Team Obama's One Missing Ingredient: Killer Instinct
The late legendary football coach Bill Walsh, part of that vanishing group of moderate Republicans, supported Gary Hart for president in the 1980s. His elegant yet ruthless strategies point the way to Barack Obama's victory.
Barack Obama's campaign has been absolutely brilliant, with accomplishments in organization and fundraising that few would have thought possible. Obama himself is one of the most compelling political figures not just in the nation, but the world. Yet, if one were to select one area in which Obama's campaign has been absolutely deficient, it would be this. Demonstrating, and executing, as it were, the killer instinct.
In many ways, politics, especially media about politics, is like a little kids' soccer game. Somebody kicks the ball over there, and all the kids run in the same direction. I give you Wasilla Mayor-turned-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Meanwhile, a lot of other stuff goes on, that is usually more important. Sarah Snarl, as one of my posters at New West Notes refers to her, is a sideshow. I've written about that. Enough said.
The real deal is John McCain.
With the NFL season starting this past weekend, I'm reminded of the strategies of the legendary, late coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Bill Walsh. Coach Walsh was a Republican, of the increasingly endangered moderate variety, who in the 1980s supported my old friend Gary Hart for president.
Hart's frontrunning presidential candidacy was derailed 20 years ago by a private "scandal" that by today's standards seems, let's say, very quaint. So the applicability of Walsh's spectacularly successful football strategies to presidential politics remained undemonstrated.
But hardly irrelevant.
Walsh is known for a pretty, even elegant, approach to football, full of glamourous players and flashy plays. Not unlike a certain presidential campaign of our present acquaintance.
But having gotten to know him a bit prior to his death last year from leukemia, his theory of conflict was not about style. It was about attack.
Walsh, for all his cultivation of quarterbacks and an elegant passing game, was a boxing fan. And for all his complex playbook, his philosophy boiled down to one basic thing.
Analyze your opponent. Find a vulnerability. And attack that vulnerability. Ruthlessly and repeatedly.
Not once or twice or three or four times. But constantly. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Until you "shatter," as he liked to put it, your opponent.
If the opponent makes an "adjustment," as Walsh put it, that almost certainly opens up another opportunity to attack.
This is what the Obama campaign is failing to do. Select and drive a very consistent hard negative against John McCain, until the old warrior's credibility is shattered.
Team Obama failed to do this in the primaries, as well, as many of my friends and readers repeatedly told me. Obama never delivered the knockout blow against Hillary Clinton. So, emboldened, she hung around forever, even though it was clear that she couldn't win. The difference in the primaries is that Obama needed the Clintons for the general election. He's finally having lunch with Bill Clinton in New York on Thursday. Which is very good for Obama, because as I pointed out 11 days ago, Obama needs the former president in order to lock down this election.
He doesn't need John McCain. While McCain is a great hero, and Obama's Senate colleague, he is Obama's opponent. While the big dynamics of the election are in Obama's favor, as Team O would no doubt tell you, this is an election that can yet be lost.
Obama need not "rip out his living guts and use them to grease the treads of his tanks," to borrow a line from George Patton.
He simply needs to select one of McCain's multiple vulnerabilities and relentlessly drive home his attack.
Whether it is the Obama campaign per se, or some other entity, that performs the needed task.
What is the best line of attack?
I might say. But my good friend Steve Schmidt, the former Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign manager and Bush/Cheney war room director who is the architect of the resurgent McCain campaign, who I profiled early on on Huffington Post, reads this stuff right away.
So suffice to say that there are a number of things that Team Obama can select. (Look for the contradiction ...)
The key is to choose. And to attack. Relentlessly and ruthlessly.
The presidency lies at the end of the cycle.
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Well Mr. Obama, it has been a week now and all we are talking about is Palin, her glasses, her Bridge and her Ebay jet. And now, today, you joked about "lipstick on a pig"!
It is plain to see that you have no "war room" to match the Republicans. You apparently do not care to let Biden loose on Palin and break this 7 day news cycle.
So here is some advice for you.
(1) Stop addressing McCain as a "true American Hero" and start saying he has a "very long public and military record". Develop and play a mild “age” card to counter the 72 year old McCain with his 92 year old mother in the backdrop. Some voters think he can do a term even at that age.
(2) Tighten up and speed up your speech pattern during interviews. You are searching for words which gives the perception of being weak. You have remarkable timing and speech pattern in front of a teleprompter and you must bring that timing into your interviews.
(3) Develop an edge in your voice and use it strategically in responses to McCain, criticisms, ads and the upcoming debates. Simply review that Rev. Rick fiasco where you searched for words in your answers and McCain, after watching the questions from his limo, fired off quick firm responses. You too need to fire off quick firm responses!
Then square up to McCain and take him on in these debates!
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Reactive mode.
What is reactive about this post.
CNN commentators are discussing right now that Obama has been off message for 7 days and is getting knocked around by the daily Republican negative spin. Even the female commentators are calling for Obama to get tough and start getting his agenda back.
Yes, even one of the commentators spoke to one of Obama's strategist's today who admitted they have no strategy to counter Palin at this point. So now you have Biden who cannot get any airtime, you have Obama trying to counter Palin which leaves McCain free to scream to the TV audience and wave his pen saying telling them how he is going to veto every line of pork barrel spending.
Moreover, if Obama comes off as being weak in these debates, this thing, as Bill Clinton would say, is over!
Those folksy, half joking off-the-cuff campaign speeches from Obma are killing him right now. Not from his audience but rather from the TV audience that view those sound bytes.
I hope you all caught Obama's press conference at noon (eastern).
It was FANTASTIC! Masterful job of criticizing Bush policies, minor adjustments, continuing misunderstand of WHERE lies the central front in the war on terra... and McCain making the same mistakes only moreso. Hope it gets some coverage here on HuffPo.
P.S. To those who say Obama shouldn't "go negative," again, I say there is a distinction between pointing out your opponents' glaring errors in judgement, and ad hominem attacks.
P.P.S. Go Bears
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Good press conference. But he's not driving a consistent message.
Agreed in full.
The "pace" has to pick up - it would seem logical that Obama can keep a far more intense pace - for a far longer period of time. Remember that along with other things, Clinton wore Dole out - just totally exhausted him.
See William Bradley's Profile
Obama actually looked kinda tired last night.
No offense. Late defense. Great strategy for a losing team. But Obama is supposed to appear presidential -- present the great ideas, be a calming and trustworthy presence not a pit bull or a pig with lipstick. Ahem.
So my question is this: why have the leaders of the Democratic party failed to do anything to support Obama? They just had another 6 weeks' vacation, and apparently spent their time sunning at the multi-million dollar homes they own or their corporate friends own and doing nothing to help Obama.
I remember Feinstein and Schumer went all-out to get Mukasey confirmed as AG, big push for their buddy. But for Obama, nothing.
I remember Schumer made a huge effort to protect his hedge fund friends so they don't have to pay taxes like the rest of us do. Big effort there, hugely rewarded by enormous contributions from Wall Street. But for Obama, nothing.
And the Clintons have done nothing but pout.
If you're looking for the attack dogs, they're supposed to come from Obama's party.
I think the top dogs in the Democratic party want Obama to lose because it means the Dems in Congress can keep playing the fear card -- daily e-mails saying eek, eek, save the country from McCain, send me money. It's almost as lucrative for them as 9/11 is for the Republicans.
Hillary just campaigned for Obama in Floridia. Bill's having lunch with Obama on Thursday.
Your comment confirms the point. If we assume that our democracy is at stake, our freedoms, the constitution, democracy, the lives of so many throughout the world, our jobs, our educational system, our water, all of our rights -- don't you think that Hillary could do more than show up one day in Florida (out of her just-completed 6 weeks of additional vacation in 2008), and Bill could do more than "have lunch?" It's a pathetic showing. Not just for the Clintons, but for the most of the leadership in the Democratic party.
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His surrogate operation has always been kinda lacking.
"politics ain't beanbag" ... sorry. Obama has to get rough - how ever he wants to do it - must be perceived by the American public as having monumental strength. Yes, is tough with the somewhat "new age" image that Obama has cultivated - but like it or not, the American public wants to know that they have a leader with the ability to be a pragmatic "John Wayne" if needed. Obama has to cultivate a an image of being a leader that has no peer when it come to fiercely defending the freedoms of this country - capture that essence of every simple morality play/ movie - the decent good guy avoids the brute force confrontation as long as possible - but when unavoidable, is overwhelming and devastating (but not cruel). This is easier on screen than in real life. It is a challenge - and definitely cannot be done in a gratuitous manner.... but must be done.
That's right.
It's time now to bring in the "killer team" and start sending our donations to MOVEON.ORG
Obama is from Chicago, I am surprised he isn't a street fighter. Dirty politics was born and
bred in Chicago, maybe it's time for a whole new Obama team.
