Obama's mastery
In the last few days, a Senator with 26 years of experience, running a national campaign, decided he would sort out Capitol Hill as he took credit for a major bailout, and cancel or postpone the first presidential debate. He moved aggressively to achieve both.
He got neither.
A much younger Senator routed him completely. Quietly, but with astonishing speed and efficiency, the younger Senator noiselessly eviscerated him.
I'm buying the story that Obama totally knew what he was doing when he pulled his punches and said "John is right" a dozen times at the debate. Who knows for sure, but right now, I'm believing that Obama's political instincts are being vastly underrated by those of us (including me!) who over-worry and over-fret.
He got neither.
A much younger Senator routed him completely. Quietly, but with astonishing speed and efficiency, the younger Senator noiselessly eviscerated him.
I'm buying the story that Obama totally knew what he was doing when he pulled his punches and said "John is right" a dozen times at the debate. Who knows for sure, but right now, I'm believing that Obama's political instincts are being vastly underrated by those of us (including me!) who over-worry and over-fret.
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i'm with you. he's an artist. i think he is creating a new way to get elected potus. choose an analogy. i've thought chess, poker, football. after last fri. i'm beginning to think it's simpler than that. maybe he started out with a sophisticated plan, but he's reduced it now. he's playing a shell game with the mccain camp.
where's the ball now, john? in the middle? i thought you'd pick that--i made you pick that. wrong. it's right here. want to play again? of course you do. okay. concentrate now...
hrc ran a pretty poor campaign, but give obama his proppers. good teams force turnovers. it has got to be driving mccain batshit.
September 29, 2008 12:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I sincerely believe he is a different kind of politician, and he's going to do this in a different way. I know we are all used to pols who say one thing and do the other...but this guy means it. He is calm, he tells the truth, he's unflappable, he is pragmatic, thoughtful, and HOPEFUL about the future.
He's going to do this HIS way. They've mapped it out, and when McCain pulls something out of his bag of dirty tricks, they thoughtfully make the necessary corrections and go on about their way. It's like following the voice on your gps system...when you turn the wrong way (a McCain surprise) it recalculates the directions and you go a different way, but still toward your goal.
I love it!
September 29, 2008 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Quietly, but with astonishing speed and efficiency, the younger Senator noiselessly eviscerated him."
Obama is certainly gifted and talented but McCain's evisceration last week over the bail out can only be credited to McCain. I mean OMFG, suspending a campaign to inject himself into a negotiation in which he does not have established expertise (finance/economics) thereby demonstrating in one stupefying move that he is both useless and can't chew gum and walk at the same time!
McCain's bruising last week was more self inflicted than a demonstration of Obama's mastery.
September 29, 2008 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say it was a reflection of both. Obama continues to win because he continues to defy the conventional "wisdom" of the pundits.
September 29, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, McCain put himself in a position in which he was vulnerable, but Obama did two tremendous things:
(1) Quite simply, not blink and stick to holding the debate; even more forcefully, not "suspend" his own campaign, thus giving the lie to the idea that a "suspension" was possible, reasonable, or necessary. He could easily have rushed to Washington (and was forced to go there by Bush's request) to "focus on the bailout" and stayed there until the very moment before the debate (foolish me thought he would have to do that!) Instead, he kept to his plan.
(2) Whatever happened at the White House meeting, it ended up denying McCain the triumphant photo op he thought he'd get out of it. This Washington Post's report suggests that the final outcome was not only McCain's doing. As one McCain adviser is reported to have said, "McCain walked into a Democratic buzzsaw." McCain did the walking, but someone else set up the buzzsaw.
The end result was McCain got nothing and Obama got everything. I'm impressed! :)
September 29, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Responding to your first point: it was not difficult for Obama not to blink and follow suit with McCain because just about everyone saw this as a stunt as soon as "suspending my campaign" came out of McCain mouth. If Obama was less confident about his campaign and supporters he might have been sucked into McCain's gambit. So, calling McCain's bluff here was a no brainer. I'm not just saying that from hindsight, I thought so as soon as I read about it on Wed or Thu last week.
On your second point: as far as a buzz saw goes, I think all Obama had to do at that table was not look like an idiot and respond well to McCain's reason for calling the "high-drama-meeting" at the Whitehouse and whatever serious talking points he brought him. Apparently he brought none
according to Sen Kerry's account at Fox News Sunday.
All Obama had to do was be responsive while minimizing the drama, which as you know, he's been doing consistently for about two years now. So, I don't think Obamba did anything "masterful" toward McCain to result in his "evisceration" last week- McCain did it all to himself. Of course it should be noted that one of the hallmarks of masters doing masterful things is make it look easy to peons like me so I could well have missed something Obama did to McCain.
September 29, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm-- I think I disagree with you on both counts.
