Jumping in late to note that the Obama campaign’s impressive grasp on and use of technology looks like it will roll right over into his administration. Check out the new website of the Office of the President-Elect, www.change.gov. There’s not a lot of content there yet, but the skeleton looks fantastic.
I had that idea too. McCain’s instincts certainly lead him astray at some key moments, but he was getting some terrible advice. McCain and his advisers, but especially the latter, appparently had no idea what “swingable” voters wanted to hear.
The take-away message from the series, for me, is that Obama was totally in charge of his campaign and McCain just wasn’t. Infighting and conflict among high-level staffers is expected in any organization, and you even want a little bit of it, but it’s up to the guy at the top to sort through it all and make the chaos into something coherent.
Look at the way Obama ran the discussions about the VP pick. He had Biden in mind, but he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want anybody to feel pressure to agree with the boss. He wasn’t inclined to pick Hillary, but he still everyone if they were sure they shouldn’t shortlist her. That’s good leadership, and that’s why I’m confident about the next four years.
Another thing I liked was the bit about how he declined to give in to his staffers when they were all kind of panicking at the height of the Palin bounce and were telling him “you have to destroy her.” He wouldn’t do it, and basically told them they were freaking out too much, and he used the analogy of not trying to evaluate a storm in the middle of the storm. “You have to wait for the storm to pass.”
His instincts were dead on there. Palin imploded on her own, and he never once attacked her, even when she started accusing him of “palling around with terrorists.”
His discipline and restraint in not going after Palin was remarkable and even counter-intuitive, but it was correct. He showed class, he avoided alienating undecided voters who might have felt sympathetic to her, and he didn’t get rattled when he (briefly) fell behind in the polls. (I admit I was kind of freaking out a little bit too).
It’s a small thing, but it still shows that characteristic coolness in crisis (albeit, only a campaign crisis), and the ability to shut down his advisors if he thinks they’re wrong.
Yes that was impressive. There were probably two crisis points in the campaign: when the Wright issue broke out in full force and for about ten days after the GOP convention when Palin-mania threatened to turn the campaign upside down. Obama took charge in both situations and handled things beautifully. In the first case he was bold and responded with a great speech. In the second he knew that Palin would implode and end up a big liability and there was no point wasting effort on attacking her.
So, you guys are saying this guy might be The Real Deal? I mean, I thought that from the first (polishing my nails on my lapel) but it’s nice to hear it from guys whose opinions I respect. As in, not me. Or Dio, for that matter. However, Lily, as a newbie, cancels out Dio. 
(really, Lily, I’d like to welcome you. For one reason, you aren’t Dio (what is it, eight years, bro?) and, odds are, you aren’t from The Old Country, like he is.)
(Around here we have The Old Country Buffet. Based on their menu of baked spaghetti, hot dish, and overcooked everything I could even eat when I still had a gall bladder, I was not surprised to learn that they are headquartered in Eden Prairie, MN.)
ETA: FTR, I’m a St Paul boy and know how to make head cheese.
I got a copy of printed Newsweek and there seem to be some missing parts - there seems only to be 5 or 6 chapters out of 7. Though there are nice photographs to go with the article.
ETA: Content is notably different too. The web article has more.