McCain-Palin Pull Even, Change the Narrative, and Obama Employs Sexism
By Bud White on September 7, 2008 at 7:35 AM in Associated Press, Barack Obama, Electoral College, Fund Raising, Gender Bias, Joe Biden, John McCain, Misogyny, Obama's Neuroses, Political Strategy, Presidential Candidates, Race Card, Sarah Palin, Sexism, South Carolina
Sarah Palin’s speech on Wednesday night might be the defining moment of the General Election. According to CBS’s new poll, Obama’s post-convention bounce has evaporated and the race is again tied. It’s likely that McCain will pull ahead with his own convention bounce. One of few sane netroots bloggers, Jerome Armstrong, sifting through the CBS poll, is warning Obama supporters of a close election:
if we pull out a 4% spread on election day, I’ll be very pleasantly surprised. It’s much more likely that we are going to see the same result as in ’04 and ’06, a tie or 2% lead. That’s it.
A tied race is particularly bad place for Obama. The Obama campaign planned on putting McCain on the defensive in Western states and overwhelming him with money in the key battleground states. The selection of Palin will probably nullify any Obama inroads in the West and the Republicans are suddendly at financial parity with Obama. Bloomberg News reports:
With an increase in fundraising following McCain’s choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, Republicans say they are no longer in danger of being swamped by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama‘s campaign cash.
“The money game is essentially off the table now,” said Eddie Mahe, a former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee.
In addition to the financial boon brought on by Palin, the attempted swiftboating of Alaska’s governor has created a situation where the public overwhelming perceives the media as being biased for Obama. Armstrong suggests that the attacks on Palin will actually strengthened McCain:
The media has been busy digging a grave for us this past week, by following up on the vicious personal smears that have been pushed by prominent liberal blogs into the mainstream. Not only did they mostly backfire by not being true, but they confirmed the popular opinion that the media favors Obama. It’s become conventional wisdom. This presents two huge problems.
First, McCain can basically wield whatever attacks he’d like, and not have to worry about the critique of the media. They are not seen as objective judges in the matter.
Second, the only way that the media can change this public opinion is to go overboard the other way, by attacking Barack Obama with multiple feeding frenzies.
To date, the media has been unwilling to investigate or critique Obama, so a feeding frenzy is unlikely; there’s nothing to suggest that this will change. The public’s understanding of this bias gives McCain the opportunity to define Obama and link him to the media’s elitism and the D.C.-establishment culture. Obama’s selection of Joe Biden makes McCain’s task much easier. McCain/Palin now own the Change narrative. As Bob Somerby says:
That “maverick” narrative is deeply entrenched—and this planet is driven by narrative. (If we might borrow a bit from Lord Russell: It’s novels, all the way down.)
The Associated Press is reporting that Palin’s speech (and perhaps McCain’s as well) was viewed by more viewers than Obama’s, and her critiques of Obama appear to be taking a toll on the Democratic nominee. Obama seems rattled and is now defending his mysterious work as a “community organizer.” Carolyn Lockhead of the SF Chronicle (h/t Paul Villareal) writes:
Sen. Barack Obama ditched his normal languid cool today, punching back at Gov. Sarah Palin as he spoke with reporters in York, Pa, hotly defending his work as a community organizer. He said he assumes Palin “wants to be treated same way guys want to be treated, which means their records are under scrutinty [sic]. I’ve been through this for 19 months. She’s been through it, what four days?” (emphasis added)
Lockhead seems to be approving of Obama as the political pugilist, as Obama “punches” at his rival’s VP pick. Instead, by saying that Palin “wants to be treated same way guys want to be treated,” Obama is drawing attention to her gender and implying that if she complains of his tactics that she’s not as tough as the “guys.” This is classic Obama sexism: it’s the condescending put-down meant to disempower his female opponent by playing into stereotypes.
In the next sentence, however, Obama comes across as defensive:
Obama’s hackles were clearly raised by Palin’s dismissal of his community organizing –a response to his earlier dismissal of her record as a small-town mayor. “Why would that kind of work be ridiculed?” Obama said. “Who are they fighting for?” The idea that community organizing is not relevant to the presidency, he said, just shows why Republicans “are out of touch and don’t get it.”
The McCain Team should be wary of a cornered Obama. In a similar situation in January, on the heels of back-to-back defeats in New Hampshire and Nevada, Obama, sensing defeat, began to sound rattled. In a column titled “Now or Never,” David Broder described Obama’s desperation in psychological terms:
But all that is down the road from South Carolina. For now, Clinton and her husband, the former president, have gotten inside Obama’s head and rattled his composure. Obama seemed unusually defensive in his speech here Sunday evening, launching the final burst of campaigning in the state
Obama’s firewall in South Carolina, as has been well-documented, was the despicable use of racial politics against the Clintons.
McCain’s selection of Palin has shifted the narrative of this race away from Obama’s Hope message and back to the familiar Marverick narrative. While McCain/Palin own Change, Obama/Biden are the verbose Washington insiders. Independents and women voters are swinging back to McCain, and the electoral map projections will change the “inevitable” narrative. The McCain Team should be wary. In times like these, when Obama is feeling down, he lashes out.
by Ronald Scott
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