What They Must Overcome
Barack Obama
Right now, Obama's biggest hurdle is his lack of experience - especially relative to the rest of the field. He will need two things to carry him past that: (1) charisma, plain and simple. (2) a media meme that experience is what bogs us down in unwinnable conflicts in the first place. On the latter, compare Truman, LBJ and W to the likes of Lincoln who was a one-term Congressman and an unsuccessful Senate candidate before he went on to become one of this nation's best Presidents, and Woodrow Wilson who had only two years as New Jersey's chief executive under his belt before he was elected President. Lincoln held the Nation together. Wilson stayed out as long as possible, then went in, kicked ass, and started the U.S. on it's way to our current position at the top of global politics.
Hillary Clinton
Don't believe the polls, which are really just a measure of name recognition at this point. Hillary is beset with image problems that make her candidacy a true longshot. Among average Americans, she's directly associated with this extremely distasteful sense of polarization in Washington. Her penchant for triangulating pisses off the Left, and her last name still enflames passions on the Right. Her best bet for victory is to do what she's been doing - ignore the Right, keep the Left from spinning completely out of reach with a few well-placed appearances/positions, and pound away at the center to make that polarizing ethos disappear.
John Edwards
Sunny John couldn't pull it off in 2004, so I don't know what makes him think he's more palatable in 2008. Sure, he's got the support of the netroots, good looks, and a winning personality. He's been road-tested, and the general public didn't appear to respond to the "trial lawyer" epithets that were thrown at him. But at the end of the day, he's still only a one-term Senator that couldn't even carry his home state during the last election. And he's been out of the national discussion for too long. Edwards' best hope is consistently brilliant media coverage. He needs to plaster that pretty face all over the Sunday morning talk shows, set up a high-visibility ground game in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire, and make the rest of the field eat his dust in the debates. Oh, and he also needs to show a bit more substance than his standard "Two Americas" stump speech.
Barack Obama
Right now, Obama's biggest hurdle is his lack of experience - especially relative to the rest of the field. He will need two things to carry him past that: (1) charisma, plain and simple. (2) a media meme that experience is what bogs us down in unwinnable conflicts in the first place. On the latter, compare Truman, LBJ and W to the likes of Lincoln who was a one-term Congressman and an unsuccessful Senate candidate before he went on to become one of this nation's best Presidents, and Woodrow Wilson who had only two years as New Jersey's chief executive under his belt before he was elected President. Lincoln held the Nation together. Wilson stayed out as long as possible, then went in, kicked ass, and started the U.S. on it's way to our current position at the top of global politics.
Hillary Clinton
Don't believe the polls, which are really just a measure of name recognition at this point. Hillary is beset with image problems that make her candidacy a true longshot. Among average Americans, she's directly associated with this extremely distasteful sense of polarization in Washington. Her penchant for triangulating pisses off the Left, and her last name still enflames passions on the Right. Her best bet for victory is to do what she's been doing - ignore the Right, keep the Left from spinning completely out of reach with a few well-placed appearances/positions, and pound away at the center to make that polarizing ethos disappear.
John Edwards
Sunny John couldn't pull it off in 2004, so I don't know what makes him think he's more palatable in 2008. Sure, he's got the support of the netroots, good looks, and a winning personality. He's been road-tested, and the general public didn't appear to respond to the "trial lawyer" epithets that were thrown at him. But at the end of the day, he's still only a one-term Senator that couldn't even carry his home state during the last election. And he's been out of the national discussion for too long. Edwards' best hope is consistently brilliant media coverage. He needs to plaster that pretty face all over the Sunday morning talk shows, set up a high-visibility ground game in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire, and make the rest of the field eat his dust in the debates. Oh, and he also needs to show a bit more substance than his standard "Two Americas" stump speech.
Labels: Politics
posted by isaacjosephson at 10:38 AM
1 Comments:
The shame of it is that Bill Richardson is the most qualified Democrat in the field, and he hasn't a hope in Hades of the nomination. He's so qualified, I'd even vote for him. Chew on that a while. ;)
-Doug
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