The Obama camp is having a hard time finding an effective way to counter the rather unexpected announcement of Palin as McCain’s choice for vice president. Now Palin has been on the “long list” since April and then put on the “short list” a few weeks ago. Did team Obama make no effort to come up with a coherent strategy to deal with McCain putting a woman on the ticket with him? Was this so unexpected that Obama now is complaining about the “politics of personality” (I thought he invented it) and virtually disappearing from center stage because of her? For goodness sakes, he’s been running against a woman for months, yet it appears that the Obama campaign is very fearful of doing or saying something that may be construed as somehow sexist and having white women jump ship by the millions. Oprah may not be able to stem the flood if that happens.
This humble sage believes that the Obama camp never figured “old man McCain” would not be happy to play the role of sacrificial lamb, actually want to win this race, and make the bold move of picking a spunky, successful middle class woman governor as his running mate. It would appear they were so absorbed in their inevitability and self centeredness that they were completely taken unawares by the Palin pick. And when you are playing for keeps in the big game, you’ve got to never, ever underestimate you opponent. They fail to realize that they are not actually running against George Bush, but a John McCain who has successfully distanced himself from the current administration and given the ‘we need change’ and ‘we need reform’ voters another alternative than Barack Obama. Win or lose, McCain has given this race a good effort and I commend him for it. I don’t think anyone could have done a better job overall this far against the Obama machine which has been playing on the unhappiness of a grumpy electorate.
Team Clinton Says Obama Intimidated By Palin Factor
With the McCain campaign running tactical circles every day around the Obama outfit—which has failed, somewhat unbelievably, to come up with even a semi-compelling response to the Palin selection—one might think Mrs. Clinton, to say nothing of her sidelined husband, would be a useful surrogate on the counterattack right about now. Apparently, the Obama campaign does not agree.
“My concern is that I see them as totally reactive right now as opposed to getting out there on their own and saying what the hell they are about,” said Leon Panetta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton who has advised Mr. Obama. “They seem to be intimidated by the Palin pick. They seem to be intimidated by how the Republicans are coming at them on change. And you cannot win if you are constantly on defense.”
Mr. Panetta added, “As president of the United States you are going to have to learn how to deal with people you may not particularly like, because if you are trying to get things done, you have got to use everything and everybody that you can to get it done. I do think that they absolutely in this race have got to make use of the Clintons in every possible way, because they need them. He has clearly got some problems out there.”
