Seeing The Enemy

by Steve Soto

John McCain is shaking up his campaign today by installing former Bush/Cheney hatchet man Steve Schmidt at the top of the organization. GOP insiders were already complaining privately that the McCain effort and strategy failed to define Obama when they had the chance to do so, and lacked discipline and focus. That will not be a problem with Schmidt, who will spend every day attacking and smearing Obama through surrogates and even McCain himself.

Obama insists on controlling his message, doesn’t like surrogate efforts, and disregards the need for bare-knuckled politics all while bemoaning such practices as not helpful to an overall political dialogue. We’re about to see how well Team Obama can adjust to a scorched earth campaign from some very seasoned practitioners. Karl Rove and Steve Schmidt now run the McCain effort, and there is no reason why Team Obama should be unprepared for the challenge. The Kerry effort from 2004 is a textbook case of what not to do.

As I said years ago, to beat Rove, you need to hit him first and attack an area of perceived strength as well as weakness. This needs to be done every day, ruthlessly and relentlessly by way of a Truth Squad/quick response effort that follows McCain around the country to get a counter-narrative rebutting his message in the same news cycle; and a Tier One/Tier Two effort against McCain every day through scripted surrogates to keep him against the wall on defense while Obama takes the high road and talks positively about the future. Obama needs to attack McCain’s perceived strengths and turn them into at least a net zero if not a liability. For guidance, see what Rove did to Kerry with the Swifties and then envision what Obama should do to McCain on national security and terrorism.

Rove is not infallible and lost both the 2000 and 2006 elections. He got lucky in 2004 because Kerry’s senior brain trust of Mary Beth Cahill, Tad Devine, and Bob Shrum were inept and ignored their opponent’s track record and practices. Obama has no excuse for making the same mistakes this time, and no amount of disdain for negative politics on his part justifies losing this race, especially now that he has taken over the entire Democratic Party without firing a shot. Obama can see the enemy in front of him and David Axelrod knows full well who and what Rove and Schmidt represent.