Due Date: 9/21

STUDY GUIDE FOR CH. 2 IN FLIPPIN

“The Mankind (and Remaking and Remaking) of McCain”

By Robert Draper

1. McCain held an emergency meeting with his campaign team on Sept. 24, 2008. Why? What were the options and which one did he choose? In hindsight, did he pick the best one? Why or why not?  The meeting was about how he should respond to the crisis of House Republicans supporting a huge bailout.  His options were to offer principles from afar, middle ground of engaging while still campaigning, or going all in.  He chose to go all in.  This was probably not the best idea for the McCain campaign since they lost.  More focus should have been focused on defining his brand.
2. Discuss the “character” issue and how it pertained to McCain. How does this connect with conversations we’ve had already in the course about politicians and their public and private selves and the role of the news media in all this.  The character issue is everything the candidate has built up to now.  McCain really only had his service going for him.  In class we established that a candidates private life isn’t private.  The public wants to know whom they are electing.  They also what services they have provided leading up to this point.
3. Discuss the reasons why McCain had to change his “narrative,” i.e., “remake” himself over and over during the 2008 campaign.  McCain was unable to pin down who he wanted to portray himself as to the voters.  He was never successful on creating the image that would win him the election.  He couldn’t compete with the change that Obama promised.  
4. What were the six (yes, six!) narratives identified by the author? Briefly describe each one.  Which one do you think was the most destructive? Why?  The heroic fighter vs. the quitters was McCain ignoring the fact he should have talked about anything but Bush’s war. Country first dealmaker vs. nonpartisan pretender wanted to portray McCain as a man putting his country first.  He battled his own party as well as the Democrats.  Leader vs. celebrity wanted to focus on McCain actually leading the country and making decisions.  They wanted to highlight that Obama was just a celebrity.  Team of mavericks vs. old style Washington was McCain choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate instead of a safe pick.  John McCain vs. John McCain was John McCain out there campaigning and wanting his opponent to be there with him.  The fighter vs. the tax and spend liberal he was a rebuilt warrior that was going to stand up for the little man.  The worst decision was choosing Palin as his running mate.
5. Why do YOU think McCain lost to Obama? How informed were you during that election?  McCain lost to Obama, because he didn’t have an effective campaign.  The country was also looking for change.  They saw that in Obama, where McCain compared too similarly to Bush.  I was not very informed during the election, but since then I have learned quite a bit.