McCain eyes up Hillary supporters

Image posted on Flickr by Kim Baker.

In an obvious attempt to fracture the Democrats during their Denver convention, McCain's latest campaign videos are pushing the boundaries of political correctness.

The Democrat rivalry which marked the 2008 primaries is coming in more than useful for the McCain campaign team. The latest clips insist on his political proximity to Clinton, again bringing up her attacks on Obama. One of the videos even presents us with Debra Bartoshevich, a supposed Hillary hardliner who claims she's decided to vote Republican for the first time in her life.

It does indeed seem that much of Clinton's gang has yet to be convinced by Obama. The latest poll published by the Wall Street Journal shows that 21% of people that voted for the New York senator now support McCain and 27% remain undecided.

Clinton was fast to react to the ads. On stage at the New York delegation for the convention, she attempted to unite the crowds by directly asking people to vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. McCain's videos however, remain the most watched clips on the web...

Parody of Clinton’s 3AM campaign clip

Posted 22 August 08.

"She isn’t on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth on his plans"

Posted 22 August 08.

Hillary’s response

Posted 25 August 08.

"Clinton was actually closer to McCain than to Obama"

Stuart Haugen is the vice-chair of Republicans Abroad France.

"McCain's scheme isn't aimed at dividing the Democrats, because they're already divided. What he's trying to do is to show the Democrat electorate, that in her manifesto, Clinton was actually closer to McCain than to Obama. When Debra says ‘it's ok', it's a way of showing that McCain's not a typical Republican like George Bush, that there's not a great deal of difference between voting for Clinton or voting for a moderate Republican, who's open and less nationalistic than previous ones.

Right now, McCain gaining these votes could prove awkward for Obama. Today McCain has support from 90% of the Republican electorate, while Obama only has 80% from the Democrats.

These tactics might seem unfair in France, but they're much less shocking in the US. As far as I'm concerned I don't think there's anything wrong with using the remarks that Clinton made. Hillary did say those things- why not use them? We haven't lied at any point. This kind of thing could happen in the next presidential election in France. Things change.

In the same way we're seeing videos of Joe Biden saying things about Obama before he was chosen as VP. In the US it's no scandal to change your mind. People accept it.

You have to remember that McCain is not the only one using negative campaigning. It's just that the Obama team targets state by state. His videos aren't as large-scale. They're seen two or three times on cable TV and focus on certain communities or regions. It's the opposite of McCain, who uses grand-scale campaigns on the main channels. So we have the impression that he's more aggressive, but really it's just because Obama's team is more sophisticated."

McCain’s newly acquired turncoat

Posted 22 August 08.