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The Rebranding of McCain

Why it didn’t quite take.

Ross Douthat reads Robert Draper’s New York Times Magazine piece and is struck that something is missing. For all of McCain’s whirlwind rebranding, McCain’s handlers never “spent much time thinking about how these narratives would mesh with or be reinforced by the actual policy agenda the campaign was advancing.” This is in stark contrast to the 2000 George W. Bush, whose “compassionate conservatism” brand was tied to education reform. “Whereas the McCain camp's stabs at crafting a brand identity only beg the question: He's a maverick ... who'll do what?”

Read it at Ross Douthat

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