Posted on 08/01/2008 10:11:28 AM PDT by The_Republican
Is it just me or have the political parties switched roles this election?
The normally hapless Democrats have become an imperious, on-message political machine. The habitually martial GOP, which stays on message like drill sergeants stay on G.I.'s, lacks an overarching message this year, to the point where its conservative base is as energized as a turtle.
Ever since the formative Reagan era, in which the GOP emerged from its post-Watergate swamp of embarrassment and strategist Lee Atwater propagated the Big Tent myth, Republicans have run aggressive, targeted, laser-like message machine presidential campaigns. What else could have transformed an inarticulate legacy into a two-term president? What else could have transfigured a grade B actor into the architect of the fall of communism (which many historians believe would have collapsed of its own weight no matter who was commander in chief)?
On the Democratic side, Bill Clinton was only able to slip into the White House by winning a plurality (not a majority) of the vote in a three-way race. During his first run he faced a feckless president saddled by a weak economy. After Clinton, Al Gore was a lousy campaigner who could have been a world-changing president, had his campaign taken strong stands and communicated his strengths to the voting public. Later, he won a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award for his commanding message on the environment.
But Gore's luckless strategists were unable to generate voter enthusiasm around the environment or suburban sprawl during Gore's presidential bid. The election was Gore's to lose and he lost it. Let's not even waste time on John Kerry. A war hero demeaned by a bunch of personal enemies because he could not out-message the Swift Boat crowd. Pathetic!
Fast forward to today. Democratic Party leaders would have you believe they are barreling toward victory in November with a youthful, enigmatic, messiah-like candidate capable of resolving every ill and satisfying competing constituencies. The GOP candidate, on the other hand, switches message from the war to the economy to offshore oil drilling and back again. John McCain goes through staff, advisors and surrogates more quickly than McDonald's changes burger flippers. What is wrong with this picture? Why are Democrats so united and on-message this year and Republicans so fractiously incompetent?
Stay tuned, friends, because this, too, could change. The cracks are growing in the Democratic Unity dam, and McCain may be on the verge of getting his act together. Barack Obama needs to step off his "holier than thou" platform and get his designer shoes dirty. He needs to let voters catch a glimpse of the regular guy who may actually lurk under his veneer of superiority. From using a presidential seal-like logo at one speech earlier this year (an obvious error that was immediately tanked) to addressing a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin and meeting with heads of state before he has reason to, Obama's puerile self-absorption may backfire on him and turn off the very voters he needs to turn on: the white working class. His campaign's use of Cecil B. DeMille backdrops rivals Karl Rove's brilliant manipulation of wedge issues. But as Steve Kornacki of the New York Observer notes, this too has its downsides:
"Obama's campaign has featured Reagan-like stagecraft that has made his opponents look like midgets, producing an effect that prompted Chris Matthews, in a moment that will haunt him to his grave, to talk of a certain 'thrill going up (his) leg.' But it never seems to move his polls numbers." Indeed, according to daily tracking polls by Gallup and Rasmussen Reports, Obama's European trip poll bounce dwindled almost immediately to pre-trip levels.
Democrats need to humanize Obama. His campaign has done too good a job of deifying him. A good start would be for Obama to apologize to Clinton supporters for not coming to her defense during the primaries and helping her battle a torrent of sexist media criticism. McCain, the soldier, conversely, needs to get disciplined and promote a rock-solid economic message. He needs to convince swing voters he will do the better job of righting the economy than a rookie senator with little by way of a legislative record.
This race is still the Democrats' to lose. But by going overboard on unity and turning unity to hubris, they can still easily lose it.
His arrogance is mind-boggling and WILL lead to his downfall.
Guaranteed.
All McCain has to do is not let IDIOTS like Phil Gram run their mouth. As long as he can keep himself and his surrogates from sticking their foot in their mouth, he would be ALL RIGHT.
OHIO, MICHIGAN and FLORIDA is where McCain needs to spent his money and other than Florida he has been doing that. Ofcourse, HAVE to hold Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. All indications are that he IS going to be able to do that.
There is NO WAY that working class voters relate to Obama. Simply no way. Polls today are simply a way of VENTING frustation. Whatever small gains Obama shows there are just that and nothing more.
