The presidential debates have begun and we just witnessed the first one. While we will leave it to pundits and spin masters to debate about who won or lost, one thing that was very apparent was that should senator Barack Obama be lucky enough to win this election, he will owe an eternal debt of gratitude to senator Hillary Clinton. Were it not for Clinton hanging on and making the primaries a very tough one for Obama, John McCain could probably have made mincemeat of him. As opposed to senator McCain who had a rather easy glide through the primaries, Obama had to earn his stripes and the grueling battle with Clinton made him tougher. More than that, the experience also taught him how to be a good debater and connect with people.
There is no doubt that the experiences garnered from the Democratic primaries have helped shape the Obama campaign. As some would suggest, it made him a better candidate. But more than that, I would argue that they grounded him to the reality of American politics. He got to find out that idealism did not win elections in the United States. He learned that there was a need to connect with the everyday struggles of the American people. He learned how to handle political adversities and negative campaign tactics. He learned to focus on issues relative to the socio-political and economic climate of the country. More than anything else, he learned to counter-punch without wasting critical time on sanctimonious nonsense.
As expected, both campaigns have gone to town with snippets of the debate to create ads, but the big difference here is that according to reports, over 57 million people watched the debates. That is significant because it reduces the number of people who will buy the spin of the ads. For example, when the McCain campaign tries to capitalize on the the phrase that seem to have a few democrats in a tizzy, “John McCain is right”, they seem to forget that this is a candidate who is waging a campaign on three fronts – psychology, experience, stereotype. Whether Americans want to admit it or not, psychology is a big factor in this campaign. Many Americans still claim not to “know” who Barack Obama is. That, in essence, is a codeword for “can we trust him?”. One of the objectives for senator Obama was to convince the American people that he could be trusted and that he had no problem acknowledging the ideas of his opponent, even if he did not agree with the solutions proffered. The second issue was experience. Obviously, in a country that has been ruled by men close to or well over their 60s for almost two centuries, there is the expectation that anyone running for office of president must have spent most of their lives within the system. It is all about “tradition”. This flawed thinking seems to forget the fact that the president has little to do with the day-to-day running of the government. He is just an executive. The important ingredient is the judgment and aptitude of the person in that position as our tragic history in the past eight years has proven. It also is important who the president surrounds him or herself with. Anyone who doubts that only need to look at the transformation of George W. Bush in the last couple of months. Ever since he minimized or got rid of the bad influences around him and finally decided to be his own man (albeit 5,000 American lives, and a trashed economy later) he has appeared more human. The other struggle Obama has to overcome is that of the so-called “angry black male”. For a long time in our nation’s history, there has been a negative stereotype about the African-American male as angry under-achievers, non-intellectuals “who should know their place” etc. Now whether we agree with such characterizations or not, the concept is out there. There are neighborhoods in this country where residents are not allowed to display an Obama sign in their front yard. And that is not because he is a Democrat. In addition, a lot has been made of how, despite the terrible record of the Republican party and the abysmal performance of the Bush administration, he is not ahead in the polls by a wide margin. Go figure. If senator Obam were a white candidate, male or female, is there any doubt that this upcoming election would be a “no-brainer”? So, it was very important that senator Obama conducted himself in ways that addressed some of those fears. And by reading the polls that have come out after the debate, he seems to have done a good job. In a ironic way, the McCain ads may actually help Obama come across as a consensus builder who does not disagree with everything his opponent says just for the sake of it. Another thing to keep in mind is that as much as the Republican would like to spin it, the “John McCain is right” answers always came after senator McCain attacked the failed policies on his own party. So even if you look at the ads on their face value the Republicans are actually camapigning for Obama.
To sum up, I cannot say it better than this “…the McCain campaign can have at it with distractions, lies, ugliness, fear, stunts. That’s how we got in every mess we’re in now. That’s all that the Obama campaign needs to say from here on out.
Change is no longer just a slogan. We know what it looks like. It’s calm, thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent leadership and policies with our welfare at its core. It’s leadership we can trust.
We knew we were yearning for something different. We just didn’t know what it was. Now we do”.
