McCain and Obama are tied; Obama rebukes Bernie Mac, sort of; McKinney to lead Greens
The most striking development over the weekend was the evaporation of Barack Obama's narrow lead. Rasmussen Reports now has the two tied. Newsweek, which had the largest outlier of all polls with Obama at a 15 point lead a few weeks ago now only say he is 3 points up. Rasmussen puts McCain and Obama at 43-43 and with leaners 46-46.
Obama's slide down in the polls I attribute to an array of factors, detailed in the earlier posts of the past two weeks. But several overarching factors/causes jump out as most prominent. One, Obama faces a revolt in his own base over his rapid moves to the center. In time, he will likely be able to quash them, but they are going to fight hard to bring him back to the left some. Two, Obama's startling volume of position changes undermines people's confidence in his self-portrayal and claim to be a "different type of politician" as they have seen this type of politics before and can discern that he is consistently putting polls before principle, and self-interest ahead of prior professed beliefs. Further, this malleability makes supporters queasy perhaps as to how far right he will go and if they know what they are buying while making others willing to withhold their support perhaps as leverage to pull them in the direction they want (particularly the netroots). Three, McCain's outreach to Hispanics has probably dented the prior huge pro-Obama margins in that demographic.
Cynthia McKinney looks like she will be the leader of the Green party in this 2008 Presidential race. McKinney stated the Green party's goals will be to get on the ballot in 40 states and get 5% of the vote. Although they will likely do neither, they will likely siphon more support from Obama than from McCain. Yet, with environmental responsibility being such a buzzword for the modern ethics of good citizenship, it is not impossible to see them making a splash, perhaps particularly on the west coast.
Last, Obama "sort of" reprimanded comedian Bernie Mac for some racy jokes at a campaign event, (yet again a $2300 a head rich donor only event), where Mac joked about infidelity, promiscuity, etc. Obama chided him that he needed to keep it clean because this was a family affair, (though I'm not sure how many families can afford $2300/head dinners), and then Obama added "By the way, I'm just messing with you man." After the event, the Obama campaign overstated the moral courage of Obama in standing up to Bernie Mac as "Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate." Some voters may ask themselves, if someone cannot stand up to a comedian making racy jokes and being shouted off the stage by the crowd, how can he stand up to political pressures and other scenarios involving actual moral courage? See http://omg.yahoo.com/news/bernie-mac-makes-off-color-joke-at-obama-event/10715?nc.
This incident with Mac may further hurt Obama at the end of a bad week in three ways. One, the lack of moral courage paints him as a weak character in inviting someone to headline an event who says inappropriate things, rebuke him, then hedge the rebuke and turn that into a joke, and then the campaign releases a statement portraying him as having made an unequivocal stand and rebuke. Two, this hurts him with women. These comments Obama was comfortable joking about are offensive to women. Pair that with his previous such blunders/comments offending women voters, and it adds to the tally. Three, it adds to the narrative that Obama does not pick his friends wisely.
Obama's slide down in the polls I attribute to an array of factors, detailed in the earlier posts of the past two weeks. But several overarching factors/causes jump out as most prominent. One, Obama faces a revolt in his own base over his rapid moves to the center. In time, he will likely be able to quash them, but they are going to fight hard to bring him back to the left some. Two, Obama's startling volume of position changes undermines people's confidence in his self-portrayal and claim to be a "different type of politician" as they have seen this type of politics before and can discern that he is consistently putting polls before principle, and self-interest ahead of prior professed beliefs. Further, this malleability makes supporters queasy perhaps as to how far right he will go and if they know what they are buying while making others willing to withhold their support perhaps as leverage to pull them in the direction they want (particularly the netroots). Three, McCain's outreach to Hispanics has probably dented the prior huge pro-Obama margins in that demographic.
Cynthia McKinney looks like she will be the leader of the Green party in this 2008 Presidential race. McKinney stated the Green party's goals will be to get on the ballot in 40 states and get 5% of the vote. Although they will likely do neither, they will likely siphon more support from Obama than from McCain. Yet, with environmental responsibility being such a buzzword for the modern ethics of good citizenship, it is not impossible to see them making a splash, perhaps particularly on the west coast.
Last, Obama "sort of" reprimanded comedian Bernie Mac for some racy jokes at a campaign event, (yet again a $2300 a head rich donor only event), where Mac joked about infidelity, promiscuity, etc. Obama chided him that he needed to keep it clean because this was a family affair, (though I'm not sure how many families can afford $2300/head dinners), and then Obama added "By the way, I'm just messing with you man." After the event, the Obama campaign overstated the moral courage of Obama in standing up to Bernie Mac as "Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate." Some voters may ask themselves, if someone cannot stand up to a comedian making racy jokes and being shouted off the stage by the crowd, how can he stand up to political pressures and other scenarios involving actual moral courage? See http://omg.yahoo.com/news/bernie-mac-makes-off-color-joke-at-obama-event/10715?nc.
This incident with Mac may further hurt Obama at the end of a bad week in three ways. One, the lack of moral courage paints him as a weak character in inviting someone to headline an event who says inappropriate things, rebuke him, then hedge the rebuke and turn that into a joke, and then the campaign releases a statement portraying him as having made an unequivocal stand and rebuke. Two, this hurts him with women. These comments Obama was comfortable joking about are offensive to women. Pair that with his previous such blunders/comments offending women voters, and it adds to the tally. Three, it adds to the narrative that Obama does not pick his friends wisely.
