May 01 2008
Rev Wright’s Wicked Revenge Is Destroying Barack In NC
Bumped To The Top – Major Update: This has been one successful hit job by Wright (and others?) on Obama because all the polls are showing major drops for Obama. Check out the Gallup Daily tracking poll and how Obama has been hammered this week:
Wright and Clinton supporter Dr Reynolds must be so proud of their handiwork – this is an amazing impact from just one weekend of one man hamming it up to the media! – end update
I’ll say it again – the timing on Rev Wright’s “Revenge Tour” at the National Press Club was perfectly timed to cripple Barack Obama in such a way he has no time to recover from the PR hit before the critical primary in NC. As I noted in the previous post it would be most enlightening to know when Wright’s show was booked at NPC – my bet is it was scheduled very recently – maybe around the PA primary which would be a required precursor event for a Wright blow up on TV to have any value to Clinton. Without a big PA win, Monday’s circus would not have helped Clinton at all.
But with a PA win in her pocket the Wright debacle is hurting Obama where he cannot afford to lose right now – in North Carolina. In this previous post I noted the dramatic downward slide in Obama’s once daunting lead in NC, losing 50% of it in a matter of 1-3 weeks depending on the poll:
If you look at the [NC] trend at RCP we see a fast erosion in Obama’s numbers.
While the latest Survey USA poll has Obama up by only 5% (nearly a tie), the same poll had him at 9% just a week ago and 10% the week before that. Losing half your edge in such a short time explains why the Obama’s have moved into damage control mode and are coming out all over the airwaves. Rassmussen shows a drop from 23% three weeks ago to 14% this week. The PPP poll shows a shocking drop from a 25% lead a week ago to 12% this week – another loss of 50% of his lead within a week.
As if that is not bad enough a new Insider/Advantage poll now has Clinton actually leading Obama by 2% 1% points (well within the margin of error making this a tie). But what is critical to understand is that the last Insider/Advantage poll for NC two weeks ago had a 15% Obama lead. It has now been completely wiped out.
Nice hit job there Reverend Wright – clearly you may have helped boost Clinton into the democrat presidential nominee spot.
AJ,
I will correct you on one thing. Obama wrecked Obama. He has no one else to blame but himself. He lied and he got caught. Serves him “Wright.”
“But what is critical to understand is that the last Insider/Advantage poll for NC two weeks ago had a 15% Obama lead. It has now been completely wiped out.”
Yeah. Obama has lost the black vote for throwing Wright under the bus and he has lost the white vote for being a weasel about it. He knew full well what Wright’s views were, he only distanced himself when Wright took those views on a national tour.
CP – you are so right. But don’t forget the Clinton’s ability to work the media and create the perfectly timed storms through back room deals. None of this would have happened without Wright on stage Monday.
Who knows who Obama is, like Clinton said in the beginning, he had not been vetted. Thank you MSM, what exactly is your job? I sure hope McCain can stand up to the Clintons.
Speaking of Clinton working the media, her appearance on Fox tonite was a masterstroke. Of course, O’Reilly was going to go easy on her; he want’s to show off, and he loves the way that his lovefest with Hillary is going to drive the Kossacks even more krazy than they already are. The reason I rarely watch O’Reilly anymore is that even though I agree with most of his positions, his ego is always bigger than the story, and it just gets too grating to take after a while. But tonite, it was fascinating to watch (to steal a line from another blog) the collision of two egos, both of which are big enough to have their own gravitational fields.
And I’ve got to hand it to Hillary – this was the best performance I’ve seen by her. She made herself sound reasonable, engaging, and with O’Reilly’s help, even human. Now of course I know that she only condescended to talk to the sub-humans who watch Fox because she’s desperate and she thinks there’s probably a bunch of Indianians (?!?) and North Carol… er, people from North Carolina watching. And I know that she would turn on a dime and renounce everything she smiled and said tonite the second she thought it was expedient to do so.
Still, tonite it was expedient for her to put her finger in the eye of the “WE HATE FOX!” troglodytes, and it was expediant for her to finally make a play for the middle rather than the left. She did it extremely well, and ya gotta give her props for that.
AJ:
I am not sure what your point is about Clinton. Is this her fault? Is the idiea that if not for Hillary Clinton Reverend Wright would not have turned up on the scene? Do you think the GOP would have just ignored this guy?
I think Wright is behind this because he feels like Obama tried to have i both ways. As for Clinton, on one hand I really do not care, on the other if she had managed all this right before Super Tuesday her nomination would be much more assured right now.
So, what is the big deal? Who gives a damn how the inevitable came about? It had to happen sooner or later. Wright was a time bomb just waiting to go off.
WWS:
That is Hoosiers, not Indianians. Lucky for you I am an open minded Hoosier and I will let that go by. This time.
Besides, I can not decide if I am an Okie or a Hoosier anyway.
The beauty of this most Clintonian strategy is that if Barack is able to weather this storm, and he probably will, he will be so damaged that he cannot beat McCain. McCain has an economic downturn and an off year election debacle that gives veto overide majorities to the DEMs. Clinton comes back in 2012 to beat McCain with a “I told ya so” argument.
On the other hand and the most likely reason for damaging events to occur can be found simply by never underestimating a persons capability to make a mistake and try to cover it up and the vindictiveness of others. BO made a huge mistake in his continued attendance to the church. In his inexperience he then attempted to cover it up and wish it away. Wright took major offense as his monstorous ego would indicate, and he said “not so fast grass hopper, if I am going down you are going down”.
Pass the popcorn and a Classic Coke, Please!
AJ, it’s still only the first quarter… a bit early to be sounding the end game buzzer, don’t you think?
Personally, I expected a dip in the BHO approval ratings in the aftermath. I also expect that dip to be temporary, as the press does their thing.. building Obama up as a courageous victim at the hands of his evil pastor. And there’s just enough time left before Tuesday for them to do that.
AJ: inre NC polls. Yes, Obama was up considerably. But he also has been steadily losing ground over the past five polls there. A downward trend that continued it’s spiral after the More Perfect Union speech, and before Wright’s antics.
Therefore, the declining NC point spread is not new, nor predominately a direct result of Wright.
Obama might be wearing thin in general anyway. I still don’t blame Clinton. Bush gets blamed for everything from the weather to the price of gas. Obama should at least be responsible for who hangs out with. He gave $26,000 to Wright’s church in 2006. He had to know what this guy was all about.
A reason Obama may not bounce back in the polls (although he may win the nomination because the Dem party is terrified of NOT nominating him) is that he is the quintessential shooting star, the flash in the pan with nothing to fall back on once the original appeal is gone.
Here’s some commentary I found on the real “age issue” in the campaign, and I recommend the article:
“In the course of the past few months, Obama has gone from broadcasting a worrying arrogance to radiating a near-helplessness. The Wright affair has played out like a textbook teenage drama. Obama fell in with the wrong crowd, refused to stop seeing them, got into real trouble, and had to come to painful grips with the fact that his friends were just users. In this and several other respects, Obama seems, simply, young. The overconfidence, the need to be adored by everyone, the naiveté, and now the befuddlement.”
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/4262
Where is truthie??
It is my understanding that Truthie was shown the door for insulting the host.
But don’t worry, there are plenty of other socks in the drawer.
I wonder if Wright got angry when Obama’s income tax was revealed and his income was found to be $1.4 million. Let’s see, he gave $26,000 to the church. Maybe Wright thought he should have given his tithe (10%) which would have been $104,000. Maybe Wright felt shortchanged. Dollar hustling race baiters feel this way, you know.
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