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July 25, 2008
Obama's Bad Week
Barack Obama may have gained himself some decent soundbites and pictures this week, but as Jim Geraghty points out, he's left a lot of rhetorical and policy debris in his wake.
Such contradictions and outright nonsensical statements are to be expected, of course, when one's campaign is based upon such vagaries as 'hope' and 'change.' Well, that and the fact that Obama really seems to be making a lot of this up as he's going along.
I would like to believe that John McCain's campaign will take advantage of the mistakes Obama made this week, but the GOP campaign suffers from many of the same problems as the Democrat. McCain has no defining message other than 'I'm a war hero who's not Obama.' His political history is based largely on his mavericky-ness, and it's becoming clear that is not enough upon which to base a run for the presidency.
In a comment thread at ace's, one commenter suggested that for McCain, winning the nomination was the true victory he sought this election year. Given how ineptly McCain has run his campaign since winning the nomination, I'm beginning to think that commenter has a point. McCain squandered the four month holiday the hard-fought Democrat primary gave him and has done little since to reassure conservatives that he has what it takes to grab the spotlight from the Democrat candidate.
McCain quite simply does not have the rock star quality of Obama, and that's fine, but he should fill the charisma gap with a strong message of where he wants to lead America. So far, he's made some decent speeches on various issues, but has not yet developed a compelling thread or overarching narrative to tie those ideas together. Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if he can.
Obama's 'hope and change' rhetoric isn't much of a narrative, but sadly it's stronger than that of his GOP opponent, who is shaping up to be a worse general election candidate than Bob Dole in 1996.
Posted by slublog at July 25, 2008 10:09 AM
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Comments
Bob Dole! Bob Dole!
Posted by: Dan Pete at July 25, 2008 02:14 PM
Actually, I think McCain is running a smart campaign (in this regard) at this stage. Lay low; let Obama have the headlines right now. By September or so, people will be getting fairly sick of him -- he wears thin very quickly. Then annihilate him in the debates (which McCain can easily do. Obama has all of Bush's extemporaneous fumblings, with none of Bush's saving graces of sincerity, conviction and principle.)
But in the meantime, it might not hurt for McCain to do a little bit to shore up what should be his base -- maybe a case or two of Valu-Rite to brace us on election day.
Posted by: notropis at July 25, 2008 04:35 PM
Actually, I am impressed that McCain cmpaigned this week to people actually eligible to vote for him. That is a big step above His Holiness the Obamessiah.
Posted by: Blackiswhite, Imperial Agent Provocateur at July 25, 2008 06:41 PM