Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Problem with Obama

Why is the campaign of Barack Obama struggling? Nobody excites and impresses crowds the way he does. Yet he is falling further behind Hillary. What is wrong? Josh Marshall gives us his theory:
Obama isn't so much running for the nomination in the sense of reaching out and taking it. He's trying to show us how marvelous he is (and this isn't snark, he's really pretty marvelous) so that Democratic voters will recognize it and give him the nomination.

But that's not how it works in this country. I don't know if it really works otherwise anywhere else. But you have to really want it, come out and say it, take it. I thought about qualities that describe what is at issue. 'Toughness' seems to bound up in meta-national security mumbojumbo. 'Ruthlessness' sounds too, well, ruthless. You have to want it enough that you reach out and take it. Which isn't always pretty and admirable. But that's what it takes.

Hillary has no such qualms.

1 comment:

Loveparent said...

When Hillary came up with the campaign slogan "I'm in and I'm in to Win" that should have been everyone's clue. She's been preparing for this race since she was a teenager. She's not going to let it slip away. Ideologically she's certainly not my favorite candidate, but she's going to make history. You know what successful women get called--it rhymes with witch. Hillary came to terms with a fair portion of the population labeling her years ago. She's waaaaay past that now! She's in and she's in to win.