Scattered Work

The Three Ashleys

Portraits of political prowess:

The contrast from four years ago is striking. Four years ago, the emotional fulcrum of the race swung between Bush v. Not Bush. Bush won, in part because he could make an affirmative, emotional closing argument. This year, Obama v. Nobama is bringing out the worst, most base human instincts from the McCain campaign, and an emotional, Ashley-based closing argument that voters need to fear “that one.”

Sean Quinn isn’t being totally fair here; there’s no evidence that John McCain intended for Ashley Todd to become part of his campaign message. But it’s easy to see how his campaign fell into that trap, and it has a lot to do with tactics that were devised at the top levels of the campaign.

Tags: Barack Obama, campaigns, George W. Bush, John McCain