2 posts tagged “ayers”
Obama’s team retaliated to Palin’s weekend attack (linking Obama to Ayers see below) with a counter-offensive about McCain’s involvement with a savings and loans fraudster from the 1980s. Though seemingly relevant, this piece is somewhat academic in its material and message. Its effect will not reverberate with the people of America – so it is interesting to see why Obama would calculate that this small advantage is worth pressing.
It is clear that Obama is willing to get his hands dirty in this election but why now? My assumption was that, if he was even capable of this (of which I was far from certain), then he would have waited for this riposte until much later in the game. This belief was based on the assumption that Obama has far more to lose than to gain from the elections turning nasty. It is these particular tactics that the Republicans can turn back on the Democrats hurting their majority as well as their ability to govern in a becoming manner after the election, should they win.
The danger for the Democrats with their national lead at this late stage is not so much lethargy, or the ‘swift boat’ tactics that many fervently believe brought down Kerry in ’04, is that they are shown to lack that connection or that common touch with the American people. It is this particular ability mastered so well from Reagan to Palin (and including both Bush 41 as well as McCain at their best) that the suave, northern and sophisticated Democrats don’t have, don’t get and don’t see the point of getting.
There is a small amount of time left before the general elections, but the last month still has two presidential debates as well as all of the twists and turns that this extraordinary financial crisis can muster. This weekend has seen activity from Palin that has already driven from the news the Republicans withdrawal from keeping Michigan in ‘play’. In this race the Republicans, although underdogs, are still not ‘dead dogs’ as the Democrats could have achieved by now.
Palin’s highlighting of Obama’s connections to Mr Ayers (and by implication the Weather Underground) will not, by itself, win any more voters to the Republican cause. In order to roll back Obama’s lead, the McCain/Palin ticket needs to organize a concerted attack that weaves together a pattern that will make sense in terms of a narrative ark to the American people. Otherwise these attacks will just appear as they do hitherto – shots in the dark.
Obama needs to maintain a steady hand in face of these pinpricks. At a certain point, if these attacks do morph into a strategy he won’t be able to brush them off as mere slurs and smears. Headlines are how politicians rise and fall. Headlines if they persist become the news.
