When Americans start paying attention

Yesterday, I urged you to read Thomas Lifson’s January 2006 article looking to the two political seasons that affect most Americans — the long inattention season and the short attention season.  Today, Thomas was good enough to revisit his original premise and analyze how it helps Republicans generally (which is why, every election dumb-founded Democrats claim that Republicans “stole” the election) and how this year, very specifically, it’s helping McCain and Palin:

This radically different and comparatively infrequent mode of mass opinion formulation tends to favor Republicans in general, and John McCain in particular, this election season. His choice of plain-speaking Sarah Palin plays directly into the requirement of reaching people who haven’t already made up their minds, who are bored with politics normally, and who decide that they had better make up their mind who is telling the truth and who is blowing smoke, whose policies make sense, and whose don’t.

Obama’s theatricality has already damaged his credibility with voters, starting with the failure of the expensive overseas tour culminating with the Berlin rally to help him in the polls. The Styrofoam Greek pillars of Invesco Field have now entered the realm of political legend, the butt of a joke at the most remarkable political speech in recent memory, one that sparked the massive turnaround in the fortunes of the two campaigns.

The emergence of an economic crisis only amplifies the quadrennial change in the public’s mode of attention. If McCain/Palin are able to grab the initiative and convince the public that Clinton-era regulatory changes, including “anti-redlining” measures, are at the root of the current economic trouble, it can be turned to their advantage, despite the conventional wisdom  about economic conditions and the incumbent party. The involvement of leading Democrats and Obama advisors in Fannie and Freddie helps McCain enormously, if he takes what has been set on his plate and makes a feast of it.

As with Thomas’ first article on the subject, I urge you to read this article, which (1) I think goes to a core reality of American politics, (2) explains what otherwise look like bizarre election turn-arounds, and (3) could guide the McCain-Palin team as they shape their message in the weeks leading up to the election.