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| Home Front: Politix |
| Is Obama Ready for Prime Time? |
| 2008-04-24 |
| Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal After being pummeled 55% to 45% in the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama was at a loss for explanations. The best he could do was to compliment his supporters in an email saying, "you helped close the gap to a slimmer margin than most thought possible." Then he asked for money. With $42 million in the bank, money is the least of Sen. Obama's problems. He needs a credible message that convinces Democrats he should be president. In recent days, he's spent too much time proclaiming his inevitable nomination. But they already know he's won more states, votes and delegates. His words wear especially thin when he was dealt a defeat like Tuesday's. Mr. Obama was routed despite outspending Hillary Clinton on television by almost 3-1. While polls in the final days showed a possible 4% or 5% Clinton win, she apparently took late-deciders by a big margin to clinch the landslide. Where she cobbled together her victory should cause concern in the Obama HQ. She did better – and he worse – than expected in Philadelphia's suburbs. Mrs. Clinton won two of these four affluent suburban counties, home of the white-wine crowd Mr. Obama has depended on for victories before. In the small town and rural "bitter" precincts, she clobbered him. Mr. Obama's state chair was Sen. Bob Casey, who hails from Lackawanna County in northeast Pennsylvania. She carried that county 74%-25%. In the state's 61 less-populous counties, she won 63% – and by 278,266 votes. Her margin of victory statewide was 208,024 votes. . . . The Democratic Party has two weakened candidates. Mrs. Clinton started as a deeply flawed candidate: the palpable and unpleasant sense of entitlement, the absence of a clear and optimistic message, the grating personality impatient to be done with the little people and overly eager for a return to power, real power, the phoniness and the exaggerations. These problems have not diminished over the long months of the contest. They have grown. She started out with the highest negatives of any major candidate in an open race for the presidency and things have only gotten worse. And what of the reborn Adlai Stevenson? Mr. Obama is befuddled and angry about the national reaction to what are clearly accepted, even commonplace truths in San Francisco and Hyde Park. . . . His inspiring rhetoric is a potent tool for energizing college students and previously uninvolved African-American voters. But his appeals are based on two aspirational pledges he is increasingly less credible in making. Mr. Obama's call for postpartisanship looks unconvincing, when he is unable to point to a single important instance in his Senate career when he demonstrated bipartisanship. And his repeated calls to remember Dr. Martin Luther King's "fierce urgency of now" in tackling big issues falls flat as voters discover that he has not provided leadership on any major legislative battle. Mr. Obama has not been a leader on big causes in Congress. . . . He has held his energy and talent in reserve for the more important task of advancing his own political career, which means running for president. But something happened along the way. Voters saw in the Philadelphia debate the responses of a vitamin-deficient Stevenson act-a-like. And in the closing days of the Pennsylvania primary, they saw him alternate between whining about his treatment by Mrs. Clinton and the press, and attacking Sen. John McCain by exaggerating and twisting his words. No one likes a whiner, and his old-style attacks undermine his appeals for postpartisanship. Mr. Obama is near victory in the Democratic contest, but it is time for him to reset, freshen his message and say something new. His conduct in the last several weeks raises questions about whether, for all his talents, he is ready to be president. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #16 I'll disagree. He's perfectly capable of heading some Diversity Outreach fiefdom in Chicago's City Org. Past that? Over his head. By the way, let the wife screech some more. I like that |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-24 23:10 |
| #15 I'm with gr'om on this one. |
| Posted by: RD 2008-04-24 23:02 |
| #14 Why, he's very bright and well-spoken, g(r)omgoru. Oh come on. He's a lousy debater---did he ever actually practice law, made court appearances? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-04-24 22:23 |
| #13 abolishing private property?? U of IL professor just wrote a book, it's for the common good............. And the unelected 9 kings ruled private property can be taken and given to our overseers to give to their rich RE developer friends........ |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-04-24 21:43 |
| #12 OMG - he's gonna be the Ted Kennedy of IL.......... my state.......... we're never going to get rid of him........ |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-04-24 21:39 |
| #11 I'll grant you that he's smart and a trained constitutional lawyer. And sure, he can whip a crowd up into a frenzy. Other than that, I don't see why or how he would make a good President or VP. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2008-04-24 18:09 |
| #10 Menhaden Snogum is onto something, TW. This has been the Repubs' problem for a long time now. I don't like that it's true, and I yearn for a time when it won't be. But in a time in history when the much of the human race cannot maturely or intelligently filter through the deceptions of mass media, having the best ideas isn't enough. Excellent communication - and communicators - with charisma are necessary to get your point across, nearly as much as good ideas. If I ever needed proof that humans are flawed, this issue is it. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-04-24 17:44 |
| #9 Does it possibly come under the guise of cultural Marxism, LH? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-04-24 17:41 |
| #8 Im old fashioned, to me commie means believing in abolishing private property, nationalizing the means of production, and a dictatorship of the proletariat. SF liberals pushing their particular view of the 2nd amendment may not be nice, but its not communism. I admit, Im odd that way. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-04-24 17:09 |
| #7 he's a crypto-commie - should not be allowed anywhere near the Constitution. What was said, was it, during Gore v. Bush?? only lawyers can understand the Constitution??? show me where it sez only sportsmen/hunters can own guns. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-04-24 16:20 |
| #6 He also is quite smart, and a trained constitutional lawyer. Id say hed make an excellent Attorney General. Maybe VP in 2012. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-04-24 16:14 |
| #5 Trailing, Those may be his only talents, but they are very important talents, whether we like it or not. |
| Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-04-24 12:45 |
| #4 What talents are these, exactly? Why, he's very bright and well-spoken, g(r)omgoru. He has beautiful teeth and equally beautiful thousand dollar suits, paid for by the beautifully compensated law careers of his wife and himself...and his terribly interesting friends. I'm afraid nothing more comes to mind at the moment, but no doubt it will, shortly. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-04-24 11:52 |
| #3 The Audacity of Mendacity. |
| Posted by: doc 2008-04-24 10:20 |
| #2 He is very talented for a man whose middle name is Hussein. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2008-04-24 09:35 |
| #1 for all his talents, he is ready to be president What talents are these, exactly? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-04-24 08:02 |