framing

Consider this graph of Iraqi civilian casualties since the start of the war to the present:

What does it mean? Data are powerful, but must be framed. Now is the time to frame this before the party in power does. (If you don't believe this will get re-framed, just wait till the comment lurkers get a hold of this post.) 

Here's another one:

If you don't frame this, they will. 

I am a long-time believer in the idea that the McCain campaign must hang Obama's celebrity status around his neck like an albatross. The most devastating thing you can do to an opponent is make him self-conscious and afraid to run as himself. 

The ad leads off with a great first half. And the "more foreign oil" line is killer.

Where it trails off is that the portrait doesn't match the frame. After framing up Obama's celebrity perfectly, the ad transitions into a standard Republican litany on taxes and gas prices. What exactly this has to do with Obama being like Paris Hilton isn't clear.

The ad would have been more thematically seamless if it honed in on the one or two best examples of Obama's naivite or selling American interests down the river to please the adoring Berlin crowds. Obama's "without preconditions" quote on Iran would be a perfect example. The theme: Obama's celebrity naivite isn't just misguided. It's dangerous.