American Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive valuesAmerican Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive valuesJust this one last thing and then I've got to record my radio show (OK, so I'm stalling while I try to convince myself that what I was going to talk about is still what I want to talk about).
I stumbled on this earlier this week. As it happens, some Brit pundits think it won't be Senator Obama's race that will sink his chances to win--this despite a whopping 30% who reported on an MSNBC poll of 300,000 people who said that they would never vote for a Black candidate for Prez. They think he's too cool.
Read it. Just read it.
What was the problem with Obama's "bitter" comments? Isn't he right that many people are bitter about their economic circumstances? Isn't he right that some of those people turn to guns and religion?
Well, yes, he was right and that is what he did wrong.
Lots of people believe that Obama's big difficulty in the general election will come from his race. I think it will come from his famous detachment.
There are things that politicians can say and things that analysts can say, and they are not the same thing. Inevitably, for instance, his comments will be interpreted as a patronising slur on religious people, even though he is religious himself.
But Obama didn't respect that distinction. And I think his slightly lofty, stand-off manner is the reason.
He seems sometimes to be looking at the election from the outside. He sometimes seems to be standing back and marking his nation like an independent assessor. And, although this may seem to some like an odd comparison, there is a little bit of Michael Dukakis's emotion-free character lurking even in Obama's most rousing rhetoric
Republicans are concerned that McCain is too hot tempered. But Obama may prove to have an even bigger problem arising from something usually seen as an advantage. He is the cool candidate.
Could he be too cool to win?
Ever mindful of my grammar (they can get rather pissy over there is they think you've split an infinitive), I posted This reply:
Lalita Amos's blog | login or register to post comments
First, he wasn't "Black enough" (whatever the hairy heck that might be). Then, after the highly-spun comments of his pastor were played over and over in an endless 30 second loop, there was a fear that he was suddenly "too Black."
Now, you assert that he's "too cool."
I've seen him speak, as have several others I know who like me were decidedly on the fence between Senators Obama and Clinton and, sometimes McCain. We all left converted.
All of us...in several states.
We're seeing the holes and gaps in our election process as, state by state, they play out their primaries and caucuses (caucusi?) like independent presentations of Swan Lake...done by four year olds. Cranky ones in need of a nap. Rules seem to change from state to state and the Pledged Delegates, Super Delegates, and (for lack of a better term) Uber Delegates (which have not been named) will find themselves camped in a smoke-filled room, deciding for whom the Democratic faithful get to vote for come November.
How about we stop with the endless parsing of personalities (that, by the way, isn't "too cool") and focus on message?