I mostly agree with your comment about the population not caring. But I do think that a large fraction of the population is listening with one ear a few times a week at least. And that’s why the candidate’s narrative is so critical. Opinions form of these candidates over the full campaign, even in those who do not live by the blogs or agonize over the candidate’s position on issues or the party’s platforms.

They do however, hear the general buzz. The vast majority of Americans know that Hillary made up a story about sniper fire that seems to be downright delusional. And the vast majority of Americans know now that Obama went to church for 20 years where the pastor repeatedly made the most outlandish anti-American and racist statements.

The battle between Hillary and Obama is doing exactly what such battles are supposed to do. It is creating the national narrative that defines the two candidates. That narrative will become the foundation of the general election campaign.

The more Hillary can get that narrative to show Obama as an elitist who consorts with known racists and who looks down on average Americans as people who turn to guns, god and racism when they are down on their luck, the better that is for McCain. Just as it is better for McCain if Obama can paint Hillary as a delusional opportunist whose words are no more to be trusted than Bill Clinton’s were.

In the meantime McCain still is in control of his own narrative, and he is pushing that as much as he can in the face of overwhelming coverage of the Democrat race. It may be slower, but the narrative of John McCain is also being formed and so far that narrative is a mostly positive one of a national war hero, a gutsy political maverick who has worked across aisles and who has an impressive array of political accomplishments to point to.

As long as Hillary and Obama are throttling each other, McCain can continue to pound this narrative home.

Then, in August, when one or the other of the Democrats wrests control of the nomination (probably Obama) McCain can unleash a torrent of ads that relentlessly pound the negative aspects of his opponent’s narrative, reinforcing the narrative until it gets so firmly rooted in the American consciousness that “elitist snob” becomes synonymous with “Barack Obama” and that gives Obama a pretty big hurdle to leap over while he is simultaneously trying to pick apart McCain’s mostly positive narrative in ten weeks or so.

I don’t think that McCain is the favorite yet, but the Democrat steel-cage death-match is not over yet. A few more revelations of Obama’s true opinion of America and average Americans and that narrative could be as firmly rooted as the Al Gore and John Kerry narratives were.

I have long said that Hillary and Obama are both weak candidates who are riding an anti-Bush wave of sentiment, but both have not yet seemed to realize that they are not running against Bush this year.

If McCain is savvy enough, I think he can pull this off. But to do so he will have to hammer home those negative aspects of whoever his opponent is going to be. Frankly my fear is that McCain simply doesn’t have the stomach to do it. And that will be his downfall.

CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Danica Patrick wins Formula One event

The Bozo( the emmissary) then annonced this to the media .

Well, up here we thought , first -don’t interfer.
Next, don’t tell everyone that you interfered.
Third, if Obama wins, didn’t you just prove to his administration that you can’t keep a secret? Or were you working to show him in a bad light to curry favor with his opponents?

Either way..STUPID.
Hence, I appologise. Our choice of leadership was flawed.
Sorry.

I suspect he’s secretly a purple dinosaur.

I think you are right about the concentration on the Democratic candidates right now, which will change for the general election.

It’s interesting, you can complain about how Canadian politics work, but quite often I think we Americans would rather be more like you. It’s often very draining to deal with watching political campaigns that go on for a year or more non-stop!

At least you have a year to vet your candidates. Who can fake it for that amount of time? Our elections, at least every five years but can be called when favourable to the party in power, or forced if it is a minority government allow for just a month of campaigning. Less dirt, but also less substance. The ignorant masses could pay attention for at least a month, you would think.
Allas our turn out it ussually simular to yours.

Sad reflection.

Enjoy the race. There seems to be one for you.

As one of the most powerful countries in the world you are making a choice that goes well beyond your borders.

Oh, and I appoligise for my countries interference. Not my fault, but hey, we only had a month to choose ours.

Vote early, vote often…?

You may be right, but what I think, Tyrone, is that the Clinton team is right and that Obama’s ability to get the activist vote is not going to be able to get him over the top in the general election. Republicans are mostly holding their fire right now but they’re gonna be merciless.

In certain segments of the black community (including myself), they are incredulous. I can’t believe he’s withstood all these problems in a compressed amount of time (the last month or so). Now some in the blogosphere call him a Marxist “pied piper” that is leading us to certain doom if elected (my hyperbole is nothing compared to what’s really said). But I think he’s tapped into “something” that’s giving him all this “love”. Personally I think he would be better as a VP to get experience but I’ve been blown out of Obama supporter blogs with howitzers for even suggesting that. LOL!