After PA, Obama Needs to Work on Image
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, PennsylvaniaJoe Klein takes stock of the Pennsylvania primary aftermath and decides Barack Obama was hurt by the six-week campaign
[Obama] entered the primary as a fresh breeze and left it stale, battered and embittered — still the mathematical favorite for the nomination but no longer the darling of his party. In the course of six weeks, the American people learned that he was a member of a church whose pastor gave angry, anti-American sermons, that he was “friendly” with an American terrorist who had bombed buildings during the Vietnam era, and that he seemed to look on the ceremonies of working-class life — bowling, hunting, churchgoing and the fervent consumption of greasy food — as his anthropologist mother might have, with a mixture of cool detachment and utter bemusement. All of which deepened the skepticism that Caucasians, especially those without a college degree, had about a young, inexperienced African-American guy with an Islamic-sounding name and a highfalutin fluency with language. And worse, it raised questions among the elders of the party about Obama’s ability to hold on to crucial Rust Belt bastions like Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey in the general election — and to add long-suffering Ohio to the Democratic column.
Klein does emphatically state that many of the perceptions of Obama are unfair or based on outright lies but that the damage has still been done. Increasingly, Obama looks less like the great hope of post-partisan politics and more like a man too inexperienced and to effete to be president. No one doubts his brains. But, after Pennsylvania, there’s reason to doubt his brawn.
Fortunately for Obama, there’s more campaigning to be done. There is time yet to undo the negative perceptions (fair and unfair). If Pennsylvania taught him anything, it’s that, if words matter, actions are just as significant. People will judge politicians on whether they can bowl and whether they look like they enjoy a beer. That’s unfortunate but it’s true. We want presidents who are one of us, not leaders who believe they are above us.
Obama’s task now is to show us he has the toughness and common-man sensibilities to balance out his great intelligence and inspiring rhetoric.
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April 24th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Sorry, but he closed the gap from 20 points down to under ten, this post PA meme is ridiculous, he was never likely to win PA, however he came through with more support than when he started, and his poll numbers are as good if not better
April 24th, 2008 at 10:04 am
He still lost big time. His far left anti american views and friends hurt him. If he had been properly vetted by the press last year he would never have gotten this far. He has already proven he can’t win the important states and centrist vote.
Face it, he is going to lose in a big way come november. Too many centrists and independents that voted for Hillary can’t stand Obama. Obama supporters are fully invested in the kool aid though, they also are the type to be the most oblivious to reality.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Umm Reason, PA is still Obama in the fall, this is what you guys don’t get, Obama is still going to win NY and CA and PA and all the toher blue states that will never go McSame, its the fact that he makes states like NC a possibility (a tie in recent rasmussen), and Iowa blue and puts states like TX, ND, MO, etc, etc. into the possible range that makes him so dangerous to McSame, Hillary can’t do that, the only states she flips are Ohio and Florida, and Obama is in striking distance of OH as well, recent polls only put him a few points behind McSame in Ohio.
Recent Electoral vote analysis puts Obama ahead of McCain in the Fall, so sorry reason Obama can win this and probably will win this
April 24th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Regarding Obamas chances: hopefully by November, we will have begun to emerge from our current economic downturn, and all of that economic prosperity will alleviate the frustrations of middle-class Americans who will then discard their “opiate-of-the-masses,” by abandoning guns, religion and xenophobia and then they will become proper, secular liberals just like Barack.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
@ Jimmy,
Only thing worse than bad sarcasm is horrible sarcasm. Obama never said that guns and religion were opiates of the masses, as he said they were things that people used to steady themselves in times of trouble, to form connections with their fellow mean and women in times of trouble
April 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
To form connections with their fellow man? You mean like immigrants or people who don’t look like them? What are you talking about? Do we have to go over this again? The description of guns and religion can only be interpreted as a pejorative in this context. You think that Obama meant “antipathy to people who aren’t like them” is a wonderful virtue that good ‘ole apple pie-eating Americans rely on when times get tough?
Steady themselves in times of trouble? Whatever dude. You fanboys can keep deceiving yourselves if it keeps “hope” and “change” in your heart. Maybe then you can relate to those working class Americans who Obama claims are in the midst of their own self-deception regarding their religious beliefs.