Sep 10 2008
The O-Bomb
One of the reasons I think Obama and the Dems went with the completely orchestrated pig-comment against Paln is they see something happening that has the totally spooked. I don’t have time to do the research, but I have noted Obama’s campaign stops are clearly in small forums (like school gyms) where McCain/Palin’s are so damn massive they have to be moved to larger venues to accommodate the crush of the crowds (just as today’s rally in Fairfax VA was moved from a large indoor forum to an outside venue to handle the crush). He sees his star failihn, so Obama went with the Hail “Screw You” Mary slight against Palin out of the need to get some media attention. He got it, and probably wishes he didn’t.
Trust me, the far left and right are just underestimating the negative response this going to have outside the beltway. People are fed up with the juvenile antics in DC. This will cost Obama/Biden at least another 5% in the polls and most of the swing states. Palin momentum is building, and O-Bomba just accelerated the process.
Here’s the problem for Obama. Many on the left are pulling out of his camp and are now back on the fence, waiting to see how Sarah Palin does. The far left has gone insane, to include suffering from strange and bizarre nightmares over Palin. And women are on fire with the realization they could see 4-8 years of Palin as VP and another 4-8 as President. They will not throw this chance away as happened before with Ferraro and Clinton.
I suspect that one of the prime reasons for Obama’s panic and overreaction is that he’s never been involved in a truly competitve race before. (Silly in-house primary races don’t count, any more than high school popularity contests do. No one disagreed on issues, the only “issue” was who was more attractive) This is old news, but it bears repeating – in the race for his state seat, Obama was able to get his opponent disqualified for the ballot without having to face her in an actual election, and in his race for his US senate seat he and his backers were able to force the Rep. candidate to withdraw by digging through his divorce records. (see any similiarity to what they’re trying to do today?) Then he faced only a last minute substitute who polled, well like a last minute substitute.
But note – Obama has NEVER taken a tough election campaign to the wire, and has NEVER had to worry about coming back from behind. Contrast to McCain, the perennial underdog who’s poliical career was pronounced dead too many times to count, or Sarah Palin, who has been a heavy underdog in every race she’s ever run, going back to being the ultimate small town underdog who beat the big name team for the Girls State Basketball Championship in high school. Those are two people for who this kind of experience is their entire life story. And the MSM is shocked to find out that they’re good at it???
Fighting back against the odds is bewildering, frightening, and disheartening to people who’ve never had the experience before. That’s where Obama is today, and he’s flailing, and sinking ever deeper as he takes bad advice since he himself has no idea what to do next.
Buth then there are the people who’ve been underdogs so many times that it’s just old hat to them. THOSE are the people who have the courage to be true leaders, and THAT is why McCain and Palin are both eminently qualified to lead this country.
Mr. Ajami said this about Mr. Obama today in the WSJ. I have been asking myself why all the big, flashy events, the quick trip overseas, as if he was saying something. I think Mr. Ajami is correct.
For Mr. Obama, the race is about the claims of modernism. There is “cool,” and the confidence of the meritocracy in him. The Obama way is glib: It glides over the world without really taking it in. It has to it that fluency with political and economic matters that can be acquired in a hurry, an impatience with great moral and political complications. The lightning overseas trip, the quick briefing, and above all a breezy knowingness. Mr. Obama’s way is the way of his peers among the liberal, professional elite.