Daniel Larison makes a fair point regarding the relative treatment of Obama and McCain's respective campaign advertising:
How is it that when Obama says equally vapid things like “we are not as divided as our politics suggests,” he is praised as a demigod and his words become the lyrics to a treacly, saccharine anthem for hipsters, but stupid McCain ads rattling on (and on and on) about the same theme are regarded as insipid and condescending? Granted, Obama delivers the line with more flair, and the awful announcer in most of the ads sounds like the narrator from a PBS documentary on marsupial grooming habits, but doesn't it tell us something about the inherent emptiness of the unity talk that both Obama and McCain engage in that we can't listen to it at length for more than a couple minutes without wanting to throw our computer/TV out the window?
Well first of all, a lot of people are able to listen to Obama for long periods of time -- that's why he's set attendance records at rallies across the country. But why? Suffice it to say, there are probably more than a few people outside of Broder's Beltway who find unity talk appealing, prima facia, without pausing to consider its "inherent emptiness." They probably also don't read, write and think about politics every day, all day, either. But not all unity rhetoric is created equal.
McCain goes in for a sort of national greatness conservatism, which organizes the body politic around the concept of service to the country, particularly military service. Obama, on the other hand, seems to be saying we're all in this together, so let's work together to solve our problems. Is it any surprise that people find rhetoric that talks about real problems more interesting and impressive than stories about old wars and vague appeals to the nobility of military service? The common ground between Obama and McCain's rhetoric isn't unity, it's biography, and each are using their personal history to sell distinct strands of the American experience. Obama embodies the idea that anyone can grow up to be president, even a "skinny kid with a funny name." McCain personifies the ultimate in self-sacrifice to the greater cause of king and country. The question with these biographies is which will more powerfully resonate with the public come November.
--Mori Dinauer
