Marbury: alternative histories

Ambinder, writing admiringly of the Obama team's ability to frame each contest on their terms (change versus experience up against Clinton, cool head versus hot head against McCain) concludes his post by asking what would have happened if McCain's team had found their frame early and stuck to it:

It's true; most of McCain's biggest wounds have been self-inflicted. But imagine, if you will, that the McCain campaign had decided to stick with just one storyline about Obama, beginning in the summertime: that he is indecisive and weak, and never takes a stand on real issues.

Forget the Ayers stuff, the Wright stuff, the kindergarten stuff: they could have made his "present" votes the centerpiece of their attack, along with a whole host of supporting anecdotes.

Meanwhile, McCain could have been framed as a bold leader, independent of both parties, who took unpopular stands time and time again. In that instance, the reaction to both the VP picks and to the candidates' actions after Lehman collapsed would probably have been interpreted very, very differently.

Albeit with the benefit of hindsight, that sounds pretty good to me. Given the state of his party McCain was always going to face an uphill struggle, but he might have kept this closer, or even be winning, if he'd taken this approach. Any successful framing must be rooted in a strong element of truth. That's why the Obama-as-dangerous-radical stuff doesn't cut it. But Obama-as-wuss, well, there is something to that. He hasn't yet really taken on his party or its allies on any significant issue. On education, for instance, he's toyed with confronting teacher union shibboleths but never quite gone for it, as David Brooks has chronicled. And that 'present' stuff is difficult to explain away without getting lost in procedural niceties that voters don't give a stuff about.

I'm not saying that this would or should have worked - but I do think McCain would be in a better place now if he'd stuck his flag here and not moved it every week as he has done.

Award for the most ironic statement of the campaign: ""I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy."