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Published on FOXNews.com on August 15, 2008
Hillary and Bill have hijacked the Denver convention, making it into a carbon copy of what it would have looked like had she won until the last possible moment. By the time Obama gets up to speak and put his stamp on the convention, Hillary will have had one prime time night all to herself. Bill will have pre-empted a second night. Hillary will have had all the nominating and seconding speeches she wants. And the roll call of the states would record, in graphic detail, how the voters of state after state rejected Obama’s candidacy in the primaries. Only then, after three and a half days of all Clinton all the time will the convention then, finally, turn to its nominee and allow him to have an hour in the sun!
And what leverage did the Clintons have to achieve all of this? None! Hillary could not have taken the convention by storm and any show of party disunity would marginalize her forever in the Democratic Party. Had she or her supporters tried to pull off distracting demonstrations or to recreate Lafayette Park in Chicago in 1968, she would have paid a permanent price among the party faithful for sabotaging Obama’s candidacy.
This Clintonian tour de force raises a key question about Barack Obama: Is he strong enough to be president or can he be pushed around? His failure to stand up to the Clintons makes one wonder how effective he will be against bin Laden, Iran, Chavez, or Putin.
And now word emerges from the Obama camp that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is on the short list for vice president. To select Bayh would bring Obama’s nemesis, Mark Penn, in through the campaign’s back door. Penn and Bayh are an item. Mark’s second (and current) wife, Nancy Jacobson was the key fund raiser for the Senator during his Senate campaigns. Penn has always been Bayh’s consultant and chief advisor. Penn played the key role in 1996 in getting Bayh a slot as the convention keynote speaker. Bayh has always marched to Mark Penn’s tune.
This, of course, the same Mark Penn who structured the vilification of Barack Obama as a marginal American and orchestrated the campaign to summon the white working class in opposition to his candidacy.
How much will Obama take?
His weakness, if the face of the Clinton demands coupled with his refusal to debate McCain in the town forum meetings raise the question of whether he is tough when the teleprompter is turned off. Why is he afraid or unwilling to do tough interviews? It is not enough for him to say that he is the front runner and ask why he should risk such confrontations. In case he hasn’t noticed, he’s not the front runner. The tracking polls all suggest a tied race where taking certain risks would be reasonable, unless his handlers worry about his vulnerability in difficult or extemporaneous situations.
Is an unscripted Obama a pushover? Will foreign leaders conclude that he is not up to the job, just as Khrushchev did with JFK at his 1961 Vienna summit that presaged the Cuban Missile crisis? If he does so poorly in negotiating with the Clintons, how will he do with the Russians?
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Comments
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Dick: Sometimes a “hour in the sun” is all that is required. The days of the Clintons honoring themselves will come to a close. The Democratic storekeepers see the Clinton’s dominance of the DNC as symbolic only. It is part of the political con game. I wouldn’t judge Obama by this particular circumstance….as as far as being pushed around…don’t confused symbolic sweetness with weakness….sweetness is strength.
As far as Bayh, Obama is too smart and talented to transfer anything politically with ties to the Clintons. That would be pure “toxic.” His weakness, in the face of the Clintons, well is it really weakness or is it just that one should make friends with the crocodile before he enters the river and/or let me make you my friend in public before I make you my emeny in private. Hillary is going to pay a permanent price among the party faithful for sabotaging Obama’s candidacy by placing her name in nomination. She is going to demoralize herself along with here staunch party supporters and will be able to join Liberman in January as a party outcast.
Is an unscripted Obama a pushover? Will foreign leaders conclude that he is not up to the job, just as Khrushchev did with JFK at his 1961 Vienna summit that presaged the Cuban Missile crisis? Well, you know the answer to that. Khrushchev’s mistake is that he underestimate JFK, just like you are doing with Obama, and so did Hillary Clinton. It was not a stroke of luck that defeated the Clinton political machine and neither victory for JFK.
Mark Penn protrayed Barack Obama as a marginal American and orchestrated the campaign to summon the white working class in opposition to his candidacy. The same Mark Penn who protrayed Hillary as middle class, middle of the country, and middle in the century….. and that image of normalcy defeated her…if the image doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.
We both know that the execution of the duties of the Office of the Presidency of the United States is without a teleprompter and dealing with this nations issues is somewhat different then dealing symbolically with the Clintons. You are comparing apples and oranges here. And as far as the tracking polls, it is still to early in game and poll trolls are having a good time alarming the populace with a series of hobglobins of numbers. Give it another 50 days, then we can make significance comments on the poll numbers.
Everyone seems to know what the other person is going to do…..that always amazes me. The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created… created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the “maker and the destination.” I think Obama will surprise all of us……..including you Dick.
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Michaelcoogen, wonderful comment. I agree entirely.
Dick, you are using your intelligence to attempt to manipulate the populace with Dark intention. Your voice has no ring of truth in it and will fall flat. This is the year the Americans who walk in God’s light from all religions and walks of life have heard the call and are stepping up to create a more positive world by supporting Obama.
You are disappointing because you seem less intelligent when you use your abilities this way. You could be so much more than you have become.
I agree with DM. The Clintons can slow Obama’s momentum. His pulpit styled Cotton Candy speeches that embraced the Democrats with warm and fuzzy feelings about what America needs, will soon be overshadowed by the reality of the Socialist direction of his distribution of wealth proposals when people begin asking simple and direct questions this fall. The Honeymoon is about over.
And I thank you Mercedes for your thoughtful comment…in retrospect…..you also do have the power of the words.
I believe these views to be short sighted.Lets remember that what we are seeing is quite a bit like the Carter candidacy.I still believe without a prompter Obama is dead in the water, his views are very similar to Carters and he too was a pushover as well. You all must remember that yes in 50 days this campaign will look much different but right now when Dem’s typically have a very good lead going into the fall there is absolutely no lead here.This should be very alarming due to the Saddleback forum being a great litmus test for how Obama is going to perform in the debates. With virtually no lead for Obama and 1 in 5 women supporters flocking to McCain I truly believe this is a very positive sign for the conservatives.Plain and simple McCain should not be where he is right now, but he is.Morris, as usual you are right on the money…..