Congratulations to the Obama Campaign

by: Matt Stoller

Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 21:20


I have to hand it to the Obama campaign.  For the last week, they have been doing amazing work, from the VP roll-out to taking advantage of the houses gaffe.  My criticisms of the Obama 'franchise' (as Steve Clemons puts it) are not operational in nature, though sometimes I do put them out as such.  By operational critiques, I mean a critique that says something like Obama is 'losing the Presidential race' by doing 'this most recent thing I don't agree with'.  My critiques are ideological; I just don't agree with a lot of their ideas and their ways of doing politics.  That though is distinct from the argument that they will or won't win this race based on how 'progressive' they are.  I'm not frankly sure how to run a progressive campaign nor does it actually matter since the die is already cast.

So within the framework set up by the current cast of characters, the Obama people did a great job.  The way that McCain has been undermined by his own words on how he can't remember how many houses he owns was organized by the Obama campaign and the new and enlarged DNC.  They pushed it out, kept it going, and managed the media cycle well.  Importantly, they moved away from their standard negative attack - big oil - to seize an opportunity to define McCain's character.  The campaign did not do this on Phil Gramm's 'nation of whiners' comment, for instance, but they did here, and that's a very good sign.

Congrats.  

And then on Biden, while he's not my favorite pick (as I said below), I just watched about an hour of MSNBC with various pundits saying wonderful things about Biden and what he brings to the ticket.  My parents tell me their friends who were on the fence about Obama just love Biden.  It's a good roll-out, even with McCain operative Ron Fournier on the AP payroll pushing out a counter-narrative.

So again, congrats.  I worry still about the campaign's lackadaisical policy-driven approach to the Georgia-Russia conflict and their willingness to stick on the McCain gaffes.  But great job, we need to beat McCain and I saw a few excellent steps this week.  
Matt Stoller :: Congratulations to the Obama Campaign

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Congratulations to the Obama Campaign | 51 comments
Shot In the Arm (4.00 / 1)

The Obama campaign needed a shot in the arm before the start of the convention, and this was it.

NOTHING should be off grounds when it comes to attacking McCain.  He is a dangerous, trigger-happy, ill-tempered man who is not fit to lead.

Has anyone else noticed (0.00 / 0)
Obama's kind of had not such a hot month. The thing is though, hasn't Obama been, you know, out of the continental U.S. two out of the last four weeks? He came back from his foreign trip and very shortly after that had his vacation. No wonder his campaign hasn't been doing very much lately, they haven't had a candidate to work with.

This won't be a problem again going forward.

[ Parent ]
I would expect the foreign policy debates to gain some better (0.00 / 0)
dynamics with Biden on the ticket. Better as in being able to the answer the GOP.  
We don't need to answer the GOP. (4.00 / 3)
We need a spokesman who will call the GOP out on every dishonest, cowardly, incompetent, delusional, illegal, anti-constitutional thing they've done since they took control of the government, and McCain was right in there for all of it, leading the march to obliviousness by pandering to Bush, Frist, Delay, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the others, and actively leading on their insane, militaristic, blinkered international agenda.  We need Biden to set the agenda of discussion by ripping the GOP a new one.  He should blister them with the virulence of his criticism, and he should make sure everyone remembers that Bush = McCain.
[ Parent ]
Agreed, for the most part... (4.00 / 2)
with the caveat that the Obama people need to be ready to hit McCain hard and fast.

Obama made a gaffe today that we're going to hear alot more about when he almost accidentally introduced Biden as "the next President of the United States", the Republicans are going to use this in a mocking way to paint Obama as an empty suit with Biden as the guy who will really be running things.  It's this kind of meaningless BS Republicans always capitalize on.

Obama (not Biden) needs to take an aggressive role in hitting McCain, and needs to emphasize that he's the one running the show.  It should be clear to everyone, but then again so should John Kerry's war record.

John McCain.  Wrong for America.

You sure? (0.00 / 0)
Seems like the raves Biden is getting today would make them think twice about saying "Biden's really going to be running things."

