Obama Taking His Eye Off the Ball
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, PalinI’m starting to wonder: is the Barack Obama campaign grossly mishandling the Sarah Palin vice presidential nomination? Suddenly, it seems like Obama is running against Palin. Shouldn’t Obama be focused on John McCain? I mean, I know the guy’s old but, as long as he’s healthy, Palin will likely be no more than a glorified goodwill ambassador, just like most VPs before her. Is it worth taking the heat off of McCain in order to delegitimize someone who will likely have very little power?
When you think about it, Obama isn’t well served by running against Palin. Anytime the experience issue is brought up when comparing the two politicians, McCain wins. Why? Because voters are going to be much more willing to accept inexperience from a vice president than they are from the president. Highlighting Palin’s inexperience just serves to call into question Obama’s own experience.
Plus, there is nothing “presidential” about a presidential nominee going after the other party’s vice presidential nominee. I think it makes Obama look a little petty and ill-focused. Joe Biden is supposed to be Obama’s attack dog. Not the other way around.
If the strategy of attacking Palin early and often was working, then I’d understand why Obama’s campaign has focused so much attention on her. But it’s not working. McCain/Palin are in the lead.
I fully understand the desire and need to vet Palin and counter the misstatements about her record. That’s fine. But I’m noticing Obama and his legion of supporters (notably on the blogs) taking their eye off the ball. Palin is not the story. McCain is the story. No matter how many compelling reasons there may be not to vote for Palin, no one will actually vote for her. They’ll vote for McCain.
This is one of the big reasons why McCain gambled on his VP choice. To mix things up and throw Obama off his game. So far, it seems to be working.
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September 9th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Maybe not, Palin is propping McCain up at this point, if Obama can succeed in kicking the leg out from under her both of them go down, McCain already threw the experience question out the door when he hired her, everyone knows he’s old and has health issues, so choosing Palin is clearly seen as a way for him to beat Obama, and if Obama can show that she isn’t a reformer, but is rather a liar who is even more extreme right than McCain he can cut the enthusiasm that some have for Palin and retake the momentum.
he’s playing it right at the moment, hitting Mccain and Palin together is the best move he can make
September 9th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Exactly - but I don’t see Obama or his campaign surrogates focusing on Plain - to my eye it’s the media and bloggers. I see the Obama Campaign struggling to get the focus where they want it - on Obama vs. McCain. (Hence the new Obama ad sans Palin.) There is just no media oxygen out there (Palin is sucking it all up) and Obama is struggling to get the narrative back where he wants it.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
While I agree with this, it has become clear that McCain’s campaign is only competing because of Palin. So Obama has (for now) focused on her.
I saw on the news last night a clip of McCain and Palin as they were going out to speak at a rally. McCain walked out from the back with Palin behind, but he was looking over his shoulder at Palin to make sure she was still there. She stopped to shake someone’s hand, and he stopped and looked around like he should be doing the same. Then she takes to the stage waving excitedly to the crowd, and McCain stumbles up after her, looking unsure what to do. It’s really unbelievable how she has become the front man for the campaign…
September 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
MM - Bingo.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
John McCain has switched his strategy 10 times in this campaign without anyone calling him out on all the mixed messages. It’s the hallmark of the campaign, how everything pivot McCain makes is reported uncritically, yet every strategic move Obama makes is dissected and criticized endlessly.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
MM — you’re right about Palin sucking up the oxygen — reminds me of the kind of wall-to-wall coverage Obama received early on. Everyone loves a new face. Still, the faster Obama can get the message back on “McCain will be more of the same” (which I think is ultimately a winning message), the better off the Dems will be. I don’t think it serves Obama supporters to focus so exclusively on Palin.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
“Plus, there is nothing “presidential” about a presidential nominee going after the other party’s vice presidential nominee.”
WHAT?! I don’t know a single presidential campaign that hasn’t involved this in some way or another. Everyone does it.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
i stopped worrying about Obama’s strategy months ago. A year ago he was supposedly all washed up. then after New Hamphshire he was through. Then he couldn’t close the deal on Super Duper Tuesday. Then he couldn’t put hillary away. Then Rev. Wright was gonna finish him off. Then the party as too divided.
give me a break. the guy has ice in his veins. you don’t think he knows what he’s up against? you don’t think this Black guy knows what’s going on. Obama can’t attack like conventional pols because he’s Black and can’t feed into the angry black man stereotype. it doesn’t play as well on tv and in sound bites.
a month in and the palin nod will die down. the hype you see now is people on the right happy they have someone to cheer for. this thing is gonna be a squeeker. always was. get used to it.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Ed Koch endorsed Obama, saying that the Palin pick scares him. He also said the country will be in safer hands with Obama-Biden. That’s a pretty strong message coming from the liberal hawk who endorsed Bush four years ago.
But I think it makes sense to go after Palin, since she’s got absolutely nothing to add to the McCain campaign but an X chromosome.
That is how I’m feeling at least.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Alan,
You’re right. What’s more, and what many people don’t seem to get is the fact that the more they attack Palin with rumors about her family, the more they erode weight and credibility of attacks on her on the issues. Already, the McCain campaign, and Foxnews have played up these attacks to great effect, almost insulating her against any and all attacks because the “media” is already biased for Obama. The more they can play that up, and cite blogs like DailyKos, HuffingtonPost, etc. the more these are identified with Obama and the more support he looses.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
May be too early to see if Obama going after Palin is working or not, after all it is just in the past couple of days we see the true bounce from the Palin/convention combo. There may be time for Obama to try and address Palin and curb the enthusiasm and then get back to McCain.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Yea, What He Said,
Mike, if you saw the Biden intrvw on Meet the Press then you’d know how right you are. He took the high road and pretty much said we’ll let the voters’ decide - when she ever gets around to answering their concerns, then he answered a Foreign Policy question about Iraq like he OWNS the issue. She better do her homework, as if that could make up for Biden’s 25 years in the trenches!
