Obama doc captures McCain shame in old/new media
Last month, I wrote an analysis in the Baltimore Sun taking on those commentators who were saying that Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama will be America's "first cybergenic president" if he is elected in November.
I said it wasn't true. In fact, I argued, if you want to be McLuhanesque about it, a more apt description of Obama should he get elected, might be the "last TV president."
Much online discussion ensued at great Web sites, and I became more convinced than ever that it was Obama's TV talent that made him such a charismatic candidate to so many. But now, seeing the candidate's deft and devastating documentary on Sen. John. McCain's role in the Savings & Loan scandal of the 1980s, I think there is a middle ground on Obama and media: He and his handlers are doing an outstanding job in all sorts of media -- old and new.
What a skilled use of the venerable documentary genre and You Tube distribution. The documentary titled Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis has its own Web site here. It is all dark shadows and shame -- textbook use of the techniques of propaganda for political purpose.
McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, this week have taken to literally calling Obama "dishonorable." That is very dangerous gamble. Do voters really want this campaign to get that personally nasty with such reckless language being used?
So how do should Obama respond? Democrats know the folly or not firing back at all from 2004.
The documentary is a brilliant answer. It shows for 13 minutes a part of McCain's life when all kinds of people, from his colleagues in the Senate to senior citizens who lost their life savings in the S&L scandal, questioned his honor for the role he played in fronting for crooked savings & loan officials like Charles Keating who were later convicted for their crimes.
Via the documentary, the Democratic counterpunch is thrown, and neither Obama nor his running mate, Joe Biden, have to risk calling McCain dishonorable themselves. And McCain, whose image is so based on honor, is the one with the most to lose in this deadly game.
Why documentary instead of TV ad? The former carries a legacy and connotation of verified truth and history, while the latter, is known for distortion and lies.
But who watches documentaries any more? Millions of people when they are only 13 minutes long and appear online. You Tube viewers are conditioned to watching videos of such length; last week's Saturday Night Live parody of the vice presidential debate ran over 9 minutes.
There are only two messages to get in the Keating documentary: McCain's moment of shame, and how related the de-regulated savings & loan crooks for which he fronted in Washington are to the Wall Street CEOs who have wrecked the American economy today.
Forget looking for the Willie Horton TV ad in this election. We might have already seen it in a re-packaging of the mini-documentary as viral video.
(Associated Press photo of John McCain at Senate hearing into his role in S&L scandal)
