A Race Won on Denver's Podium

This continues the series analyzing the Race for the White House from the Barack Obama supporter perspective. This series assumes Senator Obama will claim the nomination until proven otherwise. Most often this series will focus on a mainstream media article, opinion essay, or blogpost.

Previous Installment: Part III

The Fall Campaign, Part IV:

Today's issue: Barack Obama's candidacy, despite his record-breaking fundraising and toppling of the once-invincible-in-a-Democratic-Primary Hillary Clinton, has stalled over the past few months. Much of this blame falls to Trinity United Church in Chicago, particularly Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but also to Mr. Obama's inability to put the issue behind him for weeks. Furthermore, the Illinois senator has suffered some embarrassing defeats due to continued hostility from white, working-class Americans--the very people who brought him seminal victories in Iowa and Wisconsin. Worst of all, though, the image that he has so carefully cultivated, i.e., the post-partisan, now seems indistinguishable from just another liberal politician.

Unlike any major nominee since perhaps Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, Barack Obama must carefully avoid the appearance of using "old" or "slash-and-burn" politics. I still think he is the favorite, but the early winter dreams of a 400-450 electoral vote total now seem rather remote. He's going to have to fight for this job, irrespective of all the institutional problems readily inherent to the current Republican Party. How?

Today's NYT headline, "Obama, Awaiting a New Title, Hones His Partisan Image," must have rankled David Axelrod and the rest of the campaign staff. The equation is simple: the more Senator Obama draws partisan contrasts, as every serious contender must do, the more "normal" and less transcendent he seems to the populace. Now, honestly, I've always been skeptical of his "post-partisan" hype, but, hey, if it could fool some Americans in Ohio and other battlegrounds and give us liberal judges...

"For 17 months, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, has changed remarkably little about his stump style. He projects the image of a post-partisan candidate with the confidence of a man convinced he holds a copyright."

What is your greatest strength is often the other side of the coin from your greatest weakness...

When the Obama campaign tries to pretend that their man is only expressing "difference of philosophy," this only leads others to become more cynical of his otherwise-extraordinarily promising candidacy (OK, so I've sipped a few glasses of Kool-Aid on occasion). It also leads me to wonder if this group even has a strategy, post-Denver, or if they remain confident another humdinger of a convention speech will leave Mad Mac in the dust.

The Old Cranky Lady declares:

"And the list of presidential candidates who have tried midcampaign image makeovers is a long and unfortunate one, filled with formal politicians who try flannel shirts and wonkish governors who push Army helmets down over their hair."

Yes, but most of those politicians, from Dukakis to Gore, needed to do something at a critical juncture of the race to alter the dynamic. The Obama camp needs to decide, and soon, whether his prior image is in fact sustainable for five more months or if he will have to resort to time-honored political hardball, a la the famous "War Room" of 1992 in order to best John McCain in what increasingly looks like a closer election than fundamental numbers (incumbent president's job approval, right track/wrong track, economic trends) would suggest.

I would advise the campaign to select a tough critic of Senator McCain for the bottom of the ticket and allow Obama to exist in the clouds of his arrogance that he can ride his alleged post-partisanship all the way to the White House. He has to recreate his 2004 speech about "One America," or else he will forfeit his good standing with many independent voters that find the GOP upsetting but remain unnerved by liberals. Senator Obama can fully regain the moderates and independents with a Rocky Mountain showstopper because most know of him only from Boston '04 and his books. For better or worse, the Democratic candidate made his choice long ago, we now wait to see if it was the correct one.