July 24, 2008

A little unsolicited advice for the McCain campaign and GOP leadership

John, this series of, for lack of a better term, Obama-esque posters on your site aren't going to be effective.  Some of them aren't too bad, but most of them are really obvious, lame attempts to borrow from Obama's art style.

No, I'm not gonna host all of them, you're just gonna have to click through,

Poster 1.
Poster 2.
Poster 3.
Poster 4.
Poster 5.
Poster 6.
Poster 7.
Poster 8.
Poster 9.
Poster 10.


Something that the GOP leadership (not just McCain) desperately needs to learn of late is that politics is a proactive game.  2006 and 2008 have both been years where the GOP leadership have run reactively, 2006 was a disaster, and 2008 isn't looking like a good year either.

We can see the GOP campaigning reactively in their ads in a series of lame attempts to co-opt Barack Obama's message and now his campaign art style.  This isn't going to work.  First it was the pitiful, embarrassing frankly, effort to co-opt the Hope 'n' Change message of Our Lord and Savior, most noticeably (and pitifully) by Mitt Romney.   Now we see this lame attempt by the McCain campaign to co-opt Obama's creepy Soviet/Big Brother/They Live propaganda type art style.  Look guys, trying to copy someone else's brand isn't going to work, at best, you're going to be Malt-O-Meal to Obama's General Mills, Kellogg's or Post. 

There are plenty of no-brainer initiatives the GOP can either pass, or if the Democrats shut them down, bludgeon the opposition with to generate some buzz.  "Speaker Pelosi!" didn't work in 2006, and President Obama!" isn't going to work in 2008.  The GOP can't run on their past record because the GOPs record from then is abysmal, but they may save themselves from an electoral bloodbath if they attempt to make one, starting now.  These efforts to co-opt Obama's campaign style are pathetic, embarrassing and I'd even say lazy.   You guys are better than this, aren't you?

Update:  These posters were part of a contest.  However, my broader point stands, the GOP cannot fall into the trap of trying to copy the Obama campaign, and some of these posters wade into that territory.  Also, looks like the Congressional GOP may finally be getting the point about being proactive.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:11 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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