[ Parent ]
If we who post on political blogs are all hearing the same anecdotal (4.00 / 5)
evidence from our friends, neighbors, and family members( and I have today!) then this is a terrific choice and Biden sure has a lot of good vibes he's sending out because this has energize disgruntled Democrats I know, as well as what I would normally classify as Independents who lean Republican....they like Biden. They trust him is what I'm hearing and they really like this choice.
your parents' friends (4.00 / 8)
are in the one demographic where Obama really needs to make up ground.

I know he's not the blogosphere's favorite, but Biden is going to help this ticket with the over-60 voters.

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.

I swear. (0.00 / 0)
They should just keep Biden in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana throughout the campaign, with maybe some side trips to N.C. and Florida.

Really, just have him work the Rust Belt and nail that down, so Obama can concentrate on the West and Plains States.

[ Parent ]
No no no (4.00 / 1)
No more Kerry mistakes.  Biden and Obama need to be everywhere.  
[ Parent ]
Loved the handling of the Houses gaffe (0.00 / 0)
Thought the campaign played that for all it was worth.

I now think they even delayed unveiling Biden to allow more pay time for the Houses thing.

I'm liking Biden even more with all the positive press, the mainstream media loves the pick and are pushing it with gusto.  This kind of undercuts McCain's attempts to define the new ticket.  Hopefully the same won't be true when Mitt Millions is chosen and the Obama campaign can define the Republican ticket as "15 (or whatever the number is) Houses and at least $300 mil between them" line.

And I'm not sure the Georgian crisis ever really played much with the voters.  This was an obscure flame up we were never going to get pulled in to.  Heck, if Russia refuses ever to leave what is the effect on the average voter?  I follow this stuff and I couldn't answer (unless Quick-Draw McCain gets elected, then we'll probably have a new draft to build up the military to invade to liberate our "fellow Georgians").

I'm liking Biden so far,too... (0.00 / 0)
but I am a little worried with the "Next President" gaffe, and all of this effusive praise Biden has been getting (Someone on MSNBC said Biden brought "spine" to the ticket, and comments in the netroots like Todd Beeton's  "the fighter we've been waiting for") kind of undermine Obama and run the risk of making it easier to paint him as feckless.  This is why I think it's important for him to get out front, and land a couple of good punches against McCain.  It's the best response that can be given to that kind of silliness.

I also think that we need to be careful not to let the house issue run dry.  By this I mean we need to keep adding to it, and presenting it in new contexts, so it doesn't seem like we use it the way McCain uses being a POW.  There is alot revealed about McCain's outlook on the country by this, but we need to keep placing it in context, and not simply use it as a quip.

John McCain.  Wrong for America.

[ Parent ]
That hothead seriuosly thinks the Amrican people (0.00 / 0)
woud want to hear talk of War With Russia(!) Is beyond imagining! Oh yeah John thats a good idea -"worse threat to America since the cold war(!!)" The man is loopy!

Um remember 9/11? you forgot? so did President Bush! Remember the Taliban? President Bush forgot too. Osama Bin Laden< McCain can you remember that threat to America? A  threat since the Cold War in Czechoslovakia.

I assume Obama, scratch that, Biden will chide McCain on keeping his rhetorical powder dry, and try not to 'stiff walk' us into war with Russia, even before the election.

Crazy old coot wants to shoot russkies.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

[ Parent ]
You're wrong about Georgia... (0.00 / 0)
...most people see it as a reawakening of the cold war... and that gets people rightfully nervous...

It's not a small issue at all...

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

[ Parent ]
Wha?????? (0.00 / 0)
Georgia's lunatic president mucks around in S. Ossetia, provoking a little (in the grand scheme of things) squabble, and you think this is a reawakening of the cold war???

It's a very small issue.

[ Parent ]
No, it's a very small crisis (4.00 / 1)
A resurgent Russia has convincingly won a conflict with one of its neighbours and has for several years been using gas pipelines as a political weapon against Europe.

A confident Russian government backed by a nationalistic populace finds itself facing a divided NATO and an America that's about as weak as it's been since 1941.

