Call Me a Dreamer

I had another post in mind, until I watched an hour or so of news and started reading my friends list.

Making the rounds on television tonight is a statement made by Senator McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis. According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Then, I came across this post, On Palin and the GOP, on barackobama2008, in which the author claims to be an ex-Republican (now a Democrat) who has previously voted for Ron Paul, and complains about Republican spokespersons at the Iowa caucuses, talk radio hosts, and Palin's introductory speech. Unfortunately, following the links in that post doesn't bring me to a credible source for the article. Clicking the underlined headline in the post brings me to this post, which claims the text is a letter found on "the listserv from Arkansas for Obama." Clicking the link for Andrewsullivan.com brings me to Andrew Sullivan's "The Daily Dish" feature on theAtlantic.com, where I cannot find the letter. I even checked out Snopes, but could find no reference, one way or another. Yet, I have to consider this article to be highly suspicious, until proven otherwise.

Regardless of its veracity, I see that letter as being all about image. Much of the article is a complaint about how Republican politicians and their supporters are focusing on personal attacks and that the content of their speeches lacks substance, when the writer was looking for character vouchers for Republican candidates and their stances on issues. If an ex-Republican wrote it, as the letter claims, then his complaint is that the current Republican campaign is all about image. But, if a Democrat who had never been a Republican wrote it, then the letter itself is an attempt to manipulate the image others have about Republicans and is a bit of underhanded chicanery that really disturbs me.

Now, I certainly thought that issues were driving the campaigns at the beginning of the election cycle, but it does seem to me that there has been a lot of focus on image and the logical fallacy sometimes called the appeal (or the argument) to the man. So, I'm wondering whether others are seeing a shift away from the issues and to the image, or if you still feel that the reasons for your voting choices come down to the issues. Or, maybe it's something else that's driving your decision-making process?