McCain 10,000 Years Music Video

“Blogging Research Wordle” by Kristina B is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

McCain 10,000 Years Music Video

February 11, 2008

Comments

This parody commercial, putting John McCain’s speeches about the war in Iraq into a song a’la the Barack Obama “Yes We Can” video, is pretty funny.

It’s already going viral, with quite a number of bloggers in my Google Reader list posting it today. Josh Marshall terms it “Genuinely Hilarious.” Hilzoy and Matt Yglesias merely give it a “Funny” rating. John Cole exclaims, “This Will Leave a Mark.”

Yet it also obliquely (and unintentionally) gets at the point I’ve been harping on today about the difficulty of running a substantive, policy oriented campaign as juxtaposed with one of vague “hope” for “change.” If your message fits on a bumper sticker — or better yet, works as a song — it’s got a better chance of inspiring. But it’s also almost certainly vapid.

You can’t dance to tough choices. But presidents have to make them all the same.

5 responses to “McCain 10,000 Years Music Video”

legion

February 11, 2008 at 2:35 pm

the difficulty of running a substantive, policy oriented campaign as juxtaposed with one of vague “hopeâ€ for “change.â€

I think you’re mistaken on this, James. The popularity of “change” as a rallying cry is another signifier of just how fed up this country is with pretty much everything Bush has done. This shows the difficulty of McCain’s trying to bring a rep as a ‘maverick’ into a primary where, in order to collect the GOP base, he’s got to pledge to continue every one of Bush’s most obviously-failed policies. The only room McCain has to maneuver is in areas Bush has completely forgotten about, like immigration. Of course, anything less than summary execution for brown people will only further enrage the GOP base, so I expect him to showcase positions next on Medicare and exploring Mars any day now…
carpeicthus

February 11, 2008 at 4:02 pm

A video of someone making tough choices wouldn’t really be all that funny. A video of someone who’s gone totally crazy, though, is funny, and that’s what this is.
Steven Donegal

February 11, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Your “hope” vs. “policy” argument is a false dichotomy. The most successful politicians will run on both. Was Reagan’s “Morning in America” hope or policy? Unfortunately, our last three Presidents have been such poor national leaders that one tends to forget the importance of that skill in a President. Policy positions are important but without the leadership that will provide the political ability to get things done, they tend to be less relevant.
Christopher

February 12, 2008 at 12:03 am

(“brown” people, legion? What a racist you are!)

That video…I don’t get it. What’s so funny about it??? What’s really funny is how you liberals berate the Republicans on the war, yet it is the libs in congress who
A) Voted for the war
B) Keep funding the war and
C) None of the lib candidates for prez will commit to stopping the war.

What’s that make you liberals? The biggest hypocrites since…since…well, EVER!