I think your assertion of "no contradiction" is incorrect. However, I think the idea that simply because the two ideas contradict each other means they'll be less effective is wrong as well.
Chris needs to look back to 2004, when Rove managed to convince the country that Kerry was both a doctrinaire liberal and a flip-flopper with no core convictions. Contradictory, yes. But effective nevertheless.
Also, to the site admins, PPP has Obama up 2 in Florida, so that should be flipped.
So the public perceives the "typical politician" as non-elitist? I have trouble agreeing with that.
Bowers' argument seems to elevate dictionary definitions above common sense. You can't take the "typical politician" charge and say, well, typical means ordinary and regular so therefore McCain is calling Obama an ordinary, regular Joe, the kind of average American you might invite to your Fourth of July barbecue.
Saying "typical politician" doesn't evoke any of that. Tell me, why do you think "typical politician" is at odds with "arrogant" or "elitist"?
That's an interesting point. I suppose my response would be that calling Obama an elitist doesn't mean that he's equally elitist to all other politicians, but more so than them. Saying he's typical undercuts this argument.
I would assume that the McCain campaign is aware of the bad (for him) generic Democrat vs. generic Republican numbers. Thus, saying that Obama's a typical Democrat---or a generic one---seems to undercut what needs to be his argument, which is that (for whatever reason) Obama is more unsuited to the Presidency than other Democratic politicians.
Let me give a few examples:
"Rodney Harrison plays dirty. He's a typical football player."
"Mitt Romney doesn't care about average Americans. He's a typical businessman."
"Karl Rove plays dirty. He's a typical political partisan."
Each time, I think the second sentence undercuts the strong language of the first. While the characteristic may still be true, it now merely means that it places them squarely within the typical characteristics of the profession to which they belong.
But it might be productive for people to start asking McCain if he thinks other politicians---particularly Republicans, particularly Bush---are also elitist/typical politicians.
