The Molten Core of Barack: Why Obama Can't Win
In which science-fiction movie do aliens visit the people of earth and insist, "Take me to your leader"? If they landed today, America's news media would direct them to Barack Obama, the first American to run a global campaign for President. Like Coca-Cola and Nike, brand Obama has gone global. His web-site retails a Wall-Mart sized inventory of candidate-themed winter and summer gear, though the well-dressed Obama enthusiast is advised he may have to wait one to two weeks to slip on the candidate-for-all seasons.
Obama returned from Europe triumphant. An America that yearns to regain the world's respect saw one foreign leader after another throw open their arms to the American President-in-waiting who arrived on his own Air Force One. Obama was not only treated with respect, he was received enthusiastically, a public affront to an administration, lest we forget, still in power. One way for the Illinois Senator to overcome doubts about his experience is to let Americans see him doing the job. That he did, making the world his stage, fitting the role of President comfortably and demonstrating presidential stature. Yet Obama's international success is only one wave of the storm that has been pounding John McCain's campaign.
McCain took another blow when Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki stamped the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on Obama's Iraq exit strategy. A real "mission accomplished" in Iraq is a political minus for McCain: If the war is done, why do we need a warrior President? It would be one of the great ironies of the election for McCain to be defeated by his own success in Iraq, the triumph of the surge strategy that he singly and doggedly championed. Yet John McCain may soon find himself in the position of buying the voters the tie they just got for Christmas: In the latest NBC/WSJ survey, the war in Iraq is no longer the most important election issue, plunging 14%. It is a success that allows the economy, not security, to take center stage, recalling the theme with which Labour deposed Churchill in July of 1945, "Victory In War Must Be Followed By A Prosperous Peace". That is not necessarily a plus for the candidate who declared "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." Perhaps Senator McCain is trying to lower our expectations.
Add the steepest drop in home prices in 20 years, the weakest auto sales in 15 years, gas prices that have tripled since the Bush Administration took office, the "lets-stay-in-bed" lack of enthusiasm among McCain's own voters who support him as "the lesser of two evils", and a president whose approval ratings have rocketed to one point above his all-time low, and this election should be slam dunk for the gangly, three-point jump shot artist once known as "Barry O'Bomber."
Could Barack Obama possibly get any luckier? It turns out, yes, he can. The caricature of everything wrong with the Republican party, the longest-serving, biggest-spending, pork-devouring Republican in Washington, Senator Ted Stevens, has been indicted on seven felony charges. A timely poster-boy for Republican corruption, he will be cooked publicly on his own clandestinely secured Viking grill.
Barack Obama should not have to hit a three-pointer to win this election. It should be a lay-up. Yet if Senator Obama is doing so well, why is he doing so poorly? And if John McCain is doing so poorly, why is he doing so well?
The Rasmussen Reports Daily Tracking has McCain down only 1%, 43% to Obama's 44%. Real Clear Politics National Average of surveys pegs McCain less than 3% behind, with Gallup showing it tied, and USA Today actually placing McCain ahead of Obama, 49% to 45%. CNN reports McCain is in a better position in Colorado, Michigan, and Wisconsin than he was a month ago and they have moved Minnesota toward McCain into the toss-up category. Give them credit, despite the occasional criticism from this McCain supporter and others, John McCain's maverick band of campaign warriors are keeping this race competitive and, yes, even winning a hand or two, in the face of the worst political environment Republicans could have envisioned and the best global media exposure any Democratic presidential candidate has managed. McCain's recent attacks have worked. McCain's attacks on Obama's tax increases, his elitism and celebrity, his canceled visit to wounded troops, as well as McCain's sharp response to Obama's imagined Republican racial attacks, all dumped cold-water on the Obama campaign, stunting momentum from his European swing and creating a Berlin backlash.
Despite the McCain campaign's effectiveness, however, the best campaign against Barack Obama is not being run by his opponent, but by Barack Obama. It is Obama's campaign that presents their candidate as an ever-changing work-in-progress. It is his own campaign that occludes our ability to know this man, depicting him as authentic as a pair of designer jeans.
To earn the Democratic nomination, as Fred Thompson points out, Obama ran as George McGovern without the experience, a left-of-center politician who would meet unconditionally with Iran, pull us precipitously out of Iraq, prohibit new drilling for oil, and grow big government in Washington by all but a trillion dollars. In his general election TV ad debut, however, Obama pirouetted like Baryshnikov. With a commercial Mike Huckabee could have run in a Republican primary, Obama now emphasizes his commitment to strong families and heartland values, "Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses." In this yet unwritten chapter of his next autobiography, Obama tells us he is the candidate of "welfare to work" who supports our troops and "cut taxes for working families." The shift in his political personae has been startling. Obama has moved right so far and so fast, he could end up McCain's Vice-Presidential pick.
General-election Obama now billboards his doubts about affirmative action. He has embraced the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption saying, "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon...everything." He tells his party "Democrats are not for a bigger government." Oil drilling is a consideration. His FISA vote and abandonment of public campaign finance introduce us to an Obama of recent invention. And as he abandons his old identity for the new, breeding disenchantment among his formerly passionate left-of-center supporters and, equally, doubts among the center he courts, he risks becoming nothing at all, a candidate who is everything and nothing in the same moment. In one of the most powerful marketing books of the past few years, Authenticity, an exploration of our demand for what's real in an increasingly contrived world, authors Gilmore and Pine quote philosophy professor Crispin Sartwell about Al Gore. "Every attempt to regain authenticity," Crispin says, "only casts a new, infinitely repeated image through the hall of mirrors that is his political life and our media experience of that life." Those reflections set the authenticity of John McCain in high-relief. McCain has revealed himself to his core.
In the defining moment of his life, McCain was willing to give everything for one thing, and that one thing was his country. Contrast that with Obama, who has told America that he is "a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world." Obama is the talented salesman who seduced one state after another saying "Iowa, this is our moment," "Virginia, this is our moment," "Texas, this is our moment," and then tells Europe, "people of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment." How many times can Barack Obama sell the same moment to everyone, before he becomes Mel Brooks in "The Producers"? Who is Barack Obama? His campaign, as it reupholsters him before our eyes, says we can never know -- perhaps because Barack Obama does not know himself.
Dreams from My Father is a staggeringly beautiful book, lyrical, powerful and poetic. It is also the story of a man who has been many men, all named Barack Obama. In his own eyes, he is one race, but also another. He is an American, but also a Kenyan. He is from Hawaii and also the Kansas heartland. He is Harvard elite, then the Chicago streets. At times he decries the very clay from which he was made, only to remake himself again.
At each place and stage, as Barack Obama chronicles the chapters of his life, he tells us how he has re-invented himself, becoming the role he inhabits, though not falsely or in-authentically, like Bill Clinton. He actually seems to transform himself, becoming what must be next. He has been called distant, aloof and somewhat unapproachable, perhaps because we cannot approach what he does not have, a solid core. His soul seems to be molten and made up of dreams, which is at once breathtakingly inspiring and forbiddingly indeterminate. When this young man with the flowing, passionate core, when this candidate without the solid-center changes positions and transforms himself as we watch, it leaves Americans much more in doubt about who he is and how he would lead us. It also reveals an Obama of unapproachable arrogance and inestimable self-regard: He appears confident voters will appreciate his superiority regardless of where he journeys or what he becomes to meet his political ambitions.
John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself. As he moves to fit what he perceives to be a right-of-center country, he distances himself from the simple and authentic passion of a young candidate who once pledged "Change We Can Believe In."
This is the trap Barack Obama has made for himself, the one he cannot escape, the one Hillary Clinton foresaw, the one that may doom him. The Obama campaign knows it too. In fear the dream is being lost drop-by-drop, they are going negative on John McCain. Maybe the aliens should ask to meet McCain, as well.
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How dare you even question the sheer perfection of Obama. Get back in line.
I'm pretty sure the response to attack ads is attack ads. it would be great if everybody focused on issues, but the pigs already out of the pen. And unless Obama wants to get dragged through the mud, It's time to make some bacon.
I read through this and noted that you managed to work in pretty much every familiar theme used against Obama. We begin with aliens (there's a foreigner for you - not only not American you took him right off planet Earth) and then watch him shape change into eerily deceptive personas while his forked tongue tells people what they want to hear. You even managed to work in Baryshnikov so he could spin like an effete dancer in your assessment, complete with a molten core to make even his insides flaming and hellish, interesting in a week the GOP have tried to connect him to the anti-Christ. By the time I got to the part where McCain is a "well formed" man I thought I knew what we were actually reading here....
It's all there in your bio. Republican strategist, worked for the Romney campaign and several previous Republican candidates, "father of the attack ad."
Attack ad it is. In the guise of an instructive article.
Nice try.
Just as it was with the Democratic nomination, the Presidency is Obama's to lose. That's the one thing this poster has got right.
John Mc Cain is a poorly informed man with a track record of pushing himself off as something he is not. It is not negative to deny the sucker the paint, to call and raise.
Going negative is what this poster is doing.
Only the dead are completed; even McCain is a study in change: just ask him; he'll be glad to tell you he never said what he's already said. And Obama--una
Obama knows who he is, but he also understands the "politics" of race. He understands that the average American can't relate to having a father from Africa, so in the ad on "family values" he talks about the other half of his family, his White mother from Kansas and his experience being raised by her and his grandparents. He has never denied having a White mother. It's not that he doesn't know who he is, it's that many Americans aren't used to seeing someone like Barack Obama, they aren't used to seeing a Black man with the kind of background that Barack has: a Black man of mixed race, born in Hawaii, his father was from Africa, he lived in Indonesia for a time as a child, etc. Many Americans still claim that they "don't know him" or feel that they can't relate to him. In reality, however, I think that people know who he is, but they aren't really comfortable with someone who is so "different". Hence, the question posed about whether Obama is "like us", is he a real American. Sometimes I have doubts about whether or not America is really ready for a Black President. I'd like to think we're at that point, but I'm not so sure.
McCain is not a complete person, he has done a complete 180 on practically every issue.
See here for a list of McCain's aka "the maverick's" many flip flops: http://www
Does this list of changes in positions indicate that John McCain knows who he is an where he stands, how "complete" is he really?
You would think Obama was the only person in America that has parents of different races. It's become pretty common but for some reason, Obama and the media has treated it as a rare, unusual occurrence. Heck, Barbara Walters had an affair with a black man although she didn't have children with him. America is a melting pot and there are children of mixed races, religions, ethnicities and even same sex parents, for crying out loud. "Obama, get over yourself".
I think Obama is "over" the fact that he's biracial, the problem is that some people in our country who can't "get past" this, and more importantly they can't get past the fact that he's Black. Obama talking about his White mother and grandparents in an ad is an effort on his part to show that he "relates" to the "average" American. You are vary naive if you think that race still isn't an issue in this "melting pot" of ours.
Alex, I think you're over-analyzing the reason why Obama isn't doing as well in the polls and why he could lose this race, when it's really pretty simple.
Why is Obama not "doing so well" compared to McCain? I'll tell you why: it's because he's Black. I really do not believe that it would matter what kind of background Obama had, any Black man with a good chance of becoming President of the United States (unless he were a Black man Republicans thought they could "trust" like Colin Powell or J.C. Watts), will be a target of smear attacks that have racial overtones in order to scare away some White Americans who harbor racist attitudes and resentment toward Blacks. You see in the polls after the McCain campaign aired the Obama/Britney/Paris ad, Obama's lead has decreased. And it's not just about allegations from the McCain campaign that he "played the race card", it also has to do with the fact that the ad tapped into racist fears of Black men lusting after blonde-haired White women. I'm sure that the Clintons know that the Republicans would be relentless in their attempts to smear Obama because of his race, but in fairness they also tried to use racist attitudes to their advantage in the primary, even though I know they aren't racists themselves.
Wow. Fatalistic much?
Alex Castellanos is one of the Republican party’s best known and most successful media consultants and strategists. Mr. Castellanos has served as media consultant to 7 U.S. Presidential campaigns, and is currently volunteering on the John McCain for President Ad Council. Previously, he served as a senior strategist for the Romney for President Campaign
and as a key creative member to the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. He has been credited with the discovery of the political "soccer-mom" and called "father of the attack ad."
That's awesome, because if there's one reason I come to this site it's to get the Republican spin-machine perspective on things.
Guess that 'splains it Lucy!!
'It also reveals an Obama of unapproachable arrogance and inestimable self-regard: He appears confident voters will appreciate his superiority regardless of where he journeys or what he becomes to meet his political ambitions.
John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself. As he moves to fit what he perceives to be a right-of-center country, he distances himself from the simple and authentic passion of a young candidate who once pledged "Change We Can Believe In.'
This is just stoopid. You blame Obama for the racism that has been America's DNA for 230 years? It is bool and says more about your own thinking and beliefs than anything or anyone else. Hillary foresaw it? What a crock. Stop Undermining Obama. Show your real self.
Well, there you have it. There is simply no reason to carry on the campaign now that Alex has called it. Turn out the lights...t
Gee thanks. Here we have the same Republican slams on Obama's character, the same mocking of hope and optimism, the same casting of Obama and an "other" that the McCain campaign is dishing out so ham-handedly, only Mr. Castellanos is able to coat it with a veneer of gravitas and better-than-average writing so that it almost seems inoffensive and reasonable. Well, it's neither.
This article is breath-taking in it's analysis of how Obama is going to lose this election.
Democratic candidates seem to reinvent themselves regularly, while Republicans are stubbornly
entrenched in their beliefs. Think maybe Americans have more respect for the latter approach?
Here's something else. Because of this animosity between those of us still loyal to Hillary (and why shouldn't I be?) and the Obama followers, everything Obama does of importance on the campaign trail risks opening past wounds. When he chooses a running mate, Hillary people will finally decide if they will support Obama or forever turn their backs on him. At the convention, if Hillary is treated as anything less than an equal, you can once again kiss the Hillary people goodbye.
If I was to put money on it right now, I'd say McCain will be the next President.
The convention can't come soon enough so we can finally hear the last of the HRC dead-enders. Take your votes and don't let the door hit ya. Vote for McCain and reap what you sow. Works for me.
Now is the time to stand up and be counted. Anyone who would vote against everything HRC has stood for for out of misguided egotistic bitterness is nobody I want in my corner ever... not even under the best of circumstances. And especially not now, with so much on the line.
Times are dire, and we need people who will do what is right to save this country. The rest can figuratively go up against the proverbial wall, as far as I'm concerned.
"Because of this animosity between those of us still loyal to Hillary (and why shouldn't I be?) and the Obama followers, everything Obama does of importance on the campaign trail risks opening past wounds."
Obama followers? You make our support for our candidate sound to frivolous and also it's an attempt to belittle the candidate that we support, how petty and immature of you! And you wonder why Hillary supporters get little respect from some Obama supporters. We believe in our candidate just like you believe in Hillary, and if Obama is elected President and he turns out to be one of the greatest Presidents this nation has ever had, you will be eating your words.
Everything Obama does of importance as the presumptive nominee "opens past wounds?" Don't you think it's time to move on?
"If I was to put money on it right now, I'd say McCain will be the next President.
Wishful thinking, I'd say, with a heavy dose of subjective [Clintonite] analysis based on a GOP hit piece [and yes, that's exactly what this article is].
IF Johnny Boy is your ideal of a complete man? I wonder what you see when you look in the mirror?
Because a complete man? Is one who if faithful, honest and caring. None of the 3 fit the mold that AJohn McCain has chosen over his pitiful life choices.
You've made some compelling points here about Obama's weaknesses. But I see the weakness of the whole campaign as letting the focus stay on Obama as a person rather than Obama's and McCain's totally disparate points of view. Why aren't we discussing McCain's ideas--or lack of them--along with his inability to remember what he did yesterday? McCain may be a "complete" man, but he certainly is not a "well-formed" one.
Thank you, you've called it right.
"John McCain is a complete and well-formed man." Who happens to flip-flop on every issue, including torture.
"This is the trap Barack Obama has made for himself, the one he cannot escape, the one Hillary Clinton foresaw . . . " Well, this line tells us who you supported and are probably still bitter didn't win. BTW, I never saw any evidence that Hillary had any kind of insight about any of the other candidates, mainly because she spent the entire campaign focused on herself.
I guess you never actually read the books by Obama you mention in this post. I read The Audacity of Hope, and anyone who didn't see Obama as a pragmatic politician was deluding themselves. I'm guessing you would have decried the fact that FDR changed his mind about deficit spending after the 1932 election and created the New Deal. God forbid anyone deal with conditions as they exist or learn from their mistakes. So much better to "stay the course" and go over the cliff. GWB, anyone?
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