Obama, Paris, and tire gauges – deciphering the GOP’s attack strategy

McCain’s mid-summer salvo against Obama is about one thing: finding an acceptable way to ridicule him.

Note this July 15 piece from the New York Times: 

What’s so funny about Barack Obama? Apparently not very much, at least not yet. Comedy has been no easier for the phalanx of late-night television hosts who depend on skewering political leaders for a healthy quotient of their nightly monologues. … there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. 

Two weeks after the Times piece was published, the McCain camp and GOP surrogates flooded the airwaves with the likes of Paris, Britney, and tire gauges.

Ridicule is the GOP’s most reliable weapon. The political assault on Al Gore, Howard Dean, John Kerry and other Democratic leaders has centered on the right’s capacity to turn them into objects of ridicule. Rightwing talk radio is premised on the lampooning of liberals.

Thus far, Barack Obama has deftly avoided becoming the target of rightwing derision. Like Hillary Clinton, he is disliked – and feared – by many on the right, but less often mocked or dismissed. Which is what makes Obama a dangerous foe to Republicans and Clinton a formidable nemesis.

Cracking the code and finding Obama’s ‘mockability’ is team McCain’s immediate imperative. As McCain tries to zero in on a way to mock Obama, Democrats and progressives who are looking for an effective counter-attack must distinguish between generic negative political attacks and rightwing ridicule. They are not the same thing.