Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Obama Beginning to Sweat

For the first time in the campaign, Barack Obama is beginning to feel the heat. The media has turned it's attention to the Sarah Palin narrative and suddenly Obama's story is feeling a little old. The Obama camp has to be wondering if they're ever going to get the microphone back. All this underscores what may be the real issue here. Why can't Obama close the deal? Against Hillary Clinton, a deeply flawed candidate with huge negatives, he never really finished her off. With sarah Palin energizing voters, Obama is again stuck in the high 40's spinning his wheels. This is the first real competition he's faced and it shows.

3 comments:

Herbert Sweet said...

Yea, Sarah's exciting all right. But can she hunt and will we find out in tonight's ABC interviews?

BTW, nobody seems to have noticed that Obama's choice for VP did not get 'sequestered' and not be allowed to speak all by himself.

My guess is that there will be no meat and all cliches and slanders from now and evermore coming from McCain and Palin. This is the game plan we've been told. It's worked well so far. Obama, of course, has to expose this to the common denominator voter. He's started already. Will he succeed?

Anonymous said...

Herb- Saw Sarah on ABC and she was OK, not great but OK. There's no question you can ask her a lot of questions (as did Charlie Gibson) like "Have you met any world leaders?" and her honest answer is no. Well, that might offend the Georgetown cocktail crowd but I don't think it carries much weight outside the Beltway and places like NY and LA. Having an impressive resume hasn't always guaranteed results. The left will try to trick her into a Dan Quayle moment but I think she's too smart for that.

Herbert Sweet said...

Jim,

I agree on the experience criteria. Time magazine ran an article some time back on the history of the presidency matching experience to results and experience didn't always work out as a criteria.

What I would look for in a president is wisdom and judgment. It is just too easy to fire off a snap decision; anybody can do that. What we need is leaders who can do better.

I would say that the key qualities in any leader are the ability to recognize and surround yourself with talent, amalgamate their conclusions and then communicate that to the electorate.

We don't have to wait until a president gets into office to see if he can do this. We can look at how he has already handled lesser leadership roles.