McCain Takes Aim but Misses Target

John McCain is taking the offensive. The latest two commercials from the Republican contender for the White House are particularly harsh. “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world” announces one of them, showing Barack Obama being cheered on last week in Berlin by 200,000 people. Under the photographers’ flashes, Obama, but also two tabloid regulars, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. “But is he ready to lead?” asks a voice-over, highlighting the Democratic candidate’s opposition to any commercial oil prospecting off the North American coast, “Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that’s the real Obama!”

Scheduling

A few days earlier another electoral commercial threw doubt on the Illinois senator’s patriotism, confirming that he had cancelled a visit to meet injured GI’s at Landstuhl American military hospital during his stay in Germany, because the Pentagon refused permission to bring along journalists. The Democratic candidate justified this change of schedule by stating that he didn’t wish to turn the occasion into a campaign stunt. “Obama is self-serving, far more worried about his own image than the well being of the soldiers” said a leader of the Republican campaign. “McCain’s new tactic,” observes the conservative daily, The Wall Street Journal “consists of turning Obama’s strengths–for example his ability to pull in large crowds–into weaknesses.” In the face of Obama’s success, McCain, who is now mockingly referring to Obama as “the chosen one,” is starting to lose control and contradict himself. Having begun by criticizing his rival’s intention to “retreat in the face of the enemy” by pulling out American troops in Iraq within 16 months, he conceded last week that such a retreat from Iraq would be “a fairly acceptable time scale.”

In trying to take the initiative, he’s going straight for the jugular. According to a survey carried out by the University if Wisconsin, a third of McCain’s broadcasts mention his rival and are “aggressive in nature.” Conversely, Obama only targets his rival in 10% of his commercials. In total, the two candidates have broadcasted more than 100,000 commercials in 10 months (costing 50 million dollars or 32 million euros).

“Childish”

The latest attacks by McCain on Obama have not found unanimous support. His ex-campaign director, John Weaver has deemed them “childish.” “Is John McCain stupid?” wonders an editorialist of the Wall Street Journal, asking whether the ex-professional soldier, who will celebrate his 72nd birthday at the end of August, “has the necessary concentration and intellectual discipline” to allow him not to be beaten by Obama. Particularly, given that the effectiveness of his aggressive tactics remains to be seen. The first survey conducted since Obama’s return from his European tour yesterday put him in the lead by 7 points (51 % of those polled would vote for him against 44% for McCain).

“Bizarre”

The Democratic candidate, for whom nothing can go wrong at present, is at risk from a very different danger. He shows an “arrogance which is even starting to irritate some journalists” cautions Dana Milbank, editorialist of the Washington Post. According to him, reporters from New Yorker magazine, whose latest satirical cover offended Obama’s campaign personnel, found themselves excluded from his latest press visit. Obama “is becoming presumptuous” he insists.

“The odds of us winning are very good” stated Obama on Monday, pleased to have met with foreign leaders with whom he “is counting on working during the next 8 to 10 years.”

“Obama, arrogant?, I don’t think so” denied Robert Gibbs, manager of Obama’s press office, “there’s a slight difference between arrogance and self confidence.”

“Nobody thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face,” Obama retorted on Wednesday. “So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name, he doesn’t look like all of those other presidents.”