Obama's challenge: Maintaining grassroots enthusiasm while appealing to Independents

[DeepModem Mom]

TIME: Will 'Experience' Hurt Obama?
Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2008
By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/WASHINGTON

....To some observers, Obama's transformation from upstart candidate to presumptive nominee has made him begin to look dangerously like the typical Washington politicians he so often rails against. Worried about his patriotism? He now wears a flag pin daily. Worried about his church? He left it. Think he's inexperienced? Don't fret; he's got lots of renowned advisers. Too liberal? Well, just look at his recent policy statements on defending Israel and protecting warrantless wiretapping. And for a man who last week flip-flopped on his pledge to stay within the public financing system, his planned meeting tomorrow with Hillary Clinton's fat cat donors seems to be Obama's way of saying, 'I may not like your game, but I'll take your money.'...

(H)aving spent the last 16 months pledging to be "the change you can believe in," Obama faces an especially delicate balancing act in playing to the center. Currently Obama trails McCain among independents not leaning toward either party by a margin of 26% to 35%, according to a June 5-10 Gallup poll....

Since becoming the presumptive nominee, nearly every step Obama has taken seems to underline the message that his brand of change is not threatening, or even revolutionary. His first general election ad, "Country I Love," is a 60-sec. paean to Obama's Main St. normalcy. In it he extols policies designed to reach across the aisle, such as "cutting taxes" and "moving people from welfare to work." His initial choice of Washington powerbroker Jim Johnson to run his vice presidential search was also traditional: Johnson had done the same job for John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Unfortunately, Johnson was a little too old-school — his ties to the subprime loan industry forced him to resign. The campaign this month released a new roster of foreign policy advisers that includes many old, comforting names from the Clinton years, such as former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher. But in some ways Obama has boxed himself in: in trying to counter criticisms about his experience, he's brought in a team full of gray-haired advisers who by dint of their long established positions and Washington relationships represent the furthest thing from change.

The shift hasn't just been cosmetic. The liberal blogosphere lit up angrily when Obama signed on to a controversial Senate compromise to authorize President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping programs last week. Earlier this month, Obama conceded his own rhetoric on trade during the primaries was "overheated and amplified" and that he supports "opening up a dialogue" with trading partners Canada and Mexico on "how we can make this work for all people," as he told Fortune Magazine. And in his first speech after cementing the nomination, Obama assured the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent Jewish group, that he would like to see Jerusalem "remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided," a surprisingly hawkish declaration that outraged the Arab world and Arab-Americans and appeared to contradict earlier statements he had made. He seemed to recognize his overreaching the next day, dialing back his rhetoric and telling CNN that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided by Israelis and Palestinians through the peace process....

Unlike McCain...no amount of careful brand positioning will stop an Obama presidency from signifying undeniable and historic change: he would be the first black President, the first Democrat in the White House since Bill Clinton, and the first President of his generation. He has already revolutionized the way people donate to, and help organize, campaigns. All of which means that Obama faces a unique political challenge; as he tries to maintain the fervent grassroots enthusiasm that has gotten him this far while appealing to enough independents to take him to the White House, the Illinois Senator must both disprove and prove the old adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1817679,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

[book_worm]

1. the media wants to get something going, but my enthusiasm hasn't dappened

Obama is doing what needs to be done to win.

[DJ13]

2. The biggest mistake Obama could make is thinking the independents...

.....arent tired of the conservative/pro-business politics that have wrecked our country, and arent ready to try true liberal ideas instead.

How often have we seen people say they know actual twice Bush voting Republicans who now want to vote for Obama?

And this was while he was in the midst of the primaries, where running to the left is how you win the base of our party.

Surely the vast majority of independents arent more conservative than those Republicans already wanting to support Obama.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I think you may have a point re. this election, especially since every poll...

seems to be showing Obama with an increasing lead over McCain.