So Georgia may have been a little thing, but it's the tip of the iceberg. The issue is much bigger underwater.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

[ Parent ]
There is a huge difference between watch and think (0.00 / 0)
and letting loose the dogs of war. "Bomb-bomb-bomb bomb bomb Iran" McCain is incapable of recognizing the difference.

His "greatest crisis since the Cold War" (so what 20 years?) description of the Russian incursion to stop military action against Ossetia, isn't anything but typical Republican fear mongering, or worse a real inability to see anything besides enemies worthy of ordinance delivery, which is typical Republican war mongering.

There are real crises in the world, untracked nuclear weapons, an American Military gobbling cash while simultaneously becoming less and less able to respond to real threats, a world criminal conspiracy to attack the US, (does anyone remember Osama Bin Laden?) a climate crisis the Pentagon identifies as Americas single most pressing danger. These are things we have to tackle NOW.  

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

[ Parent ]
Georgia is very very important for Europe (4.00 / 1)
Russia is on the move again.

Ukraine is next.

And Europe's security blanket sits rotting and spent in the deserts of Mesopatamia.

Obama's camp should be screaming from the rooftops: Who lost Georgia?

[ Parent ]
I don't believe Georgia was small, only obscure (0.00 / 0)
Yes, there are serious issues and considerations, but they haven't registered with the VOTERS.

Who's likely to vote for a candidate based on his response to the Georgia situation that wasn't going to vote for that candidate anyway?

And I'm not certain the long-term ramifications of Georgia are as dramatic as some have indicated- Russia is no more interested in reawakening the Cold War as we are, they lost it (in the sense of the collapse of their political/economic system).

Putin (and Medyedev) are trying to strengthen their position vis-a-vis the West and their neighbors, but not get into a full blown Cold War and rolling back NATO, which appears to be slowly disintegrating under its own weight, or by giving it a new raison d'etre.

[ Parent ]
Thank you for (4.00 / 1)
separating the "disagreements on issues" from the "disagreements on strategy and tactics".  

Much too often I read critiques of Obama's position on some issue (always an abandonment of some valued liberal principle) that are conflated with seamless segues into "this could cost him the election" critiques.

While I am sympathetic to many of the issue critiques, I am much more humble on the "strategery" critiques.  I realize that I'm probably on the majority side of very few issues in this country.  I am not the demographic they're seeking, and though I hate this, I have to admit that these guys know what they're doing.

It is clear now, for example, as perhaps it wasn't earlier in the week, that the Obama team was readying a major counterattack to the McCain character sliming and they were waiting for the right moment to use it.  They actually were playing rope-a-dope and they did it pretty well.  They were not doing what many (myself included at times) feared - reprising the tone-deaf wimpishness of the Kerry campaign.

sTiVo's rule: Just because YOU "wouldn't put it past 'em" doesn't prove that THEY did it.

I'm kind of inclined to agree with this, (4.00 / 1)
but part of me also wonders if it just wasn't that McCain gift-wrapped them an attack against himself.

Only time will tell which it is, but I certainly hope it was part of the plan, as we can't count on a steady stream of gaffes by McCain until election day.

John McCain.  Wrong for America.

[ Parent ]
We can't count on a steady stream .. (4.00 / 1)
but we can likely count on a few more at least .. unless they cut off all press contact
[ Parent ]
he has defined himself (0.00 / 0)
he has wide exposure,  mere repetition of the policy and character flip flips for power are enough. he is an ambitious and not to be trusted confused hothead.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.
[ Parent ]
Haha, yeah I guess so picking Romney would be a big one. (0.00 / 0)
Looking at the playback on CNN just now, this event looks a lot more powerful than it initially came across.  I think McCain's instant attack ad just set the wrong mood for me this morning.

I think Obama/Biden can handle anything the GOP throws their way.

John McCain.  Wrong for America.

[ Parent ]
Romney pick just might be a gaffe (4.00 / 4)
I'm thinking the Houses issue and its opening for Obama to attack McCain as elitist and out of touch with regular voters (yeah, I know there was also a strong age/memory/disconnected undertone) might have McCain reconsidering Romney (or at least he should be).

