FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: MCCAIN STEALS OBAMA'S FAMILY FRAME

In his latest attempt to curry favor with the conservative base of the Republican Party, John McCain is now giving a speech in which he seems to be stealing key elements of the "family history" frame first set out by Barack Obama in his autobiographical book Dreams of My Father. 

In his new speech, "Service to America," McCain promotes himself as the scion of a great American warrior clan who has dedicated himself to decades of service.  Fair enough.  But McCain takes his family history to a disturbing place by drenching it in an obsequious pledge of everlasting servility and--most importantly--by massaging the details so that McCain's story undermines the uniqueness of Barack Obama's family history.   The result is a candidate McCain who sounds like a cross between Shakespeare's Brutus, Lenny from of Mice and Men, a latchkey kid, and a Cub Scout troop leader. In a word: creepy.

Beyond the theme of family, the thrust of McCain's speech is simple:

1. John McCain has been in the military
2. John McCain's father was in the military
3. John McCain's grandfather was in the military
4. John McCain's great grandfather was in the military
5. John McCain is a loyal servant to America
6. John McCain was raised by a military (e.g., alone) mom
7. If you don't vote for John McCain, then you probably hate the military

This military lineage argument sets up McCain for a general election campaign in which he can claim that Democrats have not served in the military and are not loyal servants to American.   The creepy part comes in McCain's argument and  delivery.

In this passage, for example, McCain makes reference to his own family members using language lifted from a 1930s book of English grammar, but also stealing an image of a single-parenthood from Obama:

I have lived a blessed life, and the first of my blessings was the family I was born into. I had not only the example of my distinguished male relations, and their long tradition of military service. I was fortunate to grow up under the influence of strong, capable, accomplished women; first among them, my mother, the formidable Roberta McCain; her identical twin, Rowena; my strict and imposing paternal grandmother, Catherine; and equally impressive maternal grandmother, Myrtle. For much of my childhood, my mother was the parent who raised me, my sister and brother.

(full creepy text here)

After reading this, I tried hard to remember the last time I heard someone use the phrase 'my distinguished male relations,' but could not come up with a single example.  Nor could I understand why it was necessary for McCain to explain that the first "strong" woman of influence in his life was his mother.  Then it occurred to me: McCain wants voters to think he was raised by a single mom--or that being raised by a military mom is like being raised by a single mom.

Appropriating Barack Obama's childhood of being raised by a single mom? Yep.

Certainly single parenthood is tough in military families.  Nonetheless, McCain's "Service To America" speech, while ostensibly aimed at building up his already established military bona fides, seems also aimed at undermining Obama's strength on the all important question of character.

In a crisis economy, voters may well identify more with a candidate whose own personal history includes greater amounts of struggle with adversity.  While in some part about the complexity of trying to understand his cultural and racial identity, Barack Obama's best-selling book  Dreams of My Father is fundamentally a book about a young man who learns the core values of American life in the process of being raised solely by his mother.  The power of Obama's family history is one of the core strengths of his campaign.

Now McCain is trying to nose his way onto Obama's terrain.

In the long run, McCain's new tactic is a sign that his campaign communications team is very aware of the power of Obama's personal narrative,  and are looking for ways to blur the differences. It is also a sign that--despite the ongoing fisticuffs  in the Democratic nomination process, Barack Obama's campaign continues to dominate the attention and concerns of the McCain campaign.

Despite erratic polling and conventional media predictions, communications analysis suggests the candidate who successfully frames the debate wins the election.   Accordingly, McCain's use of Obama's family frame suggest that Obama is currently in the stronger position.

© 2008 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop