Is Obama going to find his MoJo again?

[yeahwho]

It seems almost as if Obama is lying low this past month. Even with the convention speech and VP pick his newness and intelligent problem solving skills seem to have faded into the blandness of everyday familiarity. I always figured from the day I first started to support Barack his candidacy would be an epic battle.

I figured Obama was smarter than Kerry, sharper politically and much quicker to respond to outright false statements about his policies and character. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he is going to fade into some ill begotten cruise control that delivers a republican victory.

Maybe it's just this past week, his responses and counter punches have been tired, weak and not even interesting.

McCain is incredibly lame, the republican convention's thirst for oil was disgusting and Sarah Palin pick is IMO ridiculous.

Is Obama pacing with McCain or will he find his game again and start the full court press he's had going all year?

What do you think?

[jennyb]

I wanna see him get tougher. His opponents obviously don't care if they go below the belt. My favorite thing among many many things he's said along this campaign was simply "ENOUGH!" at the DNC with conviction and attitude. I'd like to see a lil more of that.

[RobMoney$]

Since when do liberals get tough?

And in my area Obama has started to air the all so familiar attack ads.
Quite lame for someone who's supposed to be running on a platform of "Change" and acted so above all of the negativity during the primaries against Hillary.

[yeahwho]

Since when do liberals get tough?

Two things, he is not a liberal. The other is the pit bull they call Hillary Clinton didn't have enough bite to get nominated.

He isn't acting and he will respond immediately to lies. Is this an actual attack ad or a response to a lie about his campaign?

[saz]

Since when do liberals get tough?

fdr, truman, lbj (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg), nader: they all knew/know how to through a hard political punch. it's sad though that most dems can't grow a spine themselves.

[yeahwho]

Seems like every time I think this shit so does Brooks from the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin),

Surprise Me Most

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 8, 2008

None of us have ever lived through an election at a time when 80 percent of voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction. But now that we’re in the thick of it, a few things are clear. From voters, the demand is: Surprise Me Most. For candidates, the lesson is: Weirdness Wins.

Last winter, Barack Obama succeeded by running a weird campaign. He wasn’t just a normal politician aiming for office, he was going to cleanse the country of the baby-boom culture war mentality. In his soaring speeches, he denounced the mores of both the Clinton and Bush eras and made an argument for unity and hope over endless partisan warfare.

But over the course of the spring, Obama’s campaign got less weird. The crucial pivot came when he failed to seize on McCain’s offer to do a series of joint town-hall meetings across the country. Those meetings would have elevated the race and shown that Obama is willing to take risks in order to truly change the way things are done.

Instead, Obama’s speeches became more conventional, more policy-specific and more orthodox. His Denver acceptance speech was different from his Iowa speeches. It was more traditionally anti-Republican and pro-Democratic. In the speech’s crucial contrast Obama declared: “It’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America. You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.”


And then he goes on and on, blah blah blah. He comes to the conclusion that weirdness wins, I disagree, I think the hyperactive I'm "all heart" and willing to do anything to make America great attitude wins. That takes MoJo. Obama has it still, he needs to unleash it in voluminous eruptions.

[QueenAdrock]

Quite lame for someone who's supposed to be running on a platform of "Change" and acted so above all of the negativity during the primaries against Hillary.

Kerry ran on a platform of change, and his political ads were 75% positive, 25% negative. He lost.

As much as I'd like to see positivity in campaigns, unless both camps are going to play fair, it just won't work. If one campaign runs on positivity and one runs on negativity against the other campaign, the negativity will win out. People respond much better to fear over one candidate than they do to positive aspects of another candidate. Kerry said "I'm great, I'm a seasoned war vet and I know how to handle Iraq." Bush said "Wolves will come and eat your children if Kerry is elected." It's not that hard to figure out how the American public will vote, based on those two sentiments.

I'd like to see Obama take the moral high ground, but more importantly, I'd like to see him as president. I know you can't do one to get the other, though.

[travesty]

He's been campaigning for too long and he is too far ingrained in the routine now, both are. The focus is the campaign fight. The fight for the real issues is secondary at this point. Unfortunately, I think we will see more of the same malaise.

