Like every good public relations effort, the Obama team knows that any press that the campaign is getting is a good chance to reposition its message in the eyes of voters.
After the explosive weekend of ‘bitter’ remarks and the regrettable comments about Pennsylvania voters ‘clinging to guns and religiion’, the junior Senator from Illinois needed some quick damage control. His campaign has realized (rightly) that it’s time for the candidate to expose his status as an Average American while at the same time casting aspersions on his opponents as out of touch with their sinful possession of ‘a lot of money’. Take a look at this video of him today at the AP Luncheon:
Damn is he good. Capitalizing on Hillary’s tax returns while taking heat for a stupid remark he made that has essentially cost him the Pennsylvania Primary, quite honestly, approaches genius.
It’s [Bill] Clinton-esque.
Let me explain. Modern politics allows this type of turn-around talk. That is to say, we expect our candidates to deflect criticism and attempt (however weakly) to turn the tide of negative attention back onto their opponent. No matter what the error or how fully realized it’s costs are on a campaign, any quick turn of phrase or character attack that can be made, must be made . Not to strike back in this manner often spells political death.
Unfortunately, it may not always work. Someone may pounce too quickly and therefore speak out of turn, or simply miss the mark. If it’s not done right, it could cost you more of the voters that you are trying to curry favor with. For instance, had the Obama campaign said his “opponents have been spinning the media and peddling fake outrage around the clock”, it would be inadequate to the situation.
(He did say this in an e-mail to supporter asking for more donations, and in fact, it is inadequate to the situation.)
But for him to come back and draw a telling contrast between himself and Hillary Clinton (that because of his upbringing, he is more in touch with the struggle of everyday Americans than she is) makes it difficult to see the holes in his armor. Hillary quite simply left herself open by coming after Obama after releasing her tax records showing assets of $100 million – not 10 days ago.
Obama is right to illustrate her hipocracy and his campaign team seems to have a gift for turning negative press around on it’s opponents. But it also has that other thing that is so necessary in politics….
Timing.
Without those tax records floating out there so recently, Clinton could have had a fighting chance with this one. The good news for her is that the damage to Obama is done. Let’s see if she can ride the wave to a PA victory.
April 14, 2008 at 6:17 pm |
If you parse that income over seven years, with most of it Bill’s post-presidential income and you look at the amount they gave to charity, plus what they paid in taxes, I think they come out looking good. They gave 10% to charity, Obama 1%