Obama and his campaign have been showing signs of having been rattled by the VP pick of Palin. However, there were signs before the VP selection that the Obama campaign could be rattled. First, the celebrity ad. Outrage, and cries of foul abounded over an ad that basically poked fun at Obamaâs celebrity and his legions of euphoric supporters. Second, Saddleback. Not the event itself, but the cries of cheating that came from the Obama campaign. It couldnât be that McCain outperformed Obama there must have been foul play. So the Obama campaign screams cheater because Senator McCain wasnât hermetically sealed in in a sound proof pod, or ‘cone of silenceâ. Their reaction was both foolish, and a sign that even minor victories by the McCain campaign could rattle them. However, the pre-Palin kicker is that someone convinced Senator Obama to give a mediocre acceptance speech. What is the one area where Senator Obama has a decisive edge? Speech making; and he under-performed. How that happened should be studied in political science classes in years to come, because forfeiting a strength in any arena is flat crazy.
Then comes the VP picks. Obama doesnât want Clinton, and chooses a candidate to help him appear more experienced so he picks Biden. McCain supporters chuckle as Senator Biden is a legendary ‘Gaffe Machineâ. Everyone else yawns. Good guy, fairly safe pick, but no one really cares. Then itâs McCainâs turn. Everyone is predicting Romney or Pawlenty, both safe choices, but again not terribly exciting. The McCain campaign keeps the pick completely secret, and then Palin explodes on the scene. She gave a good opening speech, but there were a lot of questions about her still to be addressed. The Obama campaign immediately took a shot at her, but then retracted the statement as harsh and unnecessary. The media loses its mind. Certainly thatâs not the Obama camps fault, but their obvious Obama bias and hysterical reaction to Palin does not help their favorite candidate. Clumsily the Obama campaign chimed in with cracks about her experience as a small town mayor, and dismissed her experience as a sitting Governor. This opened the door for Palin to clock Obama on his community organizer experience during her acceptance speech, which was such a powerful speech that it made the media and Obama look foolish for their attacks.
Since then the Obama campaign has struggled to get its bearings. First, Obama acted horrified that Palin challenged his community organizer experience, when he had really set himself up. Then his campaign had a meltdown over Palinâs comment that she had pulled the plug on the ‘Bridge to No Whereâ. Instead of criticizing Palinâs original support for a different version of the bridge, or questioning what that money should have been spent on after the project was dead, the Obama campaign instead freaked out. They called Palin a liar, they called the McCain/Palin ticket corrupt, yet in the end Palin did pull the plug on the ‘Bridge to No Whereâ and the Obama campaignâs over-reaction looked foolish and unstable. Then comes Senator Obamaâs ‘Lipstick on a pigâ comment. One can argue intent all day long, however, there is little argument that the comment was incredibly stupid. Particularly, since in the same day he made another comment about a âstinking fishâ, and another campaign member also referenced lipstick in a less than flattering way. For someone who is typically graceful in his use of language, “The fierce urgency of now”, “We are not red states or blue states, we are the United States”, talking about lipstick on pigs after Palin made a lipstick joke during her speech is at best sloppy and out of character.
Today the fumbling continues. An ad criticizing Senator McCainâs out of date attire from 1982, and challenging his apparent internet ineptitude has to be one of the weakest attack ads put out in years. Maybe that helps him somehow with the youth vote, but he already has the youth vote. Most people over the age of 30 know at some point in their lives theyâve worn a silly outfit, and/or had a bad hair day. As for lack of internet experience, who cares? Itâs an odd argument that I canât imagine helps the campaign. The Obama campaign has abandoned their ‘new politicsâ argument for random and silly attacks. Itâs not just that theyâre struggling since the Palin pick and the convention, its that theyâre panicking. Theyâre only down a few points in the polls, the real problem isnât the numbers itâs that the McCain/Palin ticket has them completely flustered.
Filed under: McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: mccain computer, mccain internet, obama flustered, obama fumles, obama gaffes, obama panic
I agree that ad is painfuly weak. Obamaâs “Still” ad noticeably omits any mention of Palin or for that matter Biden. I am not sure what the disco ball represents, but arenât the 1980âs kind of cool in a retro way? The ad itself is dull and uninspiring. Saying Mccain doesnât know how to send an email is laying it on pretty thick.
—I think it is going to work against team obama-the problem with attacking is that people then look into the matter (the loyal ones that were already going to vote democrat and the emotional ones that have a crush on him are totally in the tank regardless) and when middle of the road average types look into the matter—they find out palin has done truly remarkable stuff-her enemies admire-it is no accident that she went for the PTA to small town major to Governor-she did actually say no the bridge to nowhere-biden obama vote for the ear mark have never changed their minds and given up ear marks—so sum total they look worse-through all of this palin gets more attention so people make a point to watch her interview-she looks nervous but gutsy-AND she seems incredibly genuine and sincere-so then if they keep attacking they are just sinking their own ship-1st I donât believe he canât use a computer-and even if he really doesnât like them that much—THAT is hardly a PRESSING ISSUE facing the nation (obama camp says this 2 days after they complain that americans like to talk about trival things instead of important issues)—people do slowly begin to investigate and question who is the real deal and obama will lose if people do that—so while I certainly donât agree with the personal insults—even from a strategic perspective they are not wise—AGREE TO WEEKLY DEBATES OBAMA and save the country the aggravation of these ads
Another week goes by and Iâm asking the same question as last Friday… who and where is Obamaâs VP candidate? His only headline this week was saying that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice for the position.
EyesOpen,
That wasnât his only headline. The other one was asking a wheelchair bound man to stand up so everyone can see him.
Hey, Obama screwed up. If he had chosen Hillary this wouldnât be happening. Yet again, Obamaâs pride clouded his judgement…he didnât think he needed the those Clintons…but now heâs running to the Clintons for help. Obama is pathetic.
Maybe Senator John McCain doesnât use the Internet much, but Obama has overlooked the Blogette, Meghan McCain, blogging for her Dad.
By the way, what was Obama doing in 1982? Meeting with Bill Ayers? Doing crack with his college buddies?
Most definitely. Obama has been glib & cool getting through life on charm & cleverness. Guess what, itâs “crunchtime”. No more dodging especially if your sound tracks have “caught up” with you. Now he is evasive & pausing as if “searching” for that special “they canât pin this down” later line or “surfing” the web (his brain…sometimes they seem interchangeable) to make sure heâs not contradicting himself. If your honest, upfront & authentic life is easy; if not, itâs tricky. But then you wouldnât be much of a politician either!
The ‘canât use the internetâ ad was a huge mistake. One of the reasons john doesnât do email; his hands were so badly damaged while a POW, he canât use a keyboard!
Hereâs a link about it.