I mean, come on!  Is there another viable pick that could reinforce the Obama line of attack more?  That guy's so loaded he makes Cindy's inheritance look a pittance.

McCain/Romney, the ticket that doesn't even get out of bed for under $5 million...

[ Parent ]
More visual ads (4.00 / 1)
I've noticed that their latest ads can be read while the television is muted as I had the occasion to do while watching the olympics today.  

The liberal wiki
Send an email to terra@liberalwiki.com
Glad to hear it. (0.00 / 0)


John McCain doesn't care about Vets.


this comment has no title (4.00 / 3)
I think at this point the Obama campaign has sufficiently demonstrated that they're capable of being the following things:

- Disciplined
- Smart
- Innovative
- Gutsy
- Hard hitting

So close to perfect. There's one quality I think they still need to demonstrate:

- Relentless

If they get that down too, then I'll rest completely easy and assume that whenever it seems they aren't displaying one of these qualities, that it's by choice, as part of a conscious strategy.

Not so sure about "hard hitting" (0.00 / 0)
Many of their counterpunches have been quite weak and ineffective. And what's missing so far is the ability to unite forces agaoinst McCain. Only 72% of registered Dems support Obama, that's less than stellar, and the campaign has to do more to get them on board. And this won't go without some concessions to the Clinton supporters. Not even vetting Hillary, and snubbing Clarke were totally unnecessary insults that show a serious lack of diplomacy among the Obama staff and doesn't bode well for a unification of the party at the convention.  
[ Parent ]
I would have agreed with you (0.00 / 0)
before, I think it was, Thursday?

And yeah, I've come around to thinking he should have chosen Hillary. But whatever, that's in the past now. I sort of suspect it's Bill who ruined it for her.

[ Parent ]
Let's hope they got their act totgether now (0.00 / 0)
and that the recent powerful attacks are indeed signs of a harder hitting approach, and not simple exceptions.

"But whatever, that's in the past now."
The VP choise, yes. But there's still some other opportunities to heal the rift by giving prominent Hillary supporters a role in the next administration. Hollow words won't get those pissed off Hillary supporters on board, and the arrogant call for "get over it" certainly doesn't help. What's needed are some actions that show that everybody is not only needed, but also respected for taking part in the fight against McCain.

[ Parent ]
He has brought Hillary people on ... (0.00 / 0)
after the primaries were over .. what people do you suggest? .. because Obama surely isn't giving scum like Howard Wolfson and Lanny Davis jobs
[ Parent ]
I'm speaking about supporters, not staffers (0.00 / 0)
Who cares about Obama hiring Hillary's staffers? Those incompetents screwed up her campaign! Imho most probably the majority of Hillary supporters wouldn't care one bit if the effing staffers would be jobless now. They deserve it.

No, I'm speaking about giving positions in the coming administration to Clinton supporters like Wesley Clarke, Joe Wilson, and Peter Galbraith, for instance (Madeleine Albright is a bit too old now, I guess). Those are qualified experts in their field, who would be valuable members of the cabinet. With Biden, Obama promoted one of his own supporters to VP. So, he still has to show that he's serious about uniting the party and that there's no discrimination against Hillary supporters. Better sooner than later.

[ Parent ]
You think he won't? (4.00 / 3)
Ridiculous.  Clark, Rendell, and Bayh are all out stumping hard for Obama, and all have a better-than-average chance of getting administration posts.

Moreover, at what point do you have to start paying attention for Biden to be "one of his own supporters?"  There was a very long primary BEFORE it was just Hillary and Obama, and Biden didn't endorse Obama after dropping out.

CNN, April 13, 2008 (after the damn thing was over, for all practical purposes):

First, to you, Senator Biden. You haven't endorsed either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Do you plan on doing that?

BIDEN: No, I do not. But I'm helping them both when they call me. I speak to them not infrequently. I guess, on average, three, four times a month, they each call me. And I'm happy to give them advice when they ask it. But I will leave that to the folks in the primaries to decide.

