McCain Narrative 4: Team of Mavericks vs. Old-Style Washington
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, History, McCain, Palin
Check out ALL of the shifting narratives of the McCain campaign by first reading the intro, Narrative 1, Narrative 2 and Narrative 3.
And now…the Palin pick…
On Sunday, Aug. 24, Schmidt and a few other senior advisers again convened for a general strategy meeting at the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton. McInturff, the pollster, brought somewhat-reassuring new numbers. The Celebrity motif had taken its toll on Obama. It was no longer third and nine, the pollster said — meaning, among other things, that McCain might well be advised to go with a safe pick as his running mate.Then for a half-hour or so, the group reviewed names that had been bandied about in the past: Gov. Tim Pawlenty (of Minnesota) and Gov. Charlie Crist (of Florida); the former governors Tom Ridge (Pennsylvania) and Mitt Romney (Massachusetts); Senator Joe Lieberman (Connecticut); and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (New York). From a branding standpoint, they wondered, what message would each of these candidates send about John McCain? McInturff’s polling data suggested that none of these candidates brought significantly more to the ticket than any other.
“What about Sarah Palin?†Schmidt asked.
After a moment of silence, Fred Davis, McCain’s creative director (and not related to Rick), said, “I did the ads for her gubernatorial campaign.†But Davis had never once spoken with Palin, the governor of Alaska. Since the Republican Governors Association had paid for his work, Davis was prohibited by campaign laws from having any contact with the candidate. All Davis knew was that the R.G.A. folks had viewed Palin as a talent to keep an eye on. “She’d certainly be a maverick pick,†he concluded.
The meeting carried on without Schmidt or Rick Davis uttering an opinion about Palin. Few in the room were aware that the two had been speaking to each other about Palin for some time now. Davis was with McCain when the two met Palin for the first time, at a reception at the National Governors Association winter meeting in February, in the J. W. Marriott Hotel in Washington. It had not escaped McCain’s attention that Palin had blasted through the oleaginous Alaska network dominated by Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens, much in the same manner that McCain saw himself doing when he was a young congressman. Newt Gingrich and others had spoken of Palin as a rising star. Davis saw something else in Palin — namely, a way to re-establish the maverick persona McCain had lost while wedding himself to Bush’s war. A female running mate might also pick off some disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.
Again, I think this will prove to be one of the worst decisions McCain has made in his career. Because he went from a campaign narrative of “I’m the tested leader” to “Change is coming.” And while they did get a momentary bump out of the convention, that quickly evaporated as people started to really get to know Palin, her record and her glaring unreadiness on the national stage.
More soon…
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, History, McCain, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
[...] The series continues, but if you haven’t already…first read the intro, Narrative 1, Narrative 2, Narrative 3 and Narrative 4. [...]
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
[...] concludes with this post, but you can also read the intro, Narrative 1, Narrative 2, Narrative 3, Narrative 4 and Narrative [...]
November 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
[...] lacking. With the Spurs in San Antonio, the Rockets in Houston and the Mavericks (a team of Mavericks?) in Dallas, it’s safe to say Texas is sufficiently covered for the NBA. Not to mention [...]