Posted on 03/21/2008 7:25:15 AM PDT by indcons
What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four hours after Barack Obama's teaching moment on race, the landscape was littered with eminent pundits, lying agog in the weeds, overcome by euphoria and flummoxed by failing eupepsia.
Their squeals of praise were universally breathtaking: "It was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling." "A masterpiece!" "A profile in courage!" "Brilliant, inspiring, intellectually supple!" "Searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching and loyal." "A speech we have all been waiting for for a generation." The punditocracy, having overdosed on nuance, seared by supple and sore from all those wrenched guts, is fresh out of exclamation points, now on back order in newsrooms everywhere.
A day after that, reality intrudes. Pundits only observe. Pollsters take the first true measure of events, and yesterday the first polls taken since the speech reveal that the remarks that Obamaniacs call the greatest speech since Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address look like a disaster.
Rasmussen Reports reckons that John McCain's lead over both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is growing. Gallup reports similar findings. By Rasmussen"s reckoning, the McCain lead over Mr. Obama has grown to 49 percent to 42 percent, 51 percent to 41 percent over Hillary. Black support for Hillary has cratered, falling to 55 percent in a general election matchup. Mr. Obama keeps his overwhelming black support, as expected, but only 36 percent of white voters say they would vote for him. That's the ominous statistic; sad and bad as it may be, it's nevertheless a fact that nobody male or female, black or white or any shade in between can win the White House without a lot of white voters.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"Poll numbers will fluctuate a lot between now and November; every poll is only a snapshot. Landscapes change. Barack Obama did what he had to do to distance himself from his hateful pastor and mentor, but by doing so, he brought race to the forefront of the campaign, where it is likely to stay. He has done what he set out never to do, to make himself "the black candidate."
It's soon to be desperate time for the Dems. This is going to be interesting.
Obama’s grandmother will vote for him, and she’s a “typical white woman”!
Really? It sure seemed to me that the Oprah rally meant to do just that.
I thought this was the title of a Jeremiah Wright article on 9/11.
Nah, Obama stinks in debates. He can only read speeches from a teleprompter
The ‘Wright stuff’... I like that!
McCain has suspended a staffer who posted the YouTube video of Wright’s speeches on Twitter.com
If McCain wins, conservatives and libertarians are going to face an interesting time. It’ll be 4 (or more) years of Harriet Miers-like fiascos - only on a daily basis as Juan searches for ways to stick the knife in his supporters’ backs.
Pray for the country this November.
Maybe but I think once he realizes the press are not his friends he will do what he has to do. Remember when he slimed Romney with the fiction that Romney supported "timetables"? It was a silly and ridiculous charge but McCain knowing he had to stop Romney stood there and repeated the nonsense. Of course the press was in his corner then and let him get away with this fiction. My point is not to open up that debate again but to point out that McCain ain't as clean and passive as he wants everyone to think he is.
However, you are right. The debates are all about style. Remember 2004... Kerry was an idiot and made Dubya look like an average Joe. Remember 2000... Gore was an idiot and made Dubya look like an average Joe. 1996... Dole was stiff and awkward and Billy Jeff looked like an average Joe. Given the choice, I'd rather see McCain up against Hillary instead of "the cool black dude". ;-)
Especially when McCain refuses to criticize Obama on issues of character, qualification and policy.
Heck, he doesn't even want to discuss any of it.
McCain wants to make the campaign one long discussion about the Iraq war but he is two years too late.
Its the economy, stupid!
OTH, Obama has been successful in making this campaign a challenge to whites to vote for him just to prove they aren't racists.
And knuckleheaded whites are buying into it.
So the Blacks won’t vote for hillary and the Whites won’t vote for Obama....
Ain’t no way out of that one for the Dems.
“Kerry came withing 1 state of winning and he was the most feckless candidate I ever saw.
Pray for the country this November.”
I honestly believe that America will not have a good president again in my life time, (I’m 50). The entire process eliminates good candidates. Most leaders have made mistakes. Well, if you’ve made a mistake, in the 2+ year campaign season, it will be magnified and distorted in such a way that a relatively minor mistake will take on the appearance of a catastrophe. Not only that, what sane person would want to put up with that kind of scrutiny for 2+ years? Only to get a job where 1/2 the country hates you want wants to see you fail?
On top of that, consider the fortune it takes to even get seriously considered for the job. I just saw Obama is spending $1.5M/day?!
We’re due for much more of the likes of “Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton”
Great observation. Unfortunately during the primary none of McCain's supporters would concede that McCain's ONLY ISSUE was the war.
I would not underestimate him. He cleaned Hillary’s clock during the debates, using a few well placed zingers that were replayed over and over afterwards.
I wish I knew how to copy this animations. This one is priceless.
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