The Thomas Friedman thinks that Obama is no longer connecting on a gut level, is losing his base (never mind losing independents), and he must do something to regain and the L.A. Times news desk thinks it is important to say, on the front page, that the Democratic "campaign has lost its stride," it’s now official: Obama strategists are full of anxiety and concern and say they are in need of energy. Cool must become something else. Change is needed in the campaign.
I think they have only days to come up with a surge of their own; their old strategy has met with their opponents strategy and they are surprised and are flailing around. One Democrat says that hey actually expected Palin to have exactly the opposite effect she has had. You don’t have to call this panic, if you don’t want to, but I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes about three weeks before voting actually starts in some states. It will be interesting to see what shade of lipstick they come up with to make the Obama/Biden campaign relevant, intelligent, rhetorically effective and in general appealing. But, you know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig.
Obama never connected on a "gut level," for he wasn't man enough on the campaign trail to create that kind of connection.
Obama was always nothing more than a fashion statement, displaying his garments as he strode the political cat walk. Where the media, sitting alongside like fashion critics, oohed and ahhhed about his image, his style, the way he strutted, his overall languid metrosexuality.
Count on Friedman to get it wrong.
But what a hoot!
Change must come to ------------- "CHANGE!"
Hope must enliven "hope."
A campaign designed to avoid specifics, must now get specific.
New politics must yield to old, the freshness of youth to the seasoning of age.
In short, retro in lieu of nouveau.
Ya' just can't make this stuff up!
What the Dems should do, and what I doubt they are smart enought to do, is to stop talking about Palin and make it a race between Obama and McMoron. They have a shot at winning that race. The more they run against Palin the more likely it becomes that they lose badly.
Conservatism always beats liberalism. I suspect the GOP leadership knows that fact, and hates it.
JOHN, there's nothing he can do to avoid ignominious defeat.
Obama's blown it.
It will take a tremendous blunder for McCain/Palin to give back their gains.
And there's nothing that Obama can do, for the metrosexual is only allowed so many make-overs in the course of a campaign.
Since '68, the Democrats have gone down this path so often that they know every blade of grass along the trail, every rock, every withered tree. Only two Dems have won since '68, the first with the advantage of Watergate and the Nixon pardon, the other was Bubba, who could ram entire Big Macs into his mouth all at once. Both were Southern Governors who talked a moderate game, and affected Conservativism on certain issues.
Obama is a creature from the corrupt corridors of the Chicago wards. He's done.
And now we'll get to see the post-mortems, where the Dems start ripping and tearing into each other for blowing as sure a thing as one is ever likely to see in politics.
there's nothing he can do to avoid ignominious defeat.
Dan, I like you, but you have a tendency to make Grand Sweeping Pronouncements which are unsupported by any facts or reasoning.
Of course there are a great many things which could happen to result in an Obama victory. Both good things from his own team and blunders on McCains part. The only reason the McCain/Palin ticket is doing so well at present is that many people think its actually the Palin/McCain ticket. A lot of things might happen to reverse that dynamic.
I agree with John that anything might happen. There will be surprises, of course. What interests me is what the Obama team will do now because they must do something radical. He has been defeated on the field of battle and his supporters haven't seen this before. The man bleeds, so he has lost the trust folks had in him, they thought (along with his unhumble self, no doubt) there was something very fine and excellent in him. Not only do they see him having made mistakes, but now they see him as brittle. Dangerous. He has to do something, something very surprising, astonishing, and then ride that for seven weeks, else he will lose by a landslide.
I'm not sure that that anyone, any Democratic at least, can lose by a landslide these days. It's not the eighties anymore and there is at least 45% of the country who will vote for whoever or whatever the Democrats put out there. John Kerry almost won! Obama may lose, but he won't lose by a lot.
And don't forget McMorons amnesty plans, that dagger in the heart of America in general and conservatism in particular. The trend can only get worse.
Yea but JOHN, "GRAND SWEEPING PRONOUNCEMENTS" happen to be fun. And I mostly zip around the blogs for fun.
Besides, this isn't motion court, and I'm not submitting briefs. I've no prob going into detail, and slowly but surely marshaling fact and logic to build to an inexorable conclusion, which carries all before it. Been there, done that.
But there's no need for all of that here.