A lean, mean, nasty team.
The intellectual, gentleman's team, just ain't up to the fight that is coming in the next two months.
See William Bradley's Profile
MoveOn for 527 stuff? Actually, it's Obama who needs the small donations.
Attack style politics suppress turnout. We need a positive campaign and high voter turn out to win. And we will.
It's not just one or the other.
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I don't sense the turnout going up with the current approach.
That doesn't mean you go strictly negative. In fact, quite the contrary.
To use the soccer analogy, what Barack Obama needs right now is the equivalent of defensive play from the likes of Carles Puyol or Sergio Ramos; good, tough defensive play without drawing too many fouls in the process; a sublime tackle that opens up the counterattack and allows a goal.
Obama's a West Ham fan. He needs to sit his staff down and watch a well played match, like the Spanish national team in the Euro 2008 competition. Pay attention to the Spanish side's sublime defensive work, that enabled their feat on the pitch against all comers.
Beautiful game is one thing, but without the great defending from the backfield, the goals don't happen.
Uh, right.
We want Obama to win. He can't change this country unless he does. He must do whatever it takes to win this election. I know this sounds cold, but he's giving the American people a little too much credit. Hit McCain hard and hit him often.
Isn't a killer instinct is what we've had with George W. Bush on issues like the war?
Look where it has gotten us.
We need a different perspective, Like Barack Obama's!!!
He has a much more intelligent strategy to fighting things!!! One that is a rare find and would lead us Americans, to a new future.
Because pacifists get elected President.
Not.
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Obama has frequently said he will fight tough and hard. He hasn't been doing it the right way.
I think we need to dumb down the campain...
enough enough enough...a
McCain's campaign has certainly gained by saying the same thing ... CELEBRITY .... over and over.
What a bunch of whiners. :)
We are in the home stretch Obama/Biden Supporters. Do not give up now. If we do - WE are to blame. Obama is not an attack dog -- get over it. He just may be among the most intelligent people we've had offered up as potential President and we're going to lose because he isn't a bitter, sick, twisted prick?
Christ. This isn't WWF wrestling this is about the future of our country. Get your chins off the table and get out and register someone to vote, give $10 bucks to the campaign, go do a visibility event in your neighborhood!
Hillary isn't the VP.
Sarah Palin is a good excuse for stupid people to not vote for a Black Man.
John McCain is ancient and because the Right Wing picked Palin he is less of a maverick then he's ever been and therefore more closely allied with the last 8 years of misery
You want to sit around whining and wishing for woulda coulda, shouldas?
I sure don't.
its not obamas fault the majority of americans are low info voters, who value who they would like to drink a beer with over who has good policies
only in america huh
So use that and hit McCain.
It is his fault if he believes that people make logical choices. They don't and it doesn't matter whether it's in front of slot machines, at the stock exchange, in the auto dealership or in the voting booth.
Emotions rule and fear is a very powerful emotion, I believe the most powerful emotion. He's got to overcome the fear of change by digging deeper and giving people a reason to do something more positive than react based on fear.
He's not going to do that by looking like the petty politician he's been allowing himself to be painted as over the last so many months.
Hmmm...I was just talking to my wife about this last night.....
I'm always amazed at the wrong lessons we learn from history... Dems are fascinated by the idea that Kerry lost because he wouldn't fight back. That's a load of crap. Kerry lost because the Repub attacks hit home. Yes, that's right...pe
O's in the same position now. In fact, his campaign's attacks on JSM/SP are driving the discussion in the campiagn. All of it takes attention off of O's positives.
If voters don't have someone to vote "for", in better than even numbers they'll vote "against" the Dems. O's chance to recover is his ability to have people vote "for him". Right now, he's giving them precious little reason to do so.
The attacks on Kerry hit home because he didn't fight back.
The attacks on Kerry hit home because they're what the American people wanted to believe. The accusations fit preconceived notions of what Kerry was really like. If all you do is respond to the attacks from your opponents, they control the narrative and the pace.
O should be controlling the narrative, but he's not. Getting down and dirty is easy, but it's a trap.
If you have to have sports analogies, why football and boxing? Why not martial arts? Obama should be using the weight of his opponents attacks against them, deftly swiping them aside and making them fall flat on their faces. If he takes the bait, which he's doing, he's going to get bogged down in a bar brawl that doesn't make anyone look good...and that benefits JSM.
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