If Barack Obama's quest to become the Democratic nominee for President has taught me anything thus far, its that the last thing on earth I should be doing, outside of trying to rehabilitate a room full of female sex addicts - is acting as anyones campaign manager. When Obama failed to attack his opponents in some of the earlier debates, I exhaustively screamed at the screen as if I was watching a slasher flick at an all black theater - at the time I was convinced that he lacked a killer instinct, and because of that Dennis Kucinich would probably be around longer than him. Ok, I was wrong about that. After he lost New Hampshire, it was my contention that Obama should go the Tonya Harding route and kneecap former president Clinton for belligerently going around and distorting his record like a drunken frat-boy - he more or less did that, and we haven't seen much of Bubba since South Carolina. Then when John McCain used his wife, the seldom heard from Cindy McCain, to score cheap political points by saying that she loved America - a direct response to the Michelle Obama "..for the first time I'm proud of my country" non-story that the press regurgitated because of their fundamental laziness. I was convinced that Obama would have Michelle introduce him before he gave his Wisconsin victory speech, before handing over the microphone to her husband she would mention Mrs. McCain's pathetic grandstanding and tell the crowd that her husband represents a new type of politics. Obviously that didn't happen. So every week, depending on the political developments of the preceding days - I'm going to give Barack Obama some campaign advice that I hope he'll find beneficial. If not, I'm sure him and his staff can sit back and laugh at my suggestions - and openly wonder how they can take the advice of a career alcoholic who once had sex at his fathers wake.
Campaign Surrogates, Go Big or Go home!: One thing I noticed when it comes to Hillary Clinton's surrogates, is that all of them feel extremely comfortable executing talking points - mercilessly attacking Obama on a plethora of issues as if it was second nature to them. Obama's surrogates on the other hand, their collective judgement possibly clouded by the "Clinton mystique" - never go for the jugular, and whenever they do get critical they preface their remarks with "..with all due respect to Senator Clinton.." No, No, No. My advice for the Obama campaign, heading into next week - is to get some surrogates out there who aren't scared to throw some serious punches - Obama can still perpetuate the "hope" message if his surrogates are willing to figuratively slice Achilles tendons and choke out Hillary's presidential arguments with spare telephone chords.
Play the "Marriage Certificate" Card: Hillary has been saying all along that while she is the one with experience, all Obama has is "that one speech he gave in 2002" - its time for the Obama campaign to poke proverbial holes in said experience. Being that Ms. Clinton held no security clearance, and the laundry list of issues that she claimed to have had a hand in during the 90's is disingenuous at best - its time for Obama to challenge her on this particular front. He should say, "While I have shown the proper judgment it takes to be commander in chief, by her vote authorizing the war in Iraq Hillary has not - matter of fact, she has the audacity to think that showing America her Marriage Certificate is experience enough. I don't think so."
Obliterate the "Dream Ticket" talk: The Clinton Campaign, Hillary and a handful of her surrogates - have made it their business this week to push this "Dream Ticket" theme. Obama has to aggressively knock this down for two Reasons: 1) This type of talk might de-energize some of Obama's voters, giving them a false sense of security that regardless what happens - Obama will be on the ticket anyway. and 2)Mrs. Clinton has said, repeatedly, that her and John McCain have "crossed the threshold" needed to become Commander-in-Chief - suggesting that Barack Obama is vastly unqualified. Obama needs to call her on this - suggest that her attacks lack substance and intellectual honesty, because how can he be grossly unprepared on one hand but you wouldn't mind the guy being your Vice President on the other.
4 comments:
he really needs to deal with this clinton -obama ticket nonsense. it may seem non threatening but up close you realize hilary is basically trying to screw over the Obama with that crap
come right out and say something like "hell no i'd rather run as mccain's vp than as yours" just to shut down that b.s
Obama has a fine line to walk. On one side is the dignified and above board (clean)campaign that has served him well to this point. On the other side is the need to strike back in some fashion. I'm interested in how he's going to balance this.
Ah, but he has, he has! I love the big good looking white chick who called Hill a "monster", and then apologized and "resigned"... 'cept we'd never really heard of her to begin with, AND she wasn't a paid staffer! BRILLIANT! I laughed my ass off.
And then Obama came back and said he was running for "PRESIDENT", not VP,and asked innocently, "Uh, if I'm not qualified to be Pres, howcum I'm qualified to be VP?" BRILLIANT! I laughed my ass off.
I LOVE that he has kept his cool, kept his peace, has not sunk to her level. He's a man of his word, and she's starting to look a little like a jilted lover. Too bad she didn't do all this when Bill was out screwing Gennifer or Monica.
I also LOVE that he threw in the words "hoodwinked" and "bamboozled". A clear and quiet tribute to the original King of Cool himself, Brother Malcolm.
BRILLIANT! I laughed my ass off.
And meanwhile, back in NY, Gov Spitzer, a Hill supporter has been engaging in some um, activities.
As someone on the news said today... while he was out negotiating rates with prostitutes, he could have been negotiating the budget!
Birds of a feather, I say.
I hope my man continues to keep his nose above the fray...
Viva Obama!
I find it interesting that much of the national media is saying that Obama and Clinton are both injecting race and religion into this election.
In fact, Bill Clinton started this in South Carolina when he compared Obama’s South Carolina win to Jesse Jackson’s win in 1988. Bill Clinton could have mentioned that John Edwards won South Carolina in 2004, but he compared Obama and Jackson so that white people would perceive Obama as a candidate that only had the support of blacks. Of course, that would not make sense, because Obama had previously won in Iowa and Wisconsin, states with few blacks.
Mrs. Clinton continued the racial and religious dialog when she gave a partial answer to someone that asked her if Obama was a Muslim. Instead of her telling the truth, she gave an answer which implied she wasn’t sure what faith he practiced. She heightened the fears of whites by allowing a supporter to distribute pictures of Obama in African clothing.
If Mrs. Clinton wins the nomination, it will not be an affirmation of her leadership, experience or intelligence. A Clinton nomination will be a validation that race baiting and fear mongering is still the way to gain the support of whites.
The sad part of this is that the same tactics were used in an effort to keep blacks, other minorities and women away from the political process.
The ironic part is that in the 1960s, the Democratic Party supposedly repudiated these methods to win over the disenfranchised, which included (and still does) blacks and women. Now in 2008, a white woman and her supporters use these tactics against blacks in order to draw white voters.
It has been a common practice of the Republican Party to fan the flames of fear and ignorance in order to draw support from the whites who might not otherwise be inclined to vote. A favored tactic is to have a non essential member or “unofficial” supporter make an insensitive statement that can’t be directly attributed to the person campaigning.
The person who is campaigning for office does not immediately reject the offensive statement, but instead allows the media to sensationalize and distribute the controversial statement(s).
The media is happy to do their part because it helps them get ratings, readers and listeners. The campaigner waits until the statement has become a national story, and then denounces the statement. Denouncing the statement wrings out every last drop of publicity about the statement.
Once the remarks have become a national topic of discussion, the candidate fires the person who made the remarks, which makes the offended parties feel better. The offended parties fail to realize that the true purpose of the statements. The statement(s) purpose was to inform whites that the candidate shares their beliefs that minorities are an obstacle to white’s achieving the American Dream.
Anyone with even a simple understanding of politics and racial dynamics would know that the last thing Obama wants is to bring up race. America is a country that has a simmering racial and tolerance problem that is manipulated by our leaders and would be leaders. Obama knows this and has made a point of reaching out to whites, and placing the concerns of blacks inside a social agenda that is relevant to people of all races.
Yet, the media does Mrs. Clinton a great favor by portraying the Obama campaign’s responses to these attacks as attacks themselves. Can the desire to attract readers, listeners and ratings prevent the media from realizing the Clinton campaign is using them to stoke racial and religious fears?
I would like to think the media professionals are more intelligent than I am, but if they are, it means they realize what Mrs. Clinton is doing, and they know they are helping her promote racism and intolerance.
So far, Mrs. Clinton and her supporters have been successful at turning Mr. Obama’s success against him. Instead of people focusing on him winning more delegates, twice as many states and more votes, people are focusing on whether or not he is a Muslim, is patriotic or some other foolishness.
She is so desperate to win that she claimed someone from the opposition Republican Party nominee is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama, even though she and Mr. Obama are both members of the Democratic Party.
Republican Party members realize that criticism within the party could tear it apart, so they adhere to President Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment”. If Mrs. Clinton admires the Republican Party so much, maybe she could adopt their commandment within her own party.
Instead of focusing on race and religion, I would like to see blacks and whites focus on the tactics of Mrs. Clinton and her supporters. After reviewing her campaigning methods, we should ask ourselves just what she is trying to accomplish, and why she feels the need to demean others on the way to her goal. Then we should ask ourselves why would we want a president who would do attack a member of her party more strongly than a member of the party she would face in the Presidential Election.
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