Posted by
John of Arc on Sunday, May 18, 2008 6:42:33 AM
When the Illinois Democrats began to plan to promote Obama as their Presidential candidate they needed a strategy that would differentiate him, first from Clinton (the most polarizing candidate in the field) and then from the most likely Republican candidates (among them Giuliani and Romney). Given Obama’s youth and lack of accomplishments their possible strategies were limited. But given the landscape of the 2008 campaign and Obama’s charisma, the dual strategies of Obama the Unifier and Time for a Change were selected. A minor theme that Obama added later as an embellishment was Obama the post-Partisan, an above-the-fray, positive person and campaigner.
The Unifier thing worked against Hillary but she easily adopted the Change part, as did most of the Republican candidates with some degree of credibility. But when Obama considered the less likely McCain, they had serious problems. McCain had real experience at crossing the aisle as a unifying political force.
In short, McCain could beat Obama as the Unifier and Change did not differentiate Obama very much from anyone. Plus McCain had charisma and geniality. That gave more impetus to his promise of Change and to his appearance as a positive person and campaigner than any of Obama’s anticipated opponents.
What to do? Staying positive was going to limit his abilities to defeat McCain. So, abandon that minor theme! Obama has to go on the attack in the general election campaign and hope that his charisma and wellspring of good will would allow his supporters nationwide to suspend disbelief in what they were seeing. After all, they want to win as much as Obama and the Illinois Democrats.