When actual vote happens, in NO WAY the blue collar workers push the button for an arrogant ass.
I would’ve thought that Bonnie Erbe has a brand new set of presidential kneepads at the ready.
She is a far-left gynocrat.
Obama has NEVER been a regular guy who why start now. He has been elitist for a long time and like a leopard cannot change his spots.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/the_operative_term_is_hubris.html
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
- Euripides
He has a seat on his campaign aircraft marked “president”. He has taken a shot at creating his own presidential seal, complete with Latin motto. He has laid claim to personal control over the world’s oceans and seas. He has repeatedly attempted to dictate how and on what level he, his ideas, and his activities may be discussed. He has encouraged a portrayal of himself as a messianic figure, including a portrait of himself as Christ, complete with halo. He is even now completing a triumphant grand tour of the old world, during which he attempted to shanghai an ancient monument for personal use without consulting the host government.
The operative term here is “hubris”. A word of Attic Greek origin, hubris was a major concept animating classical Greek thought. Hubris is overweening pride, an arrogance so profound and so visible as to affront the gods themselves. Hubris was a quality often identified with Greek tragic heroes. The hero allowed simple human pride in his accomplishments and station to burgeon to offensive proportions, at which point the wheels of fate began rolling. The ending was never good — the valiant Ajax stabs himself to death at a lonely spot, the kingly Oedipus is transformed into a howling, self-blinded wreck.
Barack Obama embodies hubris in chemically pure form. Not that he’s a tragic hero, or a hero of any sort, to anyone apart from his deluded legions of college freshmen. Beyond cleaning Hillary’s clock, he has no accomplishments to speak of, and as for his station... A glance at Trent Lott, Robert Byrd, and Ted Kennedy clearly reveals that “U.S. senator” is not a position of particular pride.
But even if he hasn’t founded cities, destroyed monsters, or led men into battle, Obama does share one quality with the heroes of the ancient world: an absolute conviction that he is superior to the ordinary run of humanity. Like them, Obama believes himself a man of destiny, and like them, Obama will go over the edge.
The only question is whether he gets to take the country with him.
There are rumors heating up that McCain would pick a female VP - Palin or Fiorina or someone like that.
That alone with these tight polls can make all the difference and get him across a finish line!
He doesn’t have to WIN the plurality of gynocrats, he just needs to break away 5-6%.
I believe he has fairly descent shot of doing just that.
Thanks for the post! I LOVE that quote by Euripides! It has so much wisdom and truth!!!! Awesome!
What??
. . . . . . . . No, seriously, WHAT!!??
The Seattle PI used to be a somewhat decent paper, but I see they’re sliding down the gangplank to Puget Sound. A shame.
> There are rumors heating up that McCain would pick a female VP - Palin or Fiorina or someone like that.
None of the above please. Palin is damaged goods, and Carly Fiorina would be a good choice only if we had a time machine and could bring her back from the pre-HP/Compaq merger era.
If the light's just right...
There is no Republican in the presidential race this year. McCain is the Democrat candidate and Obama is the Marxist-Socialist candidate.
that must’ve been before my time.
I have several lifelong frinds who are blue collar workers. They are union members and democrats, and white. They won’t vote for Obama....in this lifetime, or any other.
They view him as arrogant and elitist. The have said repeatedy “if the college boys are voting for him, then there’s got to be something wrong with him”.
My guess is she is a Hillary gynocrat (I like that) but a gynocrat non the less.
I haven’t seen her recently. So she’s porked up?
Lacking a decent candidate, the GOP needs another Lee Atwater more than ever.
I almost stopped reading at that point. A commentator that oblivious to what went on around her doesn't have a great deal of credibility to begin with.
True to this model, she seems dimly to have sensed what the rest of us have been shouting about for the last several months - Obama is an overinflated, oversold, overconfident blowup doll of a candidate, and his staff is doing the impossible by turning a sure thing into a poor joke. The reason cited for his defeat will, to be sure, be that we're all racists for not falling for it, but at some point you just can't pretend anymore.
McCain is a Moderate Democrat, Obama is a Communist.
My labels were more polite, but yours are more accurate.
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