Alan, I think it may be the Conservatives who need more answers frm Palin then their counterparts. For many of the fact checks being done I see answers that would raise the neck hairs on many of them, like the winfall profits tax hike on the Oil Co’s doing business in Alaska, and they built a nice new sports stadium with the money! She did so many new projects that she actually rang up a rather large deficit for the State budget. You’ve seen the numbers, I’m sure.
Politico had a link to a another factcheck group (i’ll try to find link) that debunked the issue of Palin supposedly lowering the Public School Funding for Special Needs children. Turns out that was wrong - so wrong that the Public School Super actually hailed it as ‘historic’. She trippled the funding, up from approx. 25k/student to over 75K/student!
You go GIRL!!! My little, pinko, commy, bleedin liberal heart is likin u more n more each day. Next it’ll be Lesbians United that’ll be backin you for the spunky little feminist that you are and won’t that make the guys just say, “Praise Hallelujah..we’re gonna win” - Sorry I got carried away, but that’s exactly how the Dems are overdoing their criticism. But not Obama and his campaign. I think you’ve been reading too many blogs!
September 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
This Karl Rove guy is a genius. He has turned the election into “THE NEW AMERICAN IDOL”. He has replaced a tiresome, dried-out old candidate who is too confused to get the facts straight, and created tremendous buzz about a know-nothing right-wing Christian fundamentalist who won a beauty contest. Instead of looking at the horrible record of the last 8 nightmarish Bush years we now want to find out who is the sexiest, who has the best one liner put-downs? Hey Kids, while the the economy is going down the tubes, people are losing their homes and jobs, and respect for this country is at an all time low, lets have a Popularity Contest!! Its just like High School, wow, kids this is fun. The heck with boring political stuff, lets go for the cute gal with the smart mouth (her words also provided by Rove). Wake up kids, four years of McCain/Palin will leave you and your families far worse off than you are now. Can you afford to play these childish but potentially lethal games??
September 9th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
[...] at Donklephant, Alan Stewart Carl wonders if Barack Obama hasn’t taken his eye off the ball: I’m starting to wonder: is the Barack Obama campaign grossly mishandling the Sarah Palin vice [...]
September 9th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
@jefflz
Only one problem with your paranoid rant. Karl Rove did not want Palin. It was widely reported that he wanted two things First - No Lieberman and Second he was strongly pushing Mitt Romney. McCain went against his advice. This is also the reason Mike Murphy was so negative on that open mike - he was a big Romney supporter.
Another benefit of the Republican convention, is that all of the VP prospects gave a speech,and we could see them all in action back to back. Whitman, Fiorina, Giuliani, Romney, Ridge, Lieberman, I think there were a few more. I watched them all. They all stunk. Terrible speeches - wooden delivery - stupid cliches (romney in particular) - inappropriate humor (giuliani in particular) - boring - boring - boring - same old same old.
Hey - I understand the vein popping, bulging eyeball , spitting anger so evident from so many Obama supporters because McCain did not pick one of these losers. They were all a guaranteed win for Obama. Now McCain has a real chance. Sorry that is such a problem for you.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
correct.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
PS and now he’s exploded on the Ayers thing so as not to be caught flat footed in a swift-boat. But it wasn’t Kerry’s lack of aggression, it was his lack of answers: how does a guy have 3 purple hearts, 10 fingers and 10 toes? That’s the question he couldn’t answer. Why Carter needed to give his medals BACK was not the Prima facie evidence: it was the digits intact. Now Obama is exploding this all over the newspapers. Is there enough time and Febreeze to clear the room after all this hits the fan? NOT presidential looking at all… and if you add it to Wright and then add the lack of exp. it’s really looking a little bad. As the far left goes insane, thinking it’s still running against Bush… bad news all round the bases. Bush is OUT, dummies! It’s McCain you have to run against. Well, so it looks to me at this point… reading old blog posts has cured me from making predictions. How stupid do I want to look? OK, why not, it’s McCain in November.
By the way, a little credit to the lady. Not a bad fisherman to get her hook in Obama’s mouth! It’s surprising and that fact might explain the Biden choice. Maybe? Someone lacklustre who he can sort of shelve away? No competition? As for beauty pageant winners: besides Obama’s fine style of oratory and his easy manner and loose limbs what exactly does he have to offer not Democrats but America? A bunch of words about change?
Power is an acid. Few are immune. Those who are and have been called to public life are rare and we are lucky they did. Which candidates can be examined in regard to how well they have resisted this acid? These are important questions for the ballot box.
Oh, a bunch of silly ideas from a guy fighting a cold… goodnight all and peace be with you. Don’t disturb yourselves with unnecessary anger and worry. As Pierre Trudeau said when he was looking for his tattered ego and had the glazed eye of a man who power now played as a puppet: “The world is unfolding as it should.” That was one of his campaign bites. “The Land Is Strong” was the other. He lost big.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I lost you after “correct”….
September 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
If America falls for this bologna…the Extreme right could never chant the battlecry Country first ever again!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Quote Of The Day…
“I?m starting to wonder: is the Barack Obama campaign grossly mishandling the Sarah Palin vice presidential nomination? Suddenly, it seems like Obama is running against Palin. Shouldn?t Obama be focused on John McCain? I mean, I know the guy?s old …