Analysis of John McCain's web site
This blog entry is part of a Fall 2008 blogging exchange between American University in Cairo and Stanford University's Online Activism class. To read all the entries, follow this thread; be sure read the earliest entries first.
My name is Katie Gera and I’m writing this post as part of a class titled “The Web 2.0: The Rhetoric of Online Activism.” The subject of this blog post will be the way Republican presidential candidate John McCain attempts to establish his credibility on his official website.
The strategies that struck me the most were the “Joe the Plumber” advertisements and the photographs taken with military wives and families on the campaign trail. Using these visuals, McCain seems to be attempting to create two distinct images of himself: the “average Joe,” or ordinary citizen to whom Americans relate on the one hand, and the Navy war hero whom they can admire on the other. Throughout the website, there are numerous references to McCain’s career in the military, many of which focus on his time spent as a POW. These reinforcements of the candidate as a heroic and respectable military man create a sharp contrast against the McCain/Palin campaign’s most recent surge of “Joe Six-Pack” and “Joe the Plumber” themed advertisements. While I understand the need to represent a presidential candidate as a multifaceted individual, I think the newly adopted tactic of “average Joe” commercials indicates that the McCain campaign has become increasingly aware of their failure to perform well in the polls and is now trying desperately to frame John McCain in a new and positive light. In my view, seesawing with his image in this manner has actually decreased both the candidate’s and the campaign’s credibility.
Comments
I don't know to what degree McCain is hurting his campaign by pursuing a range of demographics, especially since these two groups aren't necessarily distinct from one another. Being part of 'middle America' doesn't mean that you can't value military experience or admire the resilience of a POW, but I can see how these are approached as seperate voting pools. I do agree that the sudden pandering to the various forms of "Joe" seems inauthentic and an acknowledgment of the polls at the moment. However, I think this attempt at mass-appeal is more detrimental in the way the Republican campaign has maligned the so-called 'elitists' aka anti-Americans, extreme liberals or East Coast liberals.
There are multiple examples of this kind of divisive rhetoric across the media. e.g. Palin speaking about the "real America" implying that there exists some kind of faux America; her mention of pro-American parts of the country; Michele Bachmann's supremely stupid comments.
It comes across as, 'If you're not a Republican, then you're not an American', and has hence spawned editorials such as this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/22/AR2008102203511.html?hpid=topnews
comments such as this:
http://jezebel.com/5060506/sarah-vowell-slams-republicans-for-being-frenemies-with-new-york-city
blog posts such as this:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/palin-visits-a-pro-america-kind-of-town/?scp=1&sq=america&st=cse
and t-shirts such as this:
http://www.zazzle.com/east_coast_liberal_elitist_orange_s_s_ringer_shirt-235514903696784150
Courting the major vote isn't in any way terrible. But do particular groups have to be villified in order for this to hapen? Does this campaign polarise in order to conquer? Is 'un-American' a dirty word for 'liberal'? (Interestingly this brand of rhetoric seems absent from the McCain-Palin website, but off-line - at their rallies and on their tv ads apparently? - it has been rampant.) The language of his campaign is all about 'you and me' versus 'them'. It creates agreement by antagonising some invisible enemy.
Ugh. I apologise for writing so much, I have a truly unnatural obsession with this election.
Posted by: Celina (University of Sydney) | October 23, 2008 01:21 AM
I have visited McCains website and i was disappointed by what i saw as his way to convince the Americans to vote for him. He tries to concentrate that he was a hero and now he added that he is " Joe the Plumber" and in my opinion both of those ideas will never help him to progress. I also searched a lot to try to find what is his goals and plans and i see that these two issues are the main points for any candidate to convince Americans to vote for him.He also concentrates to post negative issues on Obama which a thing in my opinion he is not suppose to do because he must only concentrate on how to make people vote for him not how to make people go against Obama. So i fully agree with you Katie that what he is doing now is decreasing the credibility of him and campaign.
Posted by: Omar el Garawany | November 3, 2008 03:07 PM
Its sad that McCain didnt win
Posted by: Raj | November 13, 2008 03:20 AM
Now that the presidential campaigns are over, and the results are out, it would be an obvious thing to go back to the reasons of McCain's loss and Obama's failure. I agree that McCain's website was a complete disappointment, and I think that using those two demographic "categories" in such a way might be one of the reasons he did not make it to the White House.
I do not think it was a very smart idea to use this "us vs them" theme, as if there is some sort of invisible enemy, as I believe the American people, as well as all human beings, are tired of the major disasters caused by this notion of enemies and going into war with them. The people needed change, and unfortunately McCain did not at least seem to be able to provide that. I do believe that Obama seemed the most logical solution to their problems - and that was change.
Posted by: Yomna Arbad | November 22, 2008 03:28 PM
i enjoyed your outside perspective of john mccains ads/ website. its a refreshing perspective that we dont get to observe very often. good research
Posted by: Jamaica | December 1, 2008 12:28 PM