February 9, 2007
NATURE ABHORS A VAPID:
Undoing Obama: Inside the Coming Effort to Dismantle A Candidate (Mike Allen, February 9, 2007, Politico)
Why has he sometimes said his first name is Arabic, and other times Swahili? Why did he make up names in his first book, as the introduction acknowledges? Why did he say two years ago that he would "absolutely" serve out his Senate term, which ends in 2011, and that the idea of him running for president this cycle was "silly" and hype "that's been a little overblown"?In interviews, strategists in both parties pointed to four big vulnerabilities: Obama's inexperience, the thinness of his policy record, his frank liberalism in a time when the party needs centrist voters and the wealth of targets that are provided by the personal recollections in his first book, from past drug use to conversations that cannot be documented.
Beginning with his announcement for president on Saturday, the long knives will be out for Obama from three directions: Reporters, perpetuating the boom and bust cycle of a ravenous media culture, will try to make up for fawning coverage of the past. Democratic rivals want to get him out of the way. And some top Republicans think the party would have a better chance with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as the nominee, since she is a known quantity while Obama can try to define himself as anything he wants.
Officials at the top of both parties calculate that Obama has risen too fast to sustain his popularity in the cauldron of a presidential campaign. Democrats talk of "vapid platitudes" that could produce a "soufflé effect" - an implosion as journalists and activists begin probing for substance behind Obama's appealing promise of "a different kind of politics" and "a new kind of politics."
"With a couple of pinpricks here and there, the whole thing could fall apart," said a Democratic strategist familiar with the plans of Obama's rival campaigns.
You've got to admire the way Mr. Allen gets the shots in first by couching it as analysis. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 9, 2007 9:06 PM
Swahili is very nearly a pidgin of Arabic. Many, many words are the same. Who cares?
Whatever language you use, a gun-grabbing baby-killer who looks like Kaddafi is still a gun-grabbing baby-kller who looks like Kaddafi.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 9, 2007 9:48 PMExcept for the card-carrying Clintonistas in the press, like the wee fellow with the floppy hair who took over from Sam Donaldson, I have a hard time believing the press will really go after him.
The knives won't come out from the pres hacks until they know he's truly finished. Otherwise, they'd be hurting someone they might need to drag across the finish line in November 08.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at February 9, 2007 11:28 PMObama is a protected property, and if someone leaked a provably damaging story to a member of the press, that press member would have that person whacked before they printed the story.
There are people who want this guy elected, and the perfect mix of greased skids and fawning hope (among the ignorati) may just combine to get this guy elected.
Posted by: Bruno at February 10, 2007 12:32 AMAh, but the urge to scoop the competition is always strong, even if it hurts the Democrats. And in the age of blogs and Fox News, they can't ignore an inconvenient story the way they used to.
Posted by: PapayaSF at February 10, 2007 2:38 AMIt's been the Obamarama Fest around these parts all week. You'd think Honest Abe was back in town. If he wasn't buried in a mass of concrete, he'd surely be spinning.
Posted by: jdkelly at February 10, 2007 11:47 AM