Obama's Speech, and the Strategy Behind It

Republicans should be scared.

Not because Obama just delivered a great speech, but because it pretty clearly demonstrated what Obama has been up to for the last month.

As you may recall, the mainline press has spent the last few weeks pontificating ad nauseam about the ascendence of the McCain camp and the relative reticence of Obama's campaign.

Not long after Karl Rove's former deputy, Steve Schmidt, took over McCain's campaign, the Obama team essentially stepped back and handed McCain the initiative.

To most operatives, particularly those who worked with the Gore and Kerry campaigns, that seemed to spell a death wish on Obama's part.

After all, if there was anything the Democrats learned over the last two elections, it's the need to control the daily news cycle, to take the initiative and keep it -- not by reacting to GOP attacks, but by attacking the other candidate, hour by hour, day in and day out, until the electorate at large unconsciously thinks of the other side as being weak.

For the last month or so, the Obama camp appeared to recoil in the face of that challenge. It all but handed the initiative to the McCain campaign.

And now we know why. This wasn't a case of fatigue, as some suggested; nor was it a case of Democratic timidity rearing its head yet again.

Rather, it appears to have been a calculated decision on Obama's part.

As Mark Blumenthal and Marc Ambinder have reported, the Obama camp has some very positive numbers in the 18 swing states they're targeting.

As a result, they clearly felt they had the luxury of being able to ignore the national polling for a while. So long as their internal numbers -- for voter registration, voter turnout, etc -- stayed strong, it didn't matter to them if McCain pulled even nationally.

In fact, the more confident McCain became, the more it played right into their hands.

Read or watch the speech the again, and you should see what I mean -- tiime and again, Obama takes a GOP attack line against him and turns it on its head.

For example, look at how well he redefined the personal attack against his patriotism:

But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America -- they have served the United States of America.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

Put it all in context and Obama's recent strategy seems clear enough. It's a variant of the "rope-a-dope" strategy in boxing, where you let the opponent throw his best punches, exhaust himself on the offensive, and then unleash a barrage of your own.

Or as Andrew Sullivan put it, Obama "let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again ... and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check."

That's obviously a risky strategy, one that takes a higher degree of confidence than a polarized electorate typically allows for. But Obama is a unique candidate with a unique constituency, a politician whose appeal extends across enough demographic groups that he felt he could bear that risk responsibly.

And last night he delivered. It was the first great speech of my generation, and it sent the GOP headed towards 2012.

Comments

[TheProverbialMan]

Hell yeah. Did anyone really beleive that a group of Chicago politicians are going to sit around on top of millions of dollars and not do anything about it? Sit around and say "Well, our Hope and Change campaign has run it's course..." Yeah...rig­ht.

These are the same folks that took out the CLINTONS! THE GREATEST POLITICIANS OF THEIR GENERATION! You have seen the first major punch.

The public and pundits also forget that the damn debates haven't even come. Obama McCain? Biden Palin? Massive Victory.

[jacqmac]

WHERE are you getting your information about a 'group of Chicago politicians sitting on top of millions of dollars'? There is NOTHING in Obama's resume that even suggests that a 'machine' is helping him. Are you that cynical to believe that a person with a little help from political insiders can't build his OWN machine? This guy was so unknown in the year 2000 that he couldn't even get a credential to enter the convention hall in L.A. No 'old money men' went to Obama's door and suggested he run for public office-on the contrary-they were scared STIFF!

[robbor]

Last evening as Barack Obama spoke there were 2 perhaps 3 occasions where Barack's expression changed for a moment that made my neck stiffen and eyes widen. The expression was a serious, no nonsense look I had never seen emanate from him before; a look so intense that there and then I knew his meaning and purpose is to be president of the United State. Yes, we will be seeing a very different person leading up to the election. I can't wait.

[rmwarnick]

Going to the stadium for the last night of the convention was brilliant. It's like the first three days of the convention were just practice for the real thing.

[matthew 270808]

The boxing analogy fails. If Obama's speech represents a change of tactic by him that's good but nobody throws away their poll advantage on purpose.

[Iamfedup]

Read the article again, I think you missed the point.

[jaglon]

He kicked way over the goal posts last night. The speech was one of the best I have heard in a long time. We need someone like that; someone who can talk and talk well. People may think they want someone who speaks in short sentences with one synabal words but the leaders in the rest of world do not.

McCain's pick today takes experince off the table. I know the play he is trying to make here but in her case she has far less experince then Obama. Alaska maybe phyiscally large but it population small. Has this woman been to college? Where? Any post-grad education? McCain is 72 today with failing memory problems, is he joking? Clearly, he is pandering to the blue-collar, disgruntled Hillary crowd with this pick.

[sonshine]

So well put!

[max]

I don't think that's the case. I think Obama realized he was in danger of being the next Kerry and woke up......he was great, that's the way to win

[rmadilo]

"So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."

If you get a chance to see the speech again, notice something about this line:

Obama delivers it to a different camera that the rest of the speech. He is looking down, directly into a nearby camera. Once delivered, the traditional camera angles resume.

I haven't noticed any other commentary on this point.

[ubroc]

You may be right. What we need to see now are specific excerpts of the speech edited and reworked into targeted ads. This speech was brilliant in every way. Its is a great start but not by itself the knockout punch. The story line there but it needs to be broken down and reframed in a way that will make it compelling and understandable to the 90% of the electorate who don't pay that much attention to the election. I loved the way he defined what a liberal activist government means and what it can do for the average citizen. It wasn't "getting government out of the way" or "government is evil" or "less government is better" and it moved the democrats forward, beyond "the era of big government is over". Both compelling and understandable It provided a valid framework for governing as a Liberal. It honored the best ideals of America and made me proud. With expectations so great and the stakes so high Barak delivered the goods with a speech worthy of the anniversary of I Have a Dream. The King is surely smiling today.

[ProudLiberalDan]

This is straight out of Lao Tzu's ancient, but masterful book, "The Art of War".

Bravo to Obama. I was one of those who had mistakenly thought he was wimping out. Boy was I wrong. He came out switing last night and made some major punches.

The Republicans were too clever-by-half and walked into the trap.

[joeneri]

Actually, Sun Tzu wrote the 'Art of War.' Lao Tzu wrote the 'Tao te Ching,' a more mystical text.
But your point is well taken: Obama certainly knows how to counter-punch.

[mahaganapati]

that sun tzu not lao tzu.... the tao te ching is a bit different than the art of war

[AmericanFool]

Obama came out swinging like Rocky Balboa... beautiful, just beautiful.

[cobobs]

Too many times I have called the Obama side on an error, then I turned out to be the one in error. I have learned to calm down and let them do their thing.

[smurphette]

YES WE CAN!!! One Vote, one Dream, One America!!!



Obama/Biden 08

[RasAlula]

See AJ Rossmiller's August 21 piece "Obama Bomaye". That was excellent. It is clear that Rossmiller was right.

[FrictionSoul]

blah blah blah. Doesn't matter what the media thinks of either campaign. Polls are ridiculous and nobody EVER reports on how the polls were conducted, what questions were asked and NEVER reveal the raw data. Nonsense.

The media is now forced to dance with Palin and try to make the next 60+ days good for their rating because as we all know now, this election is over. Obama is our next President.