Published: May 09, 2008 06:50 pm         

What Obama must do now

Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, it was clear long before May 6 that Barack Obama’s campaign has to take a hard look at itself. And at its candidate.

While it’s still almost certain that he will be the Democratic nominee, the problems of perception that plagued his campaign in the weeks leading up to the May 6 primaries will linger long into the General Election, unless they change the way they send their messages.

There is no question that Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, played the largest role in the deflation of Obama’s polling numbers these past two weeks. But what seemed to cause more of a problem was his general reaction to criticism.

Dogged by attacks and negative messages from a desperate Clinton campaign and a savage, controversy-mad media that smelled blood, Obama’s response was largely to lay low, and weather the proverbial storm.

And the campaign had good reason to take that route. All along, alleging that Obama was “above the fray” of standard political bickering has helped him build up an image of an outsider looking to change the status quo.

But, of course, the problem with laying low is, no one knows where you are.

There were only a few weeks between Pennsylvania and May 6, and so the voters on Tuesday voted largely based on familiarity and name recognition. That factor, obviously, helped the Clintons. And analysts say that voters are worried that Obama is an elitist who doesn’t understand them, but that’s just rationalization.

The real reason voters got cold feet about Obama this past week was because he wasn’t in the headlines. His pastor was. Senator Clinton was, promoting her “Gas Tax Holiday,” and Obama rarely graced the front page of the newspapers except when a new poll came out showing that he had lost his large lead in North Carolina.

In Washington and Hollywood, the mantra “no news is good news” isn’t quaint common sense. It’s blasphemy. There must be news. You have to make those headlines, and you have to make them count.

So while it’s clear that the Obama campaign has decided to just roll with the punches and stay clean until he’s handed the nomination, they’re going to have to make a lot more noise than they’re making now if they want this fight wrapped up soon, rather than on convention night.

And maybe they need to be reminded that while it’s likely Mr. Obama will be the Democratic nominee, it’s not a reality yet. Stranger things have happened than a late come-from-behind political victory.

Perhaps the Obama campaign has blocked John Kerry’s ill-fated presidential run four years ago from their memory, as so many Democrats have blocked it from their memory. But one of the things Kerry is often criticized for is claiming to be “above the fray,” and expressing a desire to “stick to the issues.”

Those are the exact words Obama has been using these past few weeks to distance himself from the Rev. Wright controversy, and they’re the exact words Senator Kerry used to try and make the infamous “Swift Boaters” disappear.

But it doesn’t work. This is America. We hate sticking to the issues. We like the latest, most outrageous, most attractive thing available. You have to give us what we want, or we’ll make it up for ourselves ... and usually, sadly, it won’t be something positive.

Notice that, while Senator Clinton is the one benefiting from all of Obama’s negative press and attempts to stay out of the spotlight, no one is saying she has increased her support because she’s such a great leader, or that her policies are suddenly so much better. It’s just that a negative story about her opponent took root in the national dialog.

And nothing will change that until Obama starts making his own headlines. Some people say that his avoiding the limelight makes him seem aloof. I say, it gives people opportunities to call him names. Like aloof.

He has to take those opportunities back.

— Mark Casey is a freelance writer from Brownsburg and winner of the Flyer Idol competition.

     

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