Sam, I believe I'm correct in my view that Obama's strategy has stopped working and that he can't continue to play it safe and hope to win with the swing voters.
The reason it stopped working was because the Palin choice created enough buzz to capture the attention of the public and when she, and McCain, had the public ear they really hit him hard on two fronts.
One front was to drive home that McCain's a great, experienced, tested and good guy and the other was to convince the public that Obama's a done nothing, know little, out of the mainstream phenom who will take this country down a dangerous road.
So you have the overview of a proven "good guy" candidate who's paid his dues being challenged by the "new guy" who wants to talk about the issues in a reasonable, conversational way while the "good guy" and his crowd fill the air with dire, emotionally heavy warnings about the new guy.
I don't think that works. I think the new guy is going to have to get very specific, and very soon, about the damage the old guy, following old ways, can do to (whatever groups of voters he wants to convince.) And I think that both his supporters and Obama are going to have to abandon the "above the fray" professorial approach and put some real feeling into it.
Cause hey, let's face it, a huge percentage of the swing voters aren't your most well informed voters and they'll likely get move based on a sense of who's the least fearful candidate. Ed |
