The Common Touch

Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney (yes, good old AdNags) offer up in today's NYT the thoroughly unsurprising report that the Obama realize they have a working class people problem, and they're trying to solve it. The article does a nice job suggesting just the kind of floundering I predicted last Wednesday, where the whole campaign seems flummoxed about how to change on the fly. And as with so many Obama campaign reports, while it talks about him attending small group "town halls" and being more specific, they offer no samples of what he actually said.

Of course none of this is especially well suited to the Times' Washington based political reporters, whose notion of "working people" probably serves as the definition of... er, I said I wouldn't use that word, didn't I. Well, let's just say, they're not likely to have a beer or go bowling, either.

But it's also not clear it's well suited to Obama.  I was struck, over the weekend by both Obama's appearance on Fox (I only caught pieces, because the show goes up against Stephanopolous in New York... and I have no DVR. Pity me), and by the discussions elsewhere - even Obama's surrogates on ABC admitted that there's a need to adjust his message, and behind that, an acknowledgment that something went wrong in PA.

For his part, Obama seemed uncomfortable and ill-suited for Chris Wallace.  As always, his defenses of his record in the Senate - as a reliably Democratic vote, Wallace noted - seemed, well, defensive; though he's right about the idea that we need to ratchet down partisan divides, he actually offers little sense of how to achieve it, and that, I think, is the far deeper problem with his campaign: that it's central premise is so poorly fleshed out. Moreover, there were plenty of smaller things that could trip him up.  Matt Stoller at Open Left - an Obama supporter - was totally nonplussed by the triangulation with GOP positions.  Myself, I raised an eyebrow at his suggestion that there was an appropriate way to limit third trimester abortions, though it turned out he was using the expansive "health of the mother" language that, as opponents note, doesn't really limit them. But I think Obama managed to get stuck in it precisely because he was trying to thread the needle - pro-choice activists will not love the answer, but the idea that his answer shows "common ground" with conservatives is also ludicrous.

And then there's the stuff in today's Times.

There's this awful Xerox commercial for color copiers that airs on the Sunday shows - it shows two low level corporate types fretting about making color over B&W copies because their boss will hate it, then (in a really disjointed way), we see them with their boss - a woman - on a conference call with the client, who loves the color copies and is shocked by their clarity. At which point the lady boss puts the speaker phone on mute to joke to the room that she's shocked, shocked that he even gets it... at which point it turns out that the mute button doesn't work.

Haha. She's a bitch... and she's dumb!

Anyway, what got me thinking of that awful commercial is Zeleny and Nagourney's report that:

In interviews with several associates and aides, Mr. Obama was described as bored with the campaign against Mrs. Clinton and eager to move into the general election against Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.

And like the woman in the ad, I think, "you're bored? Well, we're bored, too guy... bored with you!"

Maybe Tina Fey is right - bitches rule. :)

Seriously, I think Obama needs to get un-bored, and fast; and he needs - still - to get more substantive.  Quotes like “I’ve got to be more present,” he said. “I’ve got to be knocking on more doors. I’ve got to be hitting more events. We’ve got to work harder because although it’s flipped a little bit, we’ve always been the underdog in this race.”  ... don't inspire confidence that the Senator has moved much past a few feel good words about life with a working mom to specific proposals for others. Indeed this whole "image over substance" approach he's been on lately, feels old. It's the kind of logic the Bushes use to talk about strategy in public, when they should be actually talking to the public.

It's also the reason Obama's being foolish about the debate issue. It's just not  part of the Democratic Party to be the guys who oppose debates. Yes, the formats have been terrible, yes the network moderators have been awful, from Matthews to Blitzer to, yes, Charlie Gibson.  But still. In a campaign that's supposed to be about fresh ideas, Obama seems to most avid the situations where discussing them would be front and center. Which is why, no matter how absurd a proposal it actually is, Clinton looks brilliant for offering to do a debate in almost any format, anytime, anywhere.

Look, it's true that right at this moment, Clinton hasn't exactly closed the deal for the nomination; winning Pennsylvania was winning where she was expected to, ultimately, even in a commanding way. It's winning Indiana, and possibly pulling very close in North Carolina that would underline her points about questioning whether the rush to Obama was too soon (if she wins Indiana, she will have won 5 of the last 8, and the bigger races - he's got Mississippi, Wyoming and Vermont - of those contests). As much as I heard the usual "the math is against her, So Hillary Should Get Out Now ™" (Andrea Mitchell, that means you), there was also, across the panels on Sunday, a sense that he just hasn't done it like he needs to. As a Clinton supporter, I don't think he will (though as David Brooks suggested on Friday on the NewsHour, he may "corner" the nomination, rather than win it). Which is one reason I think now is the time for Clinton supporters to think carefully about how to win gracefully. Just as we've felt beat down, a scenario in which Obama fails to overcome his obstacles will be demoralizing to his supporters.  I don't see the need to rub it in; empathy, of course, would be part of the common touch.

Comments

[Redstar]

Yes, the mantra is getting louder that Obama merely is trying to run out the clock.

Bored, eh? For someone so allegedly eloquent, this guy needs SERIOUS media training, and fast.