Interesting. Up until now, Republican media efforts in Georgia had yet to pound Jim Martin for his support of Barack Obama — even as Martin casts himself as a strong Obama supporter in his own ads. That changed today, as Saxby is now shaking things up by “going there”:
We saw in the special election in Mississippi’s 1st that attacking Obama led to a surge in African-American enthusiasm for Democrat Travis Childers. The difference here is that Chambliss’ ad is far less scurrilous (albeit still false) than the toxic waste that Greg Davis produced, and that Martin is running a campaign that seems entirely aimed at mobilizing Obama supporters to come out for a second time, rather than reaching out for crossover votes. We’ll just have to see which side is more ginned up.
(H/T: TPM EC)
To reach out to the 3% who voted Libertarian on November 4, to convince them that the one who really is for efficient government and individual liberties is him, not Chambliss.
Two things to focus on for Martin? Chambliss voted for the massive bailout (who’s for large government spending again?) and several times with the Bush Administration on renewing the Patriot Act and approving domestic wiretapping, while Martin has opposed them.
Rallying the diehard troops is a good start, but there needs to be a two prong strategy. My suggestion is that other strategy.
They can tie him to Obama all they want for all I care. Obama only slightly lost Georgia and once the black voters see how much Martin likes Obama they may just flood the polls as they did in early November.
In Martin tying himself to Obama in a still (slightly) red state. However, I can also see the reward in seeing all the Obamacans turning out en masse for Martin while McCainiacs are still too depressed to give Chambliss any kind of edge. I just hope the risk is worth it!
Begich now leads by 3,724 (1.18%) with nearly all votes counted.
I feel likely running out a buying a bottle of champagne, then draining it.
That Chambliss ad will work. The Obama reference is an aside, perhaps dog-whistle politics, but the message “Martin will raise your taxes, Chambliss will lower them,” will sink us if unchallenged. Great tag line with Chambliss himself making the close looking into the camara.
I hope Martin has money and parries this. I like his tying himself to Obama, as it’s a good risk in this situation. But I think Chambliss’ careful and constrained Obama reference shows the Rethugs won’t give us much if any ammunition to fuel our turnout.