transportation system.
There are many other issues this applies to, but you get the idea.
I was in Montana last week on personal business. Happened to be there on Tuesday, and sat at a relative's house and watched his victory speech.
We had gone out to lunch on voting day, and I struck up a conversation with the waitress. Asked her if she'd be boting. She said she wasn't sure, because her shift lasted until after the polls closed. Who'd you vote for, I asked.
She was undecided. She was usually a Republican, she said, but things are tough with the economy and gas prices. She's a single mom with three kids, and it's not getting easier. She wanted to vote Democrat, but she was uncertain about having a woman president (?!) and as for Obama, she had heard that he has been a member of (and I quote) "an African tribal religion."
She was worried that if he was elected the U.S. would be sending a lot more money to Africa, which she doesn't want to do because people are hurting at home.
Okay, so what to do? Well, the first thing I did was slip her a $100 bill and tell her to get something nice for the kids. Then we left. (No political motive on the tip. She's a single mother with three kids and I had some $100 bills in my pocket. It really was that simple.)
Next day, we came back and had another meal. I told her that I had gone and checked out what she had told me, and that in fact Obama is a Christian and that he'd been in a Christian church in Chicago for the last 20 years.
Anything you've heard is wrong, I told her. I also told her that she'd probably hear that Obama is a Muslim. That's because his father was a Muslim, but I said his father ran off when he was two years old. She nodded at that one. In the earlier conversation she had hinted at a rough divorce.
"So don't believe everything you are told," I said. "You know, with Obama, the fact that the guy is black makes it real easy for people to make him look like some freak from outer space, so you need to be careful about what people tell you." She agreed