Maybe He Should Have Picked Clinton

I just threw up after writing that headline, but it would have been a good strategic move. Picking Biden is the smart consensus choice, if you're a conventional politician. But since Barack Obama isn't supposed to be a conventional politician (he's a Lightworker, remember?), this makes it look like his candidacy is reverting from a higher calling to standard-issue politics. I'm not saying it ever was anything but that, but the perception created by the Obama campaign of a cool, fresh politician has worn thin far faster than I thought it would. And I thought it was BS near the beginning.

Having thought about the Biden pick over the weekend, I come away with a feeling that Democrats are probably saying, "Um, okay" instead of "Yes, we can!" I actually think that would be okay if Obama was still rolling along to a run out the clock victory on McCain, but the momentum in the race shifted to McCain in July and August, and Obama's going to have to do more to take it back than nominate Joe Biden. Yes, Biden will provide a strategic assist in southeastern and northeastern Pennsylvania (and possibly in Florida with northeastern transplants), and he will be an effective attack dog for Obama. But the latter job is not one a "higher-order" campaign needs.

I know the Obama folks are now "fighting back" against what they view as misleading negative ads by McCain, but they're missing the mark with stuff like the ad about the houses. Yes, it was a dumb self-inflicted wound by McCain, but Obama would be better off letting the media play it up than cutting a campaign ad about it, and not just because it means McCain now has carte blanche to make Tony Rezko a household name. If Biden is signed on to be the designated fighter, it (a) implies Obama isn't tough enough to fight on his own, (b) means someone affiliated with the campaign is now taking negative shots at McCain, which will appeal to the nut left but not independants and (c) could leave Obama looking like Biden's #2. In fact, I'd think that might be a stronger ticket in some battleground states.

I still think Obama wins the election because the GOP is about as popular as spam email nowadays. But Obama's efforts to brand McCain with the Bush brand has not yet succeeded, and the longer McCain stays close, the more the problems build.

JammieWearingFool makes a great point...

Just imagine if you had massive amounts of Republicans defecting from the GOP and declaring they'd be voting for Barack Obama. You'd have a nonstop deluge of Obamacan stories flooding the media.

Though now you have news that John McCain is drawing a quarter of Hillary Clinton's supporters and it hardly gets a ripple on the eve of the Democratic Convention. Maybe the leftwing media covers their ears and goes "la la la I can't hear you" and hopes the story will go away.

I'm reminded of this moment from Beverly Hills Cop when Axel tells Jeffrey he's not listening to him by singing "lalalalalalala I am not listening to Jeffrey but he is still talking." It was funny when Murphy did it, but it's stale an unoriginal when the mainstream media does it. For the record, I'd expect most Hillary voters will return to the fold and vote Obama. But it should be disturbing to the Obama camp that they've lost many of those voters over the last two months, instead of making gains. I'm sure they've noticed, even if the media has ignored it. Whether they can do something about is another issue.