It's 1:00 AM and I've just finished watching a CSPAN panel discussion at some Washington luncheon on the Presidential Campaign. Panelists were the former editor of the NY Times, a prominent Democratic Pollster and Campaign Consultant (who managed Clinton's 1994 campaign) and Karl Rove. Wanted to get this observation down before I forget it and may follow-up with a later post.
In listening to the panel's analysis of the present presidential campaigns and their weaknesses and strengths, it occurred to me that a good political campaign is similar to a good umbrella. It protects you against whatever Mother Nature throws at you and consists of two important parts: the ribs of the umbrella and the cloth the ribs support. The various ribs are the specific policy elements, while the cloth is the overall campaign theme; both are essential to the umbrella's or campaign's purpose. And an umbrella or campaign without both is useless. The Obama campaign suffers from a lack of ribs/policies, but has an excellent theme/cloth; the Clinton campaign suffers from the opposite, sturdy ribs/policies, but a lack of cloth/theme.
Haven't exactly figured out McCain's position in this analogy, since thus far it appears to me as if he's standing in the rain with an umbrella composed of a single rib...Iraq.
Incidently, it took a foreign journalist (a Jordanian) to finally bring up a question I asked in an earlier post: if Obama is 50% African-American and 50% White-American, why do Americans refer to him as the "black" candidate? Somewhat embarrasingly, the ex-Times editor, who was originally from Alabama, had to explain that it may go back to Southern racial laws, which legally defined anyone with 1/64th black heritage to be "black." Ah...the Obama candidacy may be symbolic in showing both how far we've come and little we've come on race. Reminded me of the French proverb: the more things change, the more they remain the same.
P.S. to the P.S. There is, of course, a third element to both umbrellas and political campaigns...the handle, which allows you to use the umbrella and to open it...namely money.
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2 comments:
I think the "Obama has no policies" is nothing but Clinton camp rhetoric. A quick visit to his website will show a platform just as detailed as Clinton's.
On the 50/50 thing I think hardly any of us is 100% one race or the other. America is a mix. If your mix identifies you as a minority, people want to put you in a box as to which minority. "Black" is the most convenient box for Sen. Obama since his father was black(er). He doesn't fit in the "white" box because that box is not considered a "minority" box, which clearly he is. I'm not saying any of it makes sense.
Yes, his website does go into more detail. However, it is probable most voters won't bother to go to the website and rely instead on mainstream media, which doesn't like to discuss the candidate's stand on issues...any of the candidates. That's a commentary on media.
Suppose my observation is that based on mainstream coverage of the candidate speeches themselves, Obama seems to stand away from the details and relies more on broad themes, whereas Clinton comes across as the Policy wonk.
On the other point...its partially tongue in cheek. But strikes me curious that "profiling" still has such an important role in polling. OK to ask voters if they voted for Clinton because she's white or against Obama because he's black and report the results of such polls on national media, but not OK for a cop to stop a black person in a white neighborhood and ask what he/she's doing there?
The free press gets a walk. I think, to some degree, questions regarding Obama's race and Clinton's gender only encourage a nasty side of human nature.
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