Posted on 09/12/2008 7:47:36 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Barack Obama knows it. The election he had in the bag is slipping away.
The selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCains running mate has so thrown him off stride, as it has most other Democrats, that all the momentum he had has vanished. Hes getting panicky advice from everywhere. He intends to launch more and sharper attacks, abandoning any pretense of a new and different, more civil campaign.
Democrats know something, and desperation is setting in. They have a novice campaigner who wanders off message. With every advantage in the primaries, Obama couldnt win the big states New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania against Hillary Clinton, even when he got to define the rules for running against him. She could never risk alienating the base shell need in 2012; John McCain and Sarah Palin have no such constraints hence the panic.
For a change candidate, Obama appears to be a man locked in time, unable to move past criticism, unable to move from the grip of the Democratic left, unable to adapt to the changed reality that the campaign is not the referendum on the war in Iraq or on the administration of George W. Bush that hed envisioned.
Hes begun to sound dated. Last week, for example, he devoted valuable campaign days less than two months remain into explaining a silly lipstick on a pig line. The McCain campaign had reacted, accusing him of making the reference to Palin. I dont care what they say about me, Obama responded. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swiftboat politics. Enough is enough, he said. (The Swiftboat reference is from the 2004 campaign of John Kerry).
The Democratic left is still seething from the Kerry campaigns loss and is determined to see Bush expelled from the White House in disgrace the reason it is locked in to making this a referendum on the administration now ending.
It barely worked when the maverick McCain, no darling of the Bushites, got the nomination. With Palin, the Washington outsider, the third term argument is plainly absurd. But Obama cant let go, just as the lefties cant let go of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth defeat of Kerry. He cant move on.
Obama has the habit, too, of reminding voters of their doubts about him, as he did in reminding a Detroit audience that hes been accused of being less interested in protecting you from terrorists than reading them their rights. And, when he professes love of country as his basis for refusing to allow the McCain campaign to attack his words, he raises questions about why he finds the affirmation of love necessary.
Obama will lose because with less than two months remaining voters wont be able to get comfortable with him. He cant stay on message and he cant avoid sending signals that interfere with the message when he does.
McCain, on the other hand, has been superb going back at least to Obamas European tour. Mainstream America is comfortable with him and, with Palins selection, conservatives who had their doubts are onboard. The GOP is energized and suddenly an unwinnable election is reversed.
Obama got this far by winning small states and Southern states he has no chance of carrying in November. In Georgia, for example, the latest Insider Advantage poll has McCain pulling 56 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Obama, numbers that are not likely to change more than 4 percentage points in November. The undecideds and those who intend to vote for third-party campaigns are at 6 percent.
In this election, voters will decide early. Obamas been in a yearlong campaign; McCains familiar. The two are sufficiently exposed and known for voters to make a decision now.
Its not over. But its getting there and Obama knows it.
Link to one of my favs of our Sarah. Wish I knew how to put it up here.
http://www.palmerelks.org/images/wwp-photo2.jpg
Love ‘em!
*FINALLY*, the Left is seeing what I've seen for a while now. *THIS* one event, was the actual "beginning of the end" for "The Zero". While it played well with the Europeans, it did *not* play as well here, and gave the McCain team their initial opening, which they exploited well.
Each ding on the "immaculate" image of "The (Self) Anointed One" led to an error on his part, which was in turn, exploited for another shot. This pattern continues to this very day, and where once, it wasn't being noticed by people, *NOW* everyone is seeing it.
He is being totally dismembered before our eyes, and it can no longer be hidden...
the infowarrior
So if Bush was in the lead all through September in 2004, why is everyone acting as if this is going to be some romp or blowout for us, when 2004 was close?
Why is McCain leading now such a big deal?
I’m glad he is, but we need to wait to see if he can keep the lead through the next two weeks.
On a previous thread, during the visit to Hawaii, there were a series of images posted that showed both of them walking far apart, not communicating. The image below is one from that same period IIRC, sorry I can't find the others now...
below is another occasion when Michelle was missing...
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., second from right, walks with Bobby Titcomb, second from left, and Greg Orme right after throwing a lei in the Pacific Ocean at the point where he scattered his mother's ashes in Honolulu, Hawaii, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008. Sen. Obama is in Hawaii for a vacation.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Bookmark!
I think so as well. I wasn't certain he could pull it off though, but now? I get some, I don't know, call it gut-level feeling that he may well pull it off, something completely unexpected, a crushing, landslide victory.
Last week, I believed this impossible, but today? It might just be possible, so I'm awaiting McCain's next few moves with some anticipation. Since I'm now certain he had every moment of this campaign meticulously planned from jump, the next few moves will be doozies, as well. This whole election cycle, has been surreal, and it isn't over yet, so keep your eyes and ears open, and your powder dry...
the infowarrior
Not me. Can't speak for anyone else.
Now that is strange, that the wife would not be there for the lei ceremony.
Hmm.
In Virginia and Kentucky, stations opened with $3.60 a gallon and closed at over $5 a gallon. My parents called and told me to fill up. We only got a 10 cent leap here in WV today.
Why (and why and why) Michelle Obama was not at the 9/11 ceremony.
Hmmm.
As usual, the Obamas never did answer the question.
MIKE BURLEY / MBURLEY@STARBULLETIN.COM Democratic presidential hopeful Illinois Sen. Barack Obama waited yesterday afternoon for the doors to close in the elevator that would take him up to visit his grandmother in a Punahou-area apartment.
LOL. But we don’t want or need their Moonbat base..... we just need a landslide with votes from all the rational, patriotic people in this country. Obama can have the other 30%....... :^)
Clearly MSM journalists need to start asking whether Michelle Obama can handle the duties of being First Lady while raising young children. /sarcasm
57 days, 57 states. Oh the irony.
hehe
OMG! LOL!
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