Coverage of Obama Assassination Attempt: McCain Strategy?

Monday, October 27, 2008

First of all, I am NOT suggesting McCain or his campaign had anything to do with the "Obama assassination / mass murder attempt" hot off the presses right now -- my tin-foil hat is still collecting dust in my 2000 election closet.

What I am suggesting -- or rather, predicting -- is that the McCain campaign is going to exploit what is an opportunity for them to show Obama as a likely target of violence. If Obama's health is in danger, people may not want a mid-term upset -- the obvious irony being that McCain has a much greater risk to his health, and has a far worse potential successor.

So how will the McCain campaign exploit this tactfully? They can't just up and say "See? He's at risk cuz he's black!" No. They will say this:

"The McCain campaign is disgusted by the actions of these domestic, racist terrorists. We are all very fortunate that Senator Obama was not harmed and we offer our sincere condolences to him and his family."

They will bring up terrorism because people will favor a war-time Republican. They will say Obama was "fortunate" to imply that he was lucky "this time". And they will repeat it often.

Perhaps I'm being too cynical. I sure hope so. We'll see.

My heart does sincerely go out to Senator Obama and his family. This must be enormously frightening. Stay strong!