McCain's Plagiarized Slogan Another Misstep

As I reported yesterday, the re-launch of John McCain's campaign is sputtering in its berth, due to a number of miscalculations. The latest of these harks back to a popular gaffe game from the primaries, the subject of plagiarism. McCain introduced a new slogan yesterday in his "love" ad, but as Andrew Sullivan points out (via the UK Telegraph), the mantra is far from fresh:

The first work produced for the party was a television broadcast devised by Charles, in which images of everyday Britain were run in reverse. The dramatic sequence was concluded with Michael Heseltine uttering the slogan: 'Backwards or forwards, because we can't go on as we are. Don't hope for a better life; vote for one.'

Sullivan fails to note, however, that the slogan might be even older than that, drawing on Dante's Inferno for inspiration.

First off, I love that the first half of the slogan, "Backwards or forwards, because we can't go on as we are," cuts right at McCain and his support for President Bush's policies. Perhaps Obama should look into licensing it.

The fact that the slogan is not original isn't the worst part, however. While it's good for a headline or two, voters don't care much about the plagiarism charge. No, the real problem here is the slogan itself. It sounds clever, but without the preamble, it just makes me think, "Well, I was planning on doing both."

I think most undecided voters will feel that way, and the line will simply play into Obama's "Hopemonger" narrative. Remember how well mocking hope went over when Hillary Clinton did it?

If the McCain campaign was looking for an opportunity to plagiarize, they should have replaced McCain's tasteless and unfunny joke about cigarette exports to Iraq, and replaced it with one of mine:

• The report notes that the top export to Iran is cigarettes, but doesn't mention a ranking for exports of blindfolds.
  
  
• Of course, there's always the possibility that the cigarette exports are part of a top-secret "Operation: Regime Change for the Extremely Patient."