BLITZER: How come? Why don't you want to weigh in?

BIDEN: Because I think that -- they're both my friends. And quite frankly, Wolf, the moment I weighed in, you'd be speculating as to whether I was looking for a job, so...

(LAUGHTER)

And I'm not looking for a job. And so I'm going to help whoever the nominee is. And they both know that.

Immediately, when I got out of the race in Iowa, they each asked me, almost the same day, to join them. I told them I would not. I would not endorse either one. I've kept that commitment, and I'm helping them when they call me.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA...

Yeah I blog.

[ Parent ]
Sry, my misunderstanding about Biden (0.00 / 0)
Dunno where I got that idea, must have confused him with someone else (probabbly Dodd). However, the transcript you show proves that Biden wasn't a Hillary supporter, and that was my point. As for Clarke and the others have better than average chances because of them supporting Obama now, I really don't know where you base this optimism on. Clarke, for instance, was not only not given any role at the convention, the organizers even phrased their rejection in a way that makes it clear he is unwanted. I can't find any evidence for a "better-than-average chance" in that move.
[ Parent ]
guessing it's a result of his "qualified" comment (0.00 / 0)
My guess is that they're at pains to make sure all official criticism of McCain is based on his record in office and stays far, far away from mentioning his war experience in a negative or devaluing light (which, arguably, Clark's comments did).  And there are the inevitable rehashings of his comments in praise of Bush and Rumsfeld from early in the administration.  But that doesn't mean he would be exiled from a post-election Obama team.

But Rendell, for example, just did FTN this morning, the same gig Bayh did last week.  Rendell also did Blitzer's show two weeks ago.  Clark seems to be focusing more on downballot races, but that earns plenty of favors at all levels.  

The fact is that the next Democratic administration is going to have a ton of posts to fill, and these big-name surrogates--no matter whom they backed in the primary--are going to be at the top of the list for the first round of appointments.  It's likely to take a lot more than supporting Hillary to keep someone off that list (Geraldine Ferraro, for example, is probably not in the line for anything).

Yeah I blog.

[ Parent ]
Looking foward at the 29th... (4.00 / 2)
...What are we (all Democrats), Democratic Candidates and Party orgs, and the Obama campaign doing to blunt the Shindig on the 29th at the Nutter Center in the Dayton, Ohio area.

We have done well with the lead in to the convention, but what is on the other side...will McCain's strategy to bookend the DNC with his VP announcement in big battleground state stifle the bounce coming out of the convention?

There is of course the possibility that the event on its own will fall flat, due to poor execution, turnout, or content (McCain's vp choice or their presentations).  But betting on the other guy to come up short isn't how you win, and could have a nasty local effect on some strong campaigns in and around Ohio for House seats.  Particularly dangerous with the gap between the 29th and the RNC on 9/1 - with the possibility that the media could be Republican dominated through Labor Day weekend.

And there is the chance that McCain leaking his VP Choice, intentionally or not, could be spliced into Obama's big night in Denver...I certainly hope the coverage of Obama at Invesco@MileHigh doesn't include a PIP window of Mitt Romney's front door waiting for him to head off to a chartered jet like Joe Biden.

oh man... (0.00 / 0)
If Mittwell IV is the VP, I want him on the teevee at all times between now and November.

I am praying - praying - that Mitt is it.

[ Parent ]
I'm not... (0.00 / 0)
...as much of a doofus as he is, we can see that McCain's hadnlers can fix him... they 've done a lot with McCain...

But, more importantly, his mormon minions will be a GOTV army especially in CO and NV, and that is not good for us at all...

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

[ Parent ]
gotta disagree on those points (4.00 / 1)
'7 Houses' McCain has been 'fixed' by his handlers? The man says something crazy/hilarious every damn day.

And Colorado is less than 3% Mormon, and they were mostly gonna vote Republican anyway. Same goes for Nevada (which is still less than 8% Mormon). I suppose they might get it up for gotv a little more than otherwise, but not enough to challenge O's ground game.

Meanwhile, Mitt is an egregious human slime that will alienate voters in all states. And can you imagine the VP debate?

[ Parent ]
I was just injecting one of the common names... (0.00 / 0)
...not suggesting it was likely or unlikely to be Romney.

For the record, Romney should not be underestimated, plastic ken doll fake as a mattel product can be, he has some real strengths...

As mike said above, appeal in the West is strong and could put pressure on several states out that direction.  In addition to ramification on the Presidential level w/ CO, NV being most obvious, at the House and Senate level, Romney would make things harder for Candidates in Arizona and New Mexico where we have several strong challenges being mounted.  We'd be just slightly more fucked in Utah than usual, and Idaho is probably 3 touchdowns out of play too.

The other key strength is outrageous fund raising ability.  Romney on the ticket would put the wealthy Mormons in a tizzy, channeling money into 527's, the National Party and any other pocket they can find to help him ascend to Dick Cheney's bed.  Going through the Romney for Pres FEC reports is just scary at the "unity" (coercive strength or corruption?) demonstrated.  Seemingly limitless numbers of Marriott owners, employees, associates, contractors, etc maxed out to his campaign.  Which says nothing of his own wealth and social networks.

I'm not all that impressed with any of the R VP potentials being kicked around, I'm still confused how they let themselves nominate anyone but Huckabee and why he isn't part of the discussion for VP.  He's a scary good campaigner and tough to dislike with exposure.  Agreeing with him on issues/policy often isn't part of the equation, like W Bush, people just like him.

[ Parent ]
The issue with (4.00 / 3)
Huckabee is that he's scary to the GOP money boys.  They're more than happy to play the jeebus crowd for votes and GOTV, but Huck is sort of a wild card when it comes to following their actual desires, i.e. accruing additional wealth.  Speaking the language of the end-time bible thumpers is one thing, but actually believing it is something else entirely.

In 2007, with Macacca out of the picture, the GOP power structure looked to Mittens or Rudy, and neither one delivered the goods - leaving them no other choice but also-ran McCain.  Huckabee was never going to be allowed the nomination cause he never was able to convince GOP money that he had their best interests at heart.  One might recall the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the conservative press about Huck's showing in Iowa and his resultant polling, and they are nothing if not the public face of the conservative establishment.  One might also recall that Grandpa Fred stayed in the race just long enough to throw South Carolina to McCain, campaigning almost exclusively in the northern part of the state where Huckabee was strongest, even though Fred was clearly done after Iowa and New Hampshire, and had no chance in SC either - but he could still pull enough from Huck to make a difference in the winner-take-all primary.  The religious right had held back from full throatedly endorsing him since he was such a pariah to the money side of the party, but I do not doubt that if he had taken SC they would have jumped on board and the GOP primary would have been quite interesting indeed.

[ Parent ]
His "Mormon minions"... (4.00 / 2)
...are among the most steady Republican voters anywhere, so that won't be a major gain.

What will more than counterbalance it is the loss of fundamentalist votes -- lots of those people who were "won over" to McCain after Saddleback will do a 180 if McCain puts a "Satanic cultist" (which is what they're convinced Mormons are) on the ticket with him.  Granted, they won't stampede to Obama, but they may well cast their votes for Bob Barr...or just stay at home this November.  Certainly, GOTV efforts at various Religious Right megachurches, which have worked so well over the past three decades, will be D.O.A. with a Mormon on the ticket with him.

[ Parent ]
i doubt that the mccain camp would (0.00 / 0)
risk their vp selection getting swamped by the dem convention.  they wouldn't want to leak their vp in the midst of a big-name dem convention speaker, since they would possibly not get much coverage that night, and then folks would kinda already know who it was going to be, so there wouldn't be any suspense -- the worst of both worlds.  
[ Parent ]
McCain's camp hasn't yet... (4.00 / 1)
...demonstrated any evidence of being tight and orderly...

