Aggressive Tactics in Politics?

Somehow, a candidate that is quick to send his campaign workers out to correct perceived errors in the media is being A) aggressive or B) new. At least, that's the impression at the Washington Post today about John McCain. Some interesting quotes from the pros involved, but the tone of the whole article begs the question -- do you not remember the War Room? Does the name James Carville ring a bell? How about Karl Rove? Really, this isn't rocket science. But, to the hot quotes:

"If stories are wrong, we have an absolute obligation to say so, and to say so as loudly as we can," said Mark Salter, McCain's longtime confidant, who writes the rebuttal letters. "It's not working the refs. It's just correcting things when the refs blow a call."

That's a lovely mix of sports metaphor with politics; except we really don't get to correct the ref, even if he does blow a call. Nevertheless, nice to see someone else recognizing that if there's a factual error, there's no shame in calling (or in the case of a board or blogger -- emailing or posting) the correction out. Tactically, here's one to keep in mind as you build an overall strategy.

The McCain camp also circulates these letters to conservative radio hosts and bloggers, hoping to provide an alternative narrative for the press. "There is no point in calling the reporter," said McCain strategist Steve Schmidt. "There is no point in calling the [story] editor." When confronted with untrue accusations, he said, "we will use that to communicate with our supporters and donors to take advantage of the unfairness."

An interesting take -- one used often by sports media relations on the radio host part, but not particularly exploited to date in the new media realm. More on that concept later.