Obama, You Know You’re In Trouble When…
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on September 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM in Barack Obama, Democratic Nomination, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin
When NY Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Tom Friedman, a man not given to commenting on Presidential races, steps in to point out where you are blowing it, you know you are up the creek without a paddle. I was so shocked to see Friedman’s piece, “From the Gut,” that I thought it was worth a mention here:
If John McCain can win this election race with a 50-pound ball called “George W. Bush” wrapped around one ankle and a 50-pound ball called “The U.S. Economy” wrapped around the other, then he deserves to represent America in the next Olympics in any race he wants — swimming, cycling or track — I don’t care how old he is. He would be the Michael Phelps of politics.
I confess, I watch politics from afar, but here’s what I’ve been feeling for a while: Whoever slipped that Valium into Barack Obama’s coffee needs to be found and arrested by the Democrats because Obama has gone from cool to cold…
Somebody needs to tell Obama that if he wants the chance to calmly answer the phone at 3 a.m. in the White House, he is going to need to start slamming down some phones at 3 p.m. along the campaign trail.
People are not relating to Obama on a visceral level any more, if they ever did. We are getting close to ‘gut-check’ time at the polls in November. Where the gut is concerned, people are relating a heck of a lot more to McCain/Palin than to the arrogant speechifier Obama and the babbling bloviater Biden.
…Obama got where he is today by defining himself as the agent of change and by defining change as the issue in this election. McCain, with Palin’s help, has once again not only made Obama’s experience an issue, but has now moved in on Obama’s strength and tried to define the G.O.P. ticket as the party of “change.”
…[W]hat this has done is to make the word “change” as a campaign slogan meaningless. Obama will need to find another way to connect his ideas — clearly, crisply and passionately.
Gee, Tom, who’d a thunk Obama needed a class on Oral Interp 101?? Obama can’t afford to start “slamming down the phones” or to get “passionate” because the only thing he is really mad about is the fact that everyone is no longer worshipping at his feet. There’s a new sheriff in town and her name is Sarah Palin. And Obama can’t stand it.
Obama’s not mad at the State of the Union because all he really cares about is Obama. We figured that out a while ago. Mr. Friedman may be loath to admit this, but therein lies the real problem. Friedman goes on to state:
I don’t know how long or high the “Sarah Palin bounce” will go, but I would take her very seriously as a politician. She may not know nuclear deterrence theory, but she can deliver a line. “I think there are a lot of women out there that look at her, holding her baby, talking about being a hockey mom, and say, ‘She knows what I feel; she’s going through what I am going through,’ ” remarked leadership expert John Maxwell.
By the way, Tom, how do you know Palin doesn’t know nuclear deterrence theory? Don’t you make the same mistake Obama has made in underestimating this woman! Obviously you are not underestimating McCain’s smarts in choosing her. In conclusion, Friedman cautions:
…[W]hile the pollsters tell us it is still really close, my own totally unscientific, seat of the pants poll tells me this: When you say Obama’s name today and ask people for their first impression — a quick, flash, gut, first impression — no single word or phrase or policy comes to mind. His opponents will fill that vacuum if he doesn’t. They already are.
It is so kind of Friedman to assist the mainstream media’s daily love fest and offer Obama yet another helping hand. Most significant is that Friedman feels he needs to do so in this ‘no lose year for Democrats.’ Harry Reid touts Obama as ‘the complete package.’ Obama’s admirers treat him like the ‘second coming.’ Why would the man who runs such a ‘brilliant campaign’ need any help? Uh oh.
In the NY Observer’s Team Clinton Says Obama Intimidated by Palin Factor (ya’ think?), Jason Horowitz points out:
With the McCain campaign running tactical circles every day around the Obama outfit—which has failed, somewhat unbelievably, to come up with even a semi-compelling response to the Palin selection—one might think Mrs. Clinton, to say nothing of her sidelined husband, would be a useful surrogate on the counterattack right about now. Apparently, the Obama campaign does not agree.
That’s OK. We really don’t want Hillary or Bill doing Obama’s job for him anyway.
“My concern is that I see them as totally reactive right now as opposed to getting out there on their own and saying what the hell they are about,” said Leon Panetta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton who has advised Mr. Obama. “They seem to be intimidated by the Palin pick. They seem to be intimidated by how the Republicans are coming at them on change. And you cannot win if you are constantly on defense.”
