Mark Halperin Finally Gets That Obama Isn't Like Any Other Democrat

[slinkerwink]

I don't know what sort of bridge Mark Halperin at Time's The Page has been living under for the past five months, but he seems to have gotten the bulb idea that Obama isn't like any other Democratic nominee.

Duh. I could've already told him that five months ago. Here's his list of why Obama isn't like any other nominee:

Obama and his campaign, in contrast to other Democratic presidential nominees:

1. Have as their default position to respond rapidly to the opposition’s errors.

2. Have no trouble reaching internal consensus about how to respond.

3. Have no reluctance to deviate from their planned message of the day to let the attack BECOME the message of the day (while still executing the planned message, at least for local coverage).

4. Have the tactical skill to leave most of the attacks to staff and surrogates — only involving the candidate as needed.

5. Have the ability to get allies at the DNC, in Congress and elsewhere to echo the attack message.

6. Have the dexterity to attack with perfect pitch — and not too harshly and without sounding whiny.

None of these assures Obama’s victory, of course. And McCain and his campaign are no slouches at this stuff either. But Obama and his operation are different than the party has had in the best, and that goes on display every time McCain appears to slip up.

http://thepage.time.com

[Blue_Roses]

1. I've wondered about him too.

not sure where he's coming from at times.

[slinkerwink]

2. he used to be a fair journalist, but when he got accused of being liberal, he decided

to cover news from the right to cover up for that perception.

[Captain Hilts]

3. He's a former Bush speechwriter and a right-wing tool. nt

[DefenseLawyer]

4. He's a tool

But I don't think he was ever a speech writer. You may be thinking of Mark Helprin who was a Dole speechwriter.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Correct, I think. The novelist was the speechwriter. This guy's just a tool.

Is that right?

[DefenseLawyer]

9. There is a broad concensus that he is a tool

We can leave it at that.:toast:

[Arugula Latte]

14. So, I'm thinking that he's a tool.

;)

[slinkerwink]

5. yep.

[Cha]

6. Exactly!

"None of these assures Obama’s victory, of course. And McCain and his campaign are no slouches at this stuff either. But Obama and his operation are different than the party has had in the best, and that goes on display every time McCain appears to slip up."

"And his campaign"..Read the US mainstream media.

[FatDave]

8. Boy, Obama sure can attack!

The guy's a regular attack dog! I mean, think of Obama's primary campaign and all you can remember is the constant attacks. Am I right?

Nope, sorry, they guy's still a tool. Even if you limit yourself to the subject of attacks, he misses the best part, which is that Obama has a knack for taking his opponent's own attacks and redirecting them back at his opponent.

[ProSense]

10. Halperin's characterization is suspect.

What's with the constant repetition of the word "attack"?

Also, the notion that Obama is leaving attacks to staff and surrogates sounds too much like he's describing Bush's relationship with the Swift Liars.

Countering distortions and calling out McCain and Republicans for their misguided policies are not attacks.

[blm]

11. BULL - the difference is the corpmedia isn't protecting Bushboy 24/7 the way they did 2000-2007.

The media lets themselves off the hook for the complicity they executed the last 8 years, and Halperin wants you all to believe that it was the Dem nominees who were to blame for corpmedia's heavily skewed for Bush coverage.

Sorry, but articles like this are in answer to Dan Rather's lawsuit and McClellan's book pointing to media' blatant protection of Bush - no matter how much you want to believe it proves that Obama is a superior nominee.

If you think it does then you'll have no problem explaining to us how Obama would have dominated the media handily in 2004 and how he'd have a DNC that had done its job for four years and was functioning strong in all 50 states, to secure his win.

[jasmine621]

12. Are you talking about Obama or his campaign handlers?

One does not necesarily equate to the other. I watched Obama at his first press conference and detected that this type of forum will not do well for him. Probably why he did not fare so well during the debates. He needs a crowd to pump up the energy of his camaping. He seems almost a different person, reading too much from a script, when he is not speaking before a huge crowd. At the press conference he seem really tired, solace, and even let down himself.

[slinkerwink]

13. when was his first press conf?

[krkaufman]

15. Well, from what I've seen, the Obama campaign did a poor job of reacting ...

... to the Jimmy Carter comments. They should have come out swinging with all the great Carter initiatives from energy independence to the Egypt-Israel peace deal, but all I heard was confusion regarding gov't spending and taxes.

It would have been a good opportunity to paint McCain as hyper-partisan for his broad-brush denigration of Jimmy Carter.