The Big Mistake
Notice anything about the presidential race in the past two weeks? I have. Barack Obama is spending a lot of time attacking Sarah Palin. A real lot of time. After first vowing to ignore Palin, suddenly, Obama just can’t stop talking about her. Other people have noticed this as well. Jay Cost thinks the Obama campaign is seeing numbers it just doesn’t like in the polls:
The ABC News poll that set tongues wagging has McCain up 12 among white women - about the same margin as the final result in 2004. I had been inclined to write those results off, as I figured a post-convention poll like that is not indicative of where the race is heading. However, the course correction of the Obama campaign inclines me to believe that there might be something going on here. On September 4th, his campaign said that it was not planning to directly criticize Palin. On September 8th, it released an ad directly criticizing her. You don’t do that kind of 180 unless something is up.
Karl Rove thinks Obama is making a disastrous mistake. Other presidential candidates in other years have spent their time and energy going after the opposing VP pick, with bad results:
Michael Dukakis spent the last months of the 1988 campaign calling his opponent’s running mate, Dan Quayle, a risky choice and even ran a TV ad blasting Mr. Quayle. The Bush/Quayle ticket carried 40 states.
Adlai Stevenson spent the fall of 1952 bashing Dwight Eisenhower’s running mate, Richard Nixon, calling him “the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” The Republican ticket carried 39 of 48 states.
If Mr. Obama keeps attacking Mrs. Palin, he could suffer the fate of his Democratic predecessors. These assaults highlight his own tissue-thin résumé, waste precious time better spent reassuring voters he is up for the job, and diminish him — not her.
The risk of a backfire is enormous, but Obama is continuing the attacks. Obama managed to take the wheels off the Clinton Campaign Juggernaut by diminishing Clinton - but a lot of women did not like that at all. Nor the way he managed to do it. Compounding that, Obama completely ignored Clinton in his search for a VP - not even vetting her. Now he is spending precious campaign time attacking a candidate for a the office below the one he is supposed to be running for. Since Palin is, after all, a woman, it begins to look like Obama has a problem with women candidates.
I rather suspect that the candidate and his campaign misunderstand why his numbers have slipped in a demographic group he needs for a victory in November.
Keep up the good work, guys!
By daveinboca, Thursday, 11 September , 2008 @ 9:27 am
Sarah should just silently accompany the old war hero & keep giving Barack the space to fall on his face.
You know that Sarah is bouncing around inside Obama’s melon on a 24/7 basis and to watch the YouTube is to see that Barry was trying a snarky stand-up schtick that went horribly wrong. The first half had the crowd in titters as it got the reference—he just tried a double-bank cheap shot and now the MSM is trying to pull his chestnuts out of the fire [metaphor alert!]
BHussein-O is unaccountable and is now running to media morons like Letterboy to help extricate himself from his silliness. He flipped a bird to Hillary & the MSM gave him a pass on that—maybe he doesn’t like strong women? Next he’ll be on Keith Odorboy trying to dig out of the quarry pit of stupidity he has managed to dig for himself.
Unless he grabs Hillary & ditches Biden, Obama may be in a tailspin that’s hard to pull out of.
By Neo, Thursday, 11 September , 2008 @ 11:12 am
I kinda got the feeling that Karl was going to suggest a “mano e womano” game of “horse” between Obama and Palin.
I’m not so sure it’s Palin as much as it’s that the McCain/Palin is a viable ticket that has Obama lost. Clearly, the Democrats think Palin is the only thing holding the ticket afloat, so she is the target.
But let’s face facts, this was supposed to be a “Democrat” year where the winner of the Democratic Primary was a “shoe in” in November .. just like Chicago.
By martian, Thursday, 11 September , 2008 @ 1:38 pm
daveinboca, he doesn’t dare to ditch Biden and grab Hillary. His campaign has spent the last two weeks claiming that the choice of Palin was nothing more than a cynical political ploy to get the female vote and court disaffected Hillary supporters. How much of a political hack would he look like if he did so now? There are also other considerations. If he drops his running mate now and chooses someone else, what does that say about his judgement in picking Biden in the first place? And what happened to the last presidential candidate who dumped his running mate mid-stream?
By Thomas Jackson, Thursday, 11 September , 2008 @ 3:49 pm
I thin Palin should challene the Dalibama to a one on one game of basketball. It would be fun to see how macho he is. Can you see him in his high heels trying to shoot?