As we saw on the Democratic side, the media doesn't care if there are bigger stories, real news...they will sit a full crew in the front yard of someone who they think MIGHT be announced as VP the next day.  As far as I understand it, McCain is still scheduled to announce his VP on Friday, which means its gonna be a watch and track event wed/thur whether the DNC is awesome or not.

Should McCain go with someone "unconventional", pro-choice, labor friendly, or (omgnoway) actually intelligent, he will have to leak it out there to "soften the ground."  I say "have to" because thats the CW which is of course stupid and illogical, just a sissy way to run things.  Unless you lack confidence in your pick and there is a real possibility you would retract it, there is no benefit to "softening the ground".

I've been a part of campaigns where key things were intentionally leaked to "soften the ground" and it has never shown me any benefits.  In Iowa, had the Dodd Campaign not "Softened the ground" about the IAFF endorsement, there is a good chance several (more) Edwards surrogates and staff would have trashed their own personal reputations bragging they were getting it.  It was amusing to sit in community meetings knowing we had the endorsement while an Edwards staffer claimed it was a done deal for their candidate.

Exceeding expectations and having confidence is almost always better than landing on softened ground.  Warming people up for these things is always a let down.  If there had been no plane tracking, if Obama's camp had invited all 6 of his top choices with another half dozen top Dems to the big event Saturday and then with all of them on stage announced his choice, there would be real excitement in it.  As some others mused it would have been fantastic for the netroots if he had gotten all of the potentials on stage and turned to the crowd and said "are your phones on?...hold on a sec (pull out blackberry...send text message...)...I'm pleased to have Joe Biden as my running mate!"

[ Parent ]
Still to be convinced the Obama campaign knows what it's doing (0.00 / 0)
I hope that the Obama campaign are now on their game, we will have to see.  We've had less than a week of evidence that they are.  They pivoted on the house gaffe, which looks promising, and held off on the Biden announcement so as not to step on the story line.  But I agree with JMM that they need to pivot again to a more substantive story line, McCain's recklessness and cluelessness.  At least Biden should be able to reinforce that.

I do think that for a while, the Obama campaign had lost control of the narrative.  Crazy and lunatic as McCain was on Georgia, he was at least saying he would do something, how many were reminded of Jimmy Carter by Obama's waffling?  It would not surprise me at all if they switched their VP pick to Biden because of this and their fall in the polls.  I don't think rumors of Bayh and Kaine were head fakes.  

Pragmatism at work again, Matt? (0.00 / 0)
But I understand your point: The uttermost interest should be to prevent a McCain presidency. So, if the Biden choice works out fine for the campaign, that's certainly a good thing, and congratulations are in order. And what I read so far about Biden's acceptance speech, featuring some nice punches at McCain, soothes my doubts about him, too.

Let's just hope it stays this way, and he doesn't slip again. Still, I'm a bit worried about where "Barak America" came from...

Perhaps Obama's done something subliminal here (0.00 / 0)
with the signoff line he used in his stump and townhall speeches: "That's why I'm running for President of the United States of America."

I found myself listening closely each time he began the sentence to see if he finished it with "America." And he almost always DID!

[ Parent ]
What else should he have said? (0.00 / 0)
That's why I'm running for President of the United States of Obama?
:D
[ Parent ]
One final comment on the how many houses thing. (0.00 / 0)

I have a few more questions about it. Has McCain ever not visited any of these "homes"? If not, did he not know where he was? Did he not know who owned the place he was staying? Did he not ask his wife whose house they were using? Does he not remember? Did he lose count? Did he know who his wife was, or did he think she was just a c*nt? Is there a large turnover of homes that he is unable to keep track of? Does he buy and sell these home a lot? Does he make a profit on them? Does he remember what cities he travels to? Does he know where he is right now? Is he allowed to travel unsupervised? Just how disoriented is he?

Just Biden Time (0.00 / 0)
They had to pick somebody.

The GOP oppo-apparat will go into full destructo-mode on whomsoever was selected.

Mebbe Biden's faults were so well known already that the Dims figgered he was the one with the least to hide...and thus posed the least threat for scandal.

Congratulations to the Obama Campaign | 51 comments
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