Barack Obama's Arrogant Campaign Risks a Stunning Loss
Reader Comments
he' s well intended
obama, is a common arrivalist, wannabe, who has the s..gone to his head..even though he's well intended, it is because his wife that hillary wasn't picked. BIG HEN-PECFKED MISTAKE
Kia of PA
If Barack Obama loses the election, it is clearly the American people who are not ready for him. The reason why the Democrats have the lead is because they have the issues on their side. If the American people vote again for "more of the same" after re-electing George Bush is utterly and unequivocaly moronic. The Republicans don't have a grasp of the issues, which is why they are pushing Sarah Palin. Obama has run a flawless campaign and if we are lucky enough to have him as president, we will be better off as a country.
AGREED!
As an Obama supporter, I completely agree with you! I am becoming more and more aware that Democrats might actually lose this election because Obama wants so badly to believe that virtue and character will wins this race. Personally, I think he has watched that "American President" movie one to many times! The only problem is that this is not a movie and alot of voters out there don't vote with their head, they vote with their heart and if they believe that McCain will fight for them more than Obama will, then that's who they'll vote for.
I HAVE HAD IT!!! It’s time that we step out of the box and come out swinging! I want the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party to stop continually being victims of the Republicans and their smear tactics and start fighting back!!! Stop REACTING and start ACTING! Enough of this talk that Joe Biden can’t look like he’s bullying Palin in the Vice Presidential debates, he needs to hit her and hit her hard!!! I’m tired of Obama reprimanding surrogates and calling attacks on Republicans off limits while they constantly pound us with never ending A-bombs! Hit them and hit them hard!!!
This is purely speculation but I honestly believe that Obama feels that if he were to get negative, that he will lose his supporters. There is a big difference between going negative with lies and going negative with the truth. Republicans have been going negative with lies, Obama has the upper hand in that he can go negative, but with the truth!
We understand his need to remain “above the fray” but we also understand the need to fight back!!! Obama’s VP, Joe Biden said it best, “sometimes in politics, you have to get down and dirty!” There are less than 60 days until the election, I think it’s about time!
more of the same fear-based and ellistist false attacks
Is it a wonder why the debates get pushed away from the issues? This article is a perfect example. No discussion about real issues, but lots of slander and smears. This article actually nails the real reason for the successful tactics of the past two republican election wins... instill fear and slander the opponent. Make the other guy appear not like majority of the voters... he's not American, he's muslim! (Kerry was French, err he looked French. remember Ann Coulter "Kerry - the first French-American president!") He's elitist and arrogant! (Obama wears "designer shoes", "messiahlike candidate", "his veneer of superiority." to use some of the words from this article.)
How much are McCain's shoes? How many houses does he own? How arrogant is his campaign in saying Americans are less patriotic if they don't agree with his continuing to push trickle down economics - a proven failure, supporting a war with Iraq when Iraq had no connection at the time to Al Quaeda (while at the same time accusing Obama of being against fighting terrorism... how about as a journalist, remind people just who said in 2002 that we should not be leaving the pursuit of bin Laden to go into a rash war in Iraq? google Obama Steve Berkowitz interview 2002).
Obama's "sweeping speeches" have helped inspire millions of Americans out of apathy into action. He has proposed a new economic plan to balance economic views on free markets and regulation. His tax proposals give more tax cuts to 95% of Americans, while McCain's give most to top 5%.
This author, Bonnie Erbe and 'journalists' like her are the reason why this and previous elections are not about national issues - instead they foster and push biased personal attacks.
Although an opinion article, if Ms Erbe is stamping her credentials as an editor for US NEWS & WORLD REPORT to the side of the article to gain some authority - she needs to please take better care and responsibility for what she promotes as a journalist.
Good Points
If there’s anything the last two presidential elections have taught us, a slim majority of Americans prefer a strutting fighter who they wouldn’t mind socializing with. Obama could meet this criteria if he just wasn’t so smart (Gore’s problem), ethnically different, and such a stark contrast to the last president they elected. Obama’s extreme popularity with his base and more rational observers overseas is as much due to this latter quality as it is to his personality: Someone might actually be able to clean up the Republicans’ mess! Unfortunately for his electoral chances, it also means that those who elected and reelected Bush might through Obama’s success have to face the enormity of their error; something notoriously hard for people to do.
Methnks the lady doth protest too much
All of this analysis was merely preamble to this prescription:
"A good start would be for Obama to apologize to Clinton supporters for not coming to her defense during the primaries and helping her battle a torrent of sexist media criticism."
It seems that what has really gotten stuck in Ms. Urbe's craw is the thumpin' her candidate took at the hands of this impetuous upstart. You see, according to Ms. Urbe, it is not the voters who select presidential nominees, no - that prerogative belongs to the media elite. The fact that Senator Obama would deign to go over her head and speak directly to the people is - in her eyes - just more proof of his elitism!
"How dare he!, she cries, "How dare he!"
No, Ms. Urbe, how dare you.
Talking Points
Your "opinion" sounds like a McCain campaign advisor feigning neutrality. You use McCain talking points in your assessment of Obama. Have you not listened to him? Have you not read his books? Haven't you been to his web site and read his positions and proposals? You read like any other partisan blogger online.
While you are welcome to your opinion and even to your bias, I expect more from an editorialist for an organization which proports to report fact. Journalism is about writing fact without conclusions. It is about providing information to inform the public to allow us to make our own decisions. Editorials are pieces which take the raw facts and assemble them so a logical conclusion, albeit perhaps not a conclusion that we would all reach. Unaffiliated bloggers say whatever they want.
You go too far and the use of buzz words and talking points sounds like it came directly from Karl Rove. If you can't help yourself, perhaps you should write for the National Review. I can find partisan opinion anywhere online. These days I find few sources I can include in the category of journalism. Yours, sadly is nowhere near that description.
enigmatic, messiahlike candidate
Ms. Erbe, those are the terms used by his detractors to further their message that Obama is elite and/or out of touch, not (unless I've missed something) the descriptions of the Democratic Party leaders to which you ascribe them.
McCain's startling choice of an enigmatic, obscure running mate dominated the coverage by the commercial media, while millions of voters yearned for insight into who Palin was (or is) and what the basis was for McCain's decision... but all we got was echoes of the Republican talking points.
She's been sequestered for coaching, cloistered with the likes of Joe Lieberman, yet fumbles in a revealing way when asked about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the wake of the news Sunday that both were being taken over, (Palin said they "had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.") Maybe foreclosures aren't a big enough deal in Alaska that the Governor should know Freddie and Fannie are privately held, but I expect more from a VP candidate.
Yet your news is about how the Democrats might blow it? They might blow it if journalists don't do their best to report objectively and follow the money. I know you're beholden to the people who advertise in your publication(s), and that grabbing attention to boost readership is necessary to your commercial survival, I know the Matthews quote seems worth repeating (Lord knows it's been repeated often enough) but I also expect more from professional journalists.
Give me some meat. Follow the money. Tell me which of your advertisers are contributing to and lobbying the major contenders. THAT is journalism - or it's what I was taught to expect back in civics class.
Yeah this is new for sure...Not..Think Elmer Gantry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K_1Eit0pxM
I dare you to post this.
