Rove Playbook: Voter Turnoff=Lower Turnout

The latest invective...er, ad....from the John McCain campaign removes any doubt that race is an underlying theme of Steve Schmidt & his Rovians at McCain HQ. As Greg Sargent observes:

"The McCain campaign issued a new ad today that runs through the ways that Obama has supposedly lashed out at Sarah Palin. It actually concludes with a woman saying, in a tone of a matron chiding an uppity black servant, "how disrespectful."

The McCain camp has also released an ad suggesting that Obama is a predator and Palin is her prey. And it launched a spot pairing shots of a leering Obama with talk about sex and children."

Longtime observers of the Rove strategy point out that one important goal is to depress turnout, which favors Republicans. Obama is out with three new tough ads today, so the potential that the turnoff=low turnout equation will work again is increasing daily.
Efforts to confuse and discourage voters are in play by national or state Republican leaders in Ohio, Mississippi and Wisconsin so far, and this problem will only spread as the election nears.

-Richard Holcomb