Cross-Cultural Blog

Abdallah and Rana,

I find it very fascinating how interested and informed both of you are about the presidential race here in the US. Your analysis of John McCain's strategic advertisements are dead on especially in light of the current situation here in the United States.

However, you must understand that although his plans may not appeal to everyone in the US they do appeal to the main audience that McCain targets as the Republican candidate. McCain is also making a huge effort to separate himself from the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, who sent us into the Middle East in the first place to secure our oil interest (like you said). McCain does not want to say that he plans to do the same things as Bush, because the majority of American dislike Bush, so he is emphasizing independence with our economy.

I think you both understand John McCain's tactics and although his plans may not be realistic, the biggest thing to understand is that he does not want to be associated in any way with the Bush Administration thus he is making every effort to present goals centered around "this country first" and not any other country.

As you said Rana and Abdallah that the republican presidential candidate MCcain said that his main goals are “"Rebuild your savings, grow your investments, and energy independence" and that his slogan is “Country first”, this makes it very obvious to the whole world that Mccain’s strategy is mainly concerning with improving the economical situation in America and by saying “your” which refers to the Americans, emphasis that he will do whatever he could do no matter what ways he will follow. Moreover, this shows how MCcain is trying to be away from Bush’s administration while he is applying the same stategy as he is looking for his own interests and being greedy. In addition, MCcain’s point of view is that the American’s army should not get out of Iraq makes it clearer that he is not going to do what he is saying that he wants to get out of the middle east and be concerned only with his country’s matters. How could we elect such a candidiate that do what contrast his words?

In McCain’s homepage I found an ad that attacked Obama’s background. Usually when people feel that they’re week they start attacking. This is actually the case because Obama is winning in the polls so far. The only things we as Egyptians think about while looking to the video is our profits from this candidate but as it was shown he mentioned the Middle East as a source from where he will get oil, which has two effects, one is that they will get profit from us and should pay us, the second thing which worries us is that he didn’t mention anything about helping us as an undeveloped country. Especially that nowadays there is an economic crisis in the whole world and also that we are aiming that we get a president which can help and support us which was the case with president Bush as he and Mubarak are in a very good relation ..

In McCain’s homepage I found an ad that attacked Obama’s background. Usually when people feel that they’re week they start attacking. This is actually the case because Obama is winning in the polls so far. The only things we as Egyptians think about while looking to the video is our profits from this candidate but as it was shown he mentioned the Middle East as a source from where he will get oil, which has two effects, one is that they will get profit from us and should pay us, the second thing which worries us is that he didn’t mention anything about helping us as an undeveloped country. Especially that nowadays there is an economic crisis in the whole world and also that we are aiming that we get a president which can help and support us which was the case with president Bush as he and Mubarak are in a very good relation ..

I agree with both of rana and abdallah. Mccain tries to post these random videos of him just to try to prove the point that he's very loyal to America and no matter what happens he'll always be there for the American citizens. I think he still target a specific kind of audience, which are the well off "white" people. But I think he also addresses simple people because a video is also for people who can’t read and write, and talking about taxes and so on. So it gives you the feeling that he's talking to simple people, you feel like he's one of the people, the simple everyday people. Also the video of him during the war, trying to emphasize that he's a warrior,just to give the americans the feeling that he's willing to die for his country. And aslo showing that no matter what happens he'll stand up for his country even if he's injured. So i guess Mccain trying to show the audience who will check his website how a strong character and how devoted he is,in order for the americans to vote for him.

I do not think that McCain's Main goal was clear through the presentation of his website. That is, his campaign's line of action was always to attack Obama's campaign and to show his weakness. I believe that was the main reason for which he lost the election. McCain did not focus on showing the benefits of his plans or how he would make "reforms", instead he kept on attacking Obama. Even those plans were not clear and did not have a sense of logic.On the contrary, Obama was focused on giving a complete and clear argument for his campaign and his goals and that helped him a lot.

I feel that the video discussed in Abdallah and Rana's post does have a specific target audience, but it also has aspects that appeal to a much larger audience. For example, the video shows that McCain is patriotic and always puts his country first. This sentiment appeals to the middle class Republicans who feel that patriotism is the most important trait in a presidential candidate. Although this may not be the view of everyone, it appeals to millions of voters around the country. He also appeals to a larger audience when he tries to distance himself from Bush and other Republicans. Many Democrats can stand behind a candidate that will distance himself from the ideals of the Bush Administration. However, it seems as though these messages are lost in the overwhelming message of patriotism and a Republican agenda. Overall, I feel that this video was ineffective on a large scale. It seems that he is just appealing to a relatively small audience and could have focused on appealing to the masses more effectively.

Upon reading Max Del Real’s statement “Overall, I feel that this video was ineffective on a large scale. It seems that he is just appealing to a relatively small audience and could have focused on appealing to the masses more effectively,” I’d like to point out the amount of videos (49 TV ads and 24 Web ads) McCain has published during his campaign.

Why would there be an abundance of videos? As Allison McCann said in her comment, “… you must understand that although his plans may not appeal to everyone in the US...” and, in fact, a single video advertisement cannot possibly appeal to the entire population. However, I do believe that each video out of the total 73 serves their own purpose to some extent (whether the goal is to target a certain demographic or to convey a specific message).

In the end, as Abdallah and Rana have depicted in their blog, McCain is indeed stating his economic plan in this video. But the question that I’m concerned about is why he would choose this video to post on his Homepage as opposed to the numerous others. Perhaps he considers the economic crisis to be the most prevalent issue in politics.

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