Just look at what both campaigns now focus on in regard to their opponent. Both are really grasping at straws trying for the knockout character blow and answers to about the real issues get more more vague and canned.

WTF is up with this Ron Paul "surprise" I keep hearing about?

[QueenAdrock]

Is he adding his name to the ticket? I wouldn't doubt it. He's got enough of a following and already had his own convention.

That'd be interesting.

[saz]

i would love to see either ron paul or bob barr debate mccain. i know paul was included in the early republican debates, but he was surrounded by all the other wingnuts.

[DroppinScience]

Apparently Ron Paul is going to announce who he endorses for President. All we know right now is that he does NOT endorse Barack Obama and John McCain. He's going to throw his support behind a 3rd party candidate. Which one we'll find out.

[RobMoney$]

He isn't acting and he will respond immediately to lies. Is this an actual attack ad or a response to a lie about his campaign?


These aren't responses to any untruth about Obama. They're run of the mill attack ads, and exceptionally poor ones at that IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xukbiS8q9s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvyrLOjAP9o&feature=user

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmFd25tRqo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X9LypdiQFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjhVsUosn8

[travesty]

last interview I saw with Paul he didn't sound too enthused about Barr so it'll interesting to see.

[yeahwho]

These aren't responses to any untruth about Obama. They're run of the mill attack ads, and exceptionally poor ones at that IMO.



Sorry you had to watch those, not half as sorry I as I am that I had to watch them. I cannot stand political commercials. He's right though, you know, those really aren't attacks. Just facts.

[Documad]

Kerry ran on a platform of change, and his political ads were 75% positive, 25% negative. He lost.

As much as I'd like to see positivity in campaigns, unless both camps are going to play fair, it just won't work. If one campaign runs on positivity and one runs on negativity against the other campaign, the negativity will win out. People respond much better to fear over one candidate than they do to positive aspects of another candidate. Kerry said "I'm great, I'm a seasoned war vet and I know how to handle Iraq." Bush said "Wolves will come and eat your children if Kerry is elected." It's not that hard to figure out how the American public will vote, based on those two sentiments.

I'd like to see Obama take the moral high ground, but more importantly, I'd like to see him as president. I know you can't do one to get the other, though.

I agree with everything you said above. The problem is that Obama ran in the primaries on the theme of changing the way campaigns are run and being positive and upbeat. Obama didn't win on issues. Hillary was better on issues and a better debater. So now that Obama won the democratic nomination, democrats are saying that he has to change everything he supposedly stood for in the primaries? I'm not sure that he can do that.

[yeahwho]

Lipstick on a pig is a pretty good start. ;)

:cool:

[jennyb]

OMG CAN SOMEONE SAY M-O-J-O!!!!? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zAbeu3v3Wc)

:D

[D_Raay]

Since when do liberals get tough?

And in my area Obama has started to air the all so familiar attack ads.
Quite lame for someone who's supposed to be running on a platform of "Change" and acted so above all of the negativity during the primaries against Hillary.

Why don't you just say you're racist already and get it over with? I've read all your posts since the beginnings of the race between him and Clinton, and you've quite consistently berated him at every turn. You've even covertly supported McCain/Palin (who are completely ridiculous candidates). Don't pretend you're a liberal or democrat.

Go the Joe Lieberman route, you have alot in common.

[DroppinScience]

Why don't you just say you're racist already and get it over with?

Look man, who are you to call him a racist? I mean, just because he has referred to a minority poster as an n-word and constantly tries to find Obama hating on whitey during this election doesn't make you a racist. You need to do better than that.

[Burnout18]

My Obama buzz is long gone... with out a written speech in front of him, he kind of loses his mystical edge....but i still like him better then McCain....oh well.

[NoFenders]

Why don't you just say you're racist already and get it over with? I've read all your posts since the beginnings of the race between him and Clinton, and you've quite consistently berated him at every turn. You've even covertly supported McCain/Palin (who are completely ridiculous candidates). Don't pretend you're a liberal or democrat.

Go the Joe Lieberman route, you have alot in common.

So you're a racist if you don't like Obama??








:cool: