7/30/2008
The McCain campaigned today released a fascinating new campaign ad highlighting Senator Obama’s “rock star” status as well as his stance on critical issues such as drilling and taxes. Last week the Obama Campaign completed it’s whirlwind tour of Europe and the Middle East with a big campaign speech in Berlin, where some reports indicate over 200,000 German citizens showed up to listen to the senator.
Unfortunately for Senator Obama, the huge media attention he received has yet to translate into any meaningful poll numbers. In most of the battleground states and in general, Obama’s lead is within the margin of error, making the race, in essence, a tie.
Of course, in most recent presidential election cycles when a Democratic candidate was running against a Republican incumbent, the Democratic challenger had large leads in the polls over the summer. This was true of Jimmy Carter when he ran against President Ford, though the race wound up being quite close. It was also true of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry. Normally, those large leads fade and the race evens up when the Fall campaign season begins and people begin paying more attention to the upcoming election.
This statistical dead heat must be troubling at some level to the Obama Campaign, though, according to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, you would never know it from the way Senator Obama has been acting. Mr. Milbank commented today that Senator Obama’s campaign is being run more like a “victory tour” and that “as he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama’s biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris.”
Now the McCain Campaign has taken soundbytes and images from what was supposed to be the decisive moment during the Obama world tour and thrown it right back in Senator Obama’s face. There he is on screen, with 200,000 Germans chanting his name, acting like the president of the world, but what does this mean for average people like you and I?
It’s a pertinent question. I wonder if we can expect an answer from Senator Obama any time soon.
This whole campaign has the look and feel of a huge expectations bubble. Similar to the Dot Com bubble and the Housing Bubble, the expectations hugely outweigh what can actually be delivered by even so skilled a politician as Senator Obama.
We’re told we need to buy into Obama with almost no knowledge of what he’s all about and how he might lead. Senator Obama has been in congress for three years now, and most of that time has been spent campaigning for President. We hear of “hope, audacity, and change.” But hope for what, and what kind of change are we talking about?
Change can be good or it can be bad. Should we just trust that Senator Obama’s version of “change” is going to be all good? Should any politician, Democratic or Republican, be so completely trusted?
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