Armchair punditing
So, Michael Steele, the current Lt. Governor of MD, is the Republican candidate for Senate. He faces Congressman Ben Cardin, who currently represents MD-3 (Baltimore). And both campaigns are on the air. Steele has been up for a while, and he just released his third or so ad (this one in response to a third party attack ad).
I've got a couple of observations about this.
First, Steele's ads are pretty good. They paint him as a nice, friendly guy. He is running on a platform of "changing Washington" (gee, where have we heard that before from a Republican candidate? Hmmm...). This is smart because he knows he has to appeal to the cross-over vote, the black vote that usually goes with the dems. Steele knows that he has the republican vote pretty much locked down, with the exception of the "racist vote" who wouldn't vote for a black man anyway -- and I'm sure there are a number of them in MD -- but those folks wouldn't vote for a dem either so it's moot. What he needs is to attract dem defectors, many of whom will be people of color.
And this is where the dems are missing the point in their ads. They need to appeal to the black dem vote, and not take that constituency for granted especially since Cardin isn't particularly charismatic. It's not smart to attack Steele for being anti-choice. Now I don't have any data on hand right now, but I seem to recall that the African American community is largely church-going and anti-abortion. At best, making abortion rights an issue in the Steele v. Cardin race is a non-starter for the dems, and it may even help push the black vote towards Steele.
So that's mistake number one for the dems.
I think mistake number two is that dems aren't doing a better job of calling Steele out about his campaign for changing how things work in DC. Steele IS the republican machinery. He is pretty much in lock-step with Bush. Electing Steele won't change the way things are done in DC; it will only perpetuate it.
But that "change' message in this highly partisan atmosphere is appealing, so it's effective -- and the dems are not being effective in countering it. One third party ad's message is Steele = Bush, but it doesn't directly address the Steele platform for change. The dems need to say outright that while Steele may say he's for change, his actions speak louder than his words. His actions have been to support Bush all the way. If elected, Steele will continue to be a republican lackey and nothing more.
That's my two cents on this race. For now.
I've got a couple of observations about this.
First, Steele's ads are pretty good. They paint him as a nice, friendly guy. He is running on a platform of "changing Washington" (gee, where have we heard that before from a Republican candidate? Hmmm...). This is smart because he knows he has to appeal to the cross-over vote, the black vote that usually goes with the dems. Steele knows that he has the republican vote pretty much locked down, with the exception of the "racist vote" who wouldn't vote for a black man anyway -- and I'm sure there are a number of them in MD -- but those folks wouldn't vote for a dem either so it's moot. What he needs is to attract dem defectors, many of whom will be people of color.
And this is where the dems are missing the point in their ads. They need to appeal to the black dem vote, and not take that constituency for granted especially since Cardin isn't particularly charismatic. It's not smart to attack Steele for being anti-choice. Now I don't have any data on hand right now, but I seem to recall that the African American community is largely church-going and anti-abortion. At best, making abortion rights an issue in the Steele v. Cardin race is a non-starter for the dems, and it may even help push the black vote towards Steele.
So that's mistake number one for the dems.
I think mistake number two is that dems aren't doing a better job of calling Steele out about his campaign for changing how things work in DC. Steele IS the republican machinery. He is pretty much in lock-step with Bush. Electing Steele won't change the way things are done in DC; it will only perpetuate it.
But that "change' message in this highly partisan atmosphere is appealing, so it's effective -- and the dems are not being effective in countering it. One third party ad's message is Steele = Bush, but it doesn't directly address the Steele platform for change. The dems need to say outright that while Steele may say he's for change, his actions speak louder than his words. His actions have been to support Bush all the way. If elected, Steele will continue to be a republican lackey and nothing more.
That's my two cents on this race. For now.
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