First, while it was clear that the campaign "suspension" was a stunt, it wasn't clear at all that voters would regard it as such. Maybe it was clear to you: if so, you understand voters better than I do! :) I think I wasn't alone in not being sure how voters would react, and therefore being afraid it would work in McCain's favor. But I grant that wiser heads than mine may have predicted voter reaction better.
Second, I think it would have been very easy for that White House meeting to result in a vague statement of "we have to do something" (much like the joint statement the two campaigns *did* actually issue) and a photo op. I am sure that if Obama had done nothing, that would have been by far the most likely outcome, even if McCain had kept mostly silent during the meeting. Such an outcome would have been a win for McCain, allowing him to claim he was leading and Obama was following.
Instead, McCain was roiled so much that he emerged alone from the meeting, and blew the chance at the joint statement and photo op. The WashPost story makes it clear that he was forced into that, and in particular, that he was forced into it by Obama himself.
Finally, about Kerry on Fox, my take is that of course Kerry will not go on TV and say that Obama scuttled McCain's moment. The message to undecideds is "injecting presidential politics is not useful," and "Obama is a calm and calming leader." As a Democrat and a pragmatist, however, I am much comforted by thinking that Obama has some sharp, practical political skills, in addition to Hope and Inspiration.
September 29, 2008 8:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll admit, I had a bad week not long ago... On TeeVee it was all Palin all the time... every second of time was spent blowin' sunshine up Palin's butt... Smears were being thrown out by the McShame camp... ...and Obama didn't do much of anything.
Turns out he wasn't going to dignify the slime with a response. Took the high road.
I got over myself and decided Obama knows what he's doing. Afterall, I wouldn't be such a supporter if I didn't believe in my candidate right? So, it was time for me to put my money where my mouth was... and I did! I donated some bucks and decided to relax and let him handle it.
Lovin' every minute of it!
September 29, 2008 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Whenever I feel nervous I think back to the primary campaign and how well his team understood the ins and outs of every state's rules, EV breakdowns, etc. And, while it was stressful to sit through so many losing contests toward the end, knowing that they had figured out how to get an insurmountable lead in the elected delegates mid-way through was comforting. (Read this, if you haven't yet: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12731.html. A fascinating look at the inside of his campaign!)
I also remember the the mindblowing (to me) accuracy of that excel doc that showed their projections (and the %) of how each state would vote...Remembering that they were right in almost every state in that document makes me feel like they are so much more on top of this thing than we can imagine.
September 29, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Link no good
September 29, 2008 10:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
After the debate some of the Obama supporters who watched with me observed that he needed to be more aggressive and less agreeable as he seemingly went out of his way to find areas of common ground.
They should have more faith that he knows what he is doing. I remember after a Hillary debate independents hooked-up to an approval meter showed immediate increase in his negatives when he attacked Hillary's character and increased positives when he agreed with her. By the way this is a sign of strength not one of weakness. Support America with the truth!
September 29, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama needs to reassure those on the fence. The ones screaming for him to hit harder are already committed to him. The biggest mistake he could make would be to create an opportunity for the McCain campaign to tag him as "an angry (uppity) black man". Better to be on the unthreatening side, but not go away, not lose composure, convey a sense of vision and strategy rather than histrionic macho impulsiveness. That McCain comment about "not knowing the difference between strategy and tactics" was either pathetically ironic and un-self-aware, or else cynical to a Rovean degree (popular perception of blacks as intellectually inferior and uppity to assume equality).
September 29, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I fear that the American Voter is too stupid to see what a disaster McCain/Palin would be. They think McCain understands the Middle Class, Come On!
September 29, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
They also think that the shooting-wolves-from-a-helicopter and bought-tanning-bed-with-taxpayer-money Pal(e)in is a normal mom.
September 29, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling? They didn't accumulate the delegates, right?
Watch the electoral college.
Barack knows where the "delegates" are.
They're in the electoral college.
September 29, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
BINGO!!!! All the MSM folks want this to be a horserace but it is heading to landslide land and the more McCain plays politics with the economy the worse he is going to lose.
September 29, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think he kept saying John is right" for a few reasons.
First, notice Obama called McCain '"John" all night. This was, I am sure, his way of saying, "we are equals, I'm not intimidated. You are not better than me." Hard to complain about that, if you are McCain, when he is treated with a little less respect in the context of being told he is right.
Obama has to be very careful not to seem disrespectful of McCain, an elder, a true real deal hero and deserving of respect for how he handled himself on some issues back when he was his own man.
To me the sound bite of the evening was Obama telling McCain to his face how wrong he was at the start of the war. The many "John is rights make an interesting counterpoint to his major point.
Look for a speech sometime after the final debate where Obama says something like. "Yes John is right..... way too far right"
I agree with the general sentiment, Obama is probably as good as Clinton was at running for president. He is in the zone.
September 29, 2008 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink