Sep 12, 2008
Tasting the Moose Stew
I haven't spoken with Barack Obama this week, but I'm certain that he's shaking his head with disillusionment at the current state of his presidential contest.
On Tuesday, he delivered a well-crafted, thoughtful speech outlining, in great detail, his many proposals for education reform. But instead of political experts on CNN and MSNBC dissecting his new promise to double the funding of charter schools, the week's news was dominated by the McCain campaign's charge that Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark was sexist and aimed directly at Sarah Palin.
In covering Obama's U.S. Senate campaign for the Chicago Tribune, I saw Obama regularly cringe at the trivialities that often turn into the central stories of a political race. Obama is, after all, a Harvard Law intellectual wearing the uniform of a populist politician.
His speeches in his 2000 election defeat to Congressman Bobby Rush were stuffed with policy-driven rhetoric that often fell flat with audiences. It wasn't until political consultant David Axelrod coached Obama to talk more in terms of people and their everyday experiences that Obama realized being on the winning intellectual and moral side of an issue doesn't necessarily mean you'll win at the ballot box—a candidate must connect on a human and emotional level.
Obama continually expressed this frustration to me during his Senate race.
In early 2004, after giving a rousing speech to a union crowd in Chicago, he looked surprisingly forlorn as he climbed into the campaign SUV for the next event. The rank-and-file appeared to love him, and so I asked him what the problem was. He lamented that he spends a lot of mental energy trying to craft serious oratory, yet his biggest applause line is always a banal slap at President Bush. "All I have to say is George Bush is a bad person and they all go wild," said Obama, who, nevertheless, has enough thirst for victory that he compliantly served up the anti-Bush line time and again.
Unfortunately for Obama, political campaigns today are more about trivialities than ever. In the age of new media, when the shrill voices of bloggers and cable TV pundits routinely drown out high-minded editorial columnists, it has become increasingly difficult to win an election being a sober voice of reason.
The McCain sexism charge probably would have received little traction in election cycles of the past, when old media (i.e., newspapers and the Big 3 television networks) played referee over inane political scrums. The Washington Post, for example, editorialized that the McCain camp's purported outrage over the lipstick remark was a "cynical use of the gender card (that) is unusually silly."
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said recently that the election is less about issues than image. If so, things could turn on whether the McCain team can convince enough white swing voters in key states that the GOP ticket projects more "change" than Obama, who has been the candidate of change for so long that it almost seems as if his change mantra is the establishment message.
Until the arrival of Palin, Obama strategists had plotted a long-term strategy of sharply contrasting policy differences, of which there are many. The true change agent would be plain to see, they assumed. Even though their man's political rise largely results from a compelling personal biography and a gift for stirring oratory, they were betting that disenchanted voters ultimately would cast ballots for Democrats because they're offering a dramatic new policy approach from the conservatism of the Bush era.
As such, Obama had been focusing his public comments on such things as restructuring tax policy, upgrading public education, and the virtues of energy independence. But then Palin and her lipstick came along, throwing Obama off of his game plan, at least temporarily.
So there was Obama at mid-week, fiercely firing back at McCain, forced to jump into a pig's mud bath and wrestle with McCain's shrewd image strategists. And by Friday, a more aggressive Obama campaign launched a new TV commercial designed to define McCain's image as an old-school, out-of-touch Washington politician. The ad highlights that McCain arrived in Washington in 1982 and that he does not know how to send an email. In a sad episode for America's serious-minded voters, Obama's plans about reforming education were lost in a splatter of lipstick-and-pig, he-doesn't-know-email vitriol.
Image versus issues. Lipstick versus policy. Moose stew versus Harvard Law. There are still several acts to play out in the election drama. But no matter who your preferred candidate is, let's hope we can rise above this silliness.
Photograph: Jeff Sciortino
Posted at 11:09 AM in The Run-Up | Permalink
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The Run-Up counts down to Election Day 2008 with analysis by journalist David Mendell. Mendell—who wrote about urban issues, politics, and national news for the Chicago Tribune from 1998 until this summer—covered Barack Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign and has written the leading biography of the presidential candidate. 
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Reader Comments:
I believe when the news media realizes that going after the truth about Obama is going to boost their ratings and reputation, it will get scary. The people will finally see his close ties to a known America hating terrorist in William Ayers. His former America hating pastor, along with the felon Resko will also give the news media some very interesting insight as to who this guy Obama really is.
Any black man in America could be considered a terrorist, if the standard of measure is whom they’re associated with. Many African Americans still harbor the hatred and memories of being chased, beaten, and disgraced by and in this country. As for Resko, who cares. Most of the money was given back and I'm sure there are more people who have been exposed to crooked fund raisers than just Obama.
Well, the countdown has begun!
I am actually waiting for the sparks to fly...good, positive sparks. I am patiently waiting for a good old-fashioned display of "fight" from our next President. Am I the only one waiting for sharp comments to all the negative anti-Obama rhetoric? People tend to pay attention when there are attention grabbers laid out on the table. And, I am not picky; the comments I am looking for can come from so-called surrogates whoever has the courage to do so.
MY HOPE AND PRAYER
My name is Tyrone Brown and I am an African American male from Seattle, Washington. My HOPE for this election is simple - that Obama will be judged for his God-given ability to lead and not for his color (which is God-given as well). That may be wishful thinking on my part, but I have "faith" in the common decency of the American people. I also take solice in a conversation I had with my 74 year old Grandfather, who grew up in the segrated south before moving his young family to the Pacific Northwest in the 1950's. He grew up at a time when he had to pay a "poll tax" in order to vote and would be the first to be pessimistic about Obama's chance. But to my surprise - he thinks America is ready and that our country has come far enough to look past race and judge someone like Obama for the "content of his character" and not his color. My PRAYER is that America will prove my Grandfather right.
OBAMA/BIDEN '08
I am insulted hearing Obama use the race card and Biden recently also. They state that whoever doesn't vote for Obama must be racist. I am African American and I am not voting for this paper thin resume, do nothing, manage nothing, radical Chicago politician
Each has said you know others by the friends they keep.
Obama made it possible to give over $$75,000 to a known Israel Jew hating Arab oganization founded by his friend The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi. He also has held a fundraiser for Obama.
Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group. They also support the terrorist group Hamas.
In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.
Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.
Obama served on the Wood's Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
Ayers, who still serves on the Woods Fund board, contributed $200 to Obama's senatorial campaign fund and has served on panels with Obama at numerous public speaking engagements. Ayers admitted to involvement in the bombings of U.S. governmental buildings in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The $40,000 grant from Obama's Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about a fifth of the Arab group's reported grants for 2001, according to tax filings obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also constituted about one-fifth of AAAN's reported grants for that year.
The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago's Palestinian immigrant community, describes itself as working to "empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities."
Again, He lied about his association with William Ayers because the truth is he is smart enough to know how negative that association would be. He chooses his words, like " lipstick on a pig" carefully, again, knowing full well the intended meaning, and never have to worry that the mainstream media will comment negatively about it. He truly is an elite, and, should anyone care to look, is a former drug user by his own admission, and, just out of curiosity, wonder what his lsat score was?