Mr. Panetta added, “As president of the United States you are going to have to learn how to deal with people you may not particularly like, because if you are trying to get things done, you have got to use everything and everybody that you can to get it done. I do think that they absolutely in this race have got to make use of the Clintons in every possible way, because they need them. He has clearly got some problems out there.”
Perhaps something else is at work here explaining why Hillary is not out on the trail more…According to the interviews with Clinton staffers:
We’re not seeing more of her, in other words, because that’s how [the Obama Campaign] want it…“If they asked Hillary to do more, she’d be happy to do it,” said one Clinton adviser.
But one source close to the Clintons provided a slightly different version of events, saying that a high ranking Obama staff member indicated to a Clinton counterpart that they would like Mrs. Clinton to take a more aggressive tack, and that the answer was no.
The consensus there, based on conversations with present and former Clinton advisers, is that the Obama campaign has isolated itself both as a result of its desire to break with the Clintons and establish itself as the future of the Democratic Party, and out of primary-victory-inspired hubris.
The effect, they say, has been a disastrous passivity.
Where’s the mystery? Obama’s hubris prevents him from admitting how much he needs Hillary. He would then be in the untenable position of owning up to the fact that he cannot win the election without Senator Clinton, after showing her monumental disrespect both on the campaign trail and at the Convention by not allowing an authentic roll call vote. How could he? Without the DNC’s strong-arm tactics toward the delegates, the way his candidacy was tanking, she’d have won the nomination.
The LA Times, on 9/4/2008 reported Some Hillary Clinton delegates remain displeased over ‘unity’ push. That, my friends, is the understatement of the century. Here are some highlights of how your NEW Democratic Party is treating you and Delegates who don’t fall in line:
The “unity” convention in Denver is over. But some Hillary Rodham Clinton delegates are back home in California stewing over what they describe as pressure from Barack Obama allies to create a false image of overwhelming support for the Democratic presidential nominee.
As part of that push, some of the Clinton backers grouse, Obama supporters made plain that the Clinton delegates needed to switch sides and vote for the eventual nominee. A fair amount of that happened. The final delegate tally was 3,188.5 for Obama; 1,010.5 for Clinton, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Democratic National Committee.
The real tally had Clinton ahead in the popular vote and only behind Obama by 17 pledged delegates. See the Green Papers here.
Raymond Penko, a Clinton delegate from San Diego who campaigned door-to-door for her, said: “There was pressure all around to conform to what I would call the old boys’ club. . . . As soon as Obama delegates heard that one was a Hillary supporter, they would shun you, tell you to get over it, say, ‘Stop being a crybaby. What’s your problem? Don’t you want to win in November?’ “
No wonder Obama is losing ground. With the media’s help, the DNC has been perpetuating the myth that he has a lot more support than really exists. We’ve been shouting for months that his candidacy was built on a house of cards. A caucus win in Wyoming does not a Democratic landslide make. According to the Observer:
It is clear that there was never any sense of urgency within the determinedly harmonious Obama campaign, at least not until now, about enlisting the help of the two Democrats [the Clintons] who are arguably more capable than any others of creating news and changing, or at least displacing, unhelpful narratives.
All the while, the McCain campaign is drawing blood, defining Mr. Obama as a vacuous, long-winded celebrity light on practical experience, and Mrs. Palin’s high-profile entry into the race has only hastened that process.
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer,” Mrs. Palin said in her fawned-over debut convention speech, “except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Much like Obama was intimidated by and jealous of Hillary, he is so intimidated by Sarah Palin’s success, he keeps referring to her as the Mayor of a small town, conveniently forgetting she is actually a sitting Governor and an incredibly popular one at that.
Senator Obama’s fawning media notwithstanding, word is getting out on the street that Obama has serious problems with women and considering the recent huge shift of women to McCain in the polls, it is no wonder that Friedman and many others have starting offering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the ailing Obama campaign.
Obviously Obama’s ‘lipstick on a pig‘ comments Tuesday did nothing to help his progressive image.
And a desperate Biden is now saying Hillary is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Can you spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e in Obamaland?
Looks like the house of cards could use some shoring up…
by Ronald Scott
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