The swift-boating of Obama isn't working

[Equipoise]

I just posted this article from The Guardian in the Reverend Wright thread in the Pit, but thought it deserved a thread of its own. Maybe it’s a Great Debate, but I’m not a debater so I thought MPSIMS.

Liberal paranoiacs, breathe easy: the swift-boating of Obama isn’t working

Emotions run hot on election eve, and few emotions are more a-boil right now than liberal paranoia. I hear it constantly: I don’t care about the polls. I won’t believe it until I see it. The Republicans stole 2000 and 2004, and they’ll steal this one.

This dark pessimism is fortified by a corollary anxiety that each new revelation about Barack Obama will surely bring the whole enterprise crashing down and make middle Americans wake up and say to themselves, “Of course. What was I thinking? Back to McCain!”

This past weekend it was the story about Obama’s auntie in Boston, a woman living in the US illegally for the last four years. But Zeituni Onyango is fading into the background, just another element of the farrago of last-minute titbits that make for future trivia questions. Her name may have been unlawfully leaked to the press by officials seeking to do Obama damage. But whatever the truth of that matter, the injury to Obama would appear to be minimal.

And yet, some liberals feared that this revelation would be the death knell. But in their terror, they have probably not stopped to ask themselves: if Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi - the Palestinian rights advocate with whom Obama is friendly and whom McCain smeared last week - didn’t blow up this campaign, why would Onyango?

Face it, liberal paranoiacs: the swift-boating of Barack Obama clearly is not working. That it would work - indeed that it would define the contest - was the greatest fear of liberals everywhere as it became clear last spring that this somewhat unusual creature would carry the Democratic standard into battle this autumn. Many foresaw an October full of racial innuendo, Obama-Osama Freudian slips and worse.

…

I had to laugh when I read it because oh boy, that is me in a nutshell. He’s actually pretty perceptive. He goes into some of the history behind this fear, then,

…

In that context, charges that Democrats weren’t good Americans tended to stick. Whether it was Michael Dukakis’s membership in the American Civil Liberties Union in 1988 or Kerry and the swift-boaters last time around, conservative allegations that Democrats seem alien and elitist and not fully American took hold with voters in the middle. They accepted terms of argument set by the Republicans.

But post-George Bush we’re in a new context. That coalition of affinity that Reagan created between right and middle, Bush has put asunder. His failures have made the average, apolitical American as distrustful of conservatism as he or she once was of liberalism - indeed somewhat more so, since the memory of conservative failure is fresher in the mind. This is a new context. Many experts have yet to grasp it. Certain elements within the mainstream media haven’t quite got it yet. And clearly some liberals just can’t believe that it might be the case.

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[PharmBoy]

That and the fact that the media is COMPLETELY in the tank for Obama.

I think you Obama worshippers are going to be very disappointed in your guy. You heard it here first. His ideas are nothing but warmed-over 60s liberalism, and when Middle America finds out how much he wants to tax them, they will scream long and loud.

[VinylTurnip]

@PharmBoy

That and the fact that the media is COMPLETELY in the tank for Obama.

If only there were a news organization out there willing to promote the conservative/Republican angle… ah well. Maybe one day.

[Giles]

@PharmBoy

His ideas are nothing but warmed-over 60s liberalism …

You say that as if it were a bad thing.

[Phlosphr]

@PharmBoy

That and the fact that the media is COMPLETELY in the tank for Obama.

I think you Obama worshippers are going to be very disappointed in your guy. You heard it here first. His ideas are nothing but warmed-over 60s liberalism, and when Middle America finds out how much he wants to tax them, they will scream long and loud.

I’d try to tell you the error in your thinking, but if you have not looked at the specifics of Obama’s tax plan by now, I doubt some guy on a message board feeding you cites and links will do any good. I’m just glad more than 50% of the population of this country tend to disagree with you.

The swiftboating of Obama did not work for a myriad of reasons, not least of which being his campaign’s insistance on dealing with the issues head on immediately which dimished the effects of any swiftboating. There will certainly be books written on this election cycle, and if Obama does pull it off, EVERYONE, even his detractors, will know why.

[drm]

It struck me as I was reading the article that “swift-boating” may have the opposite effect in this case. This is a theory that popped into my head about 3 minutes ago so gimme a break:

Obama’s a guy that Democrats want to win A LOT more than either Kerry or Gore. It’s not that they didn’t want either them to win, but the desire wasn’t as great as it is with Obama. Obama has also been a fair bit ahead for a month and a half or so which may lead a few who would otherwise vote to skip it. With these negative stories trickling out over the last few days it may motivate those voters NOT to skip it as to them it may seem that this election isn’t as big as a lock as it once was.

Maybe I’m wrong…

[msmith537]

@Phlosphr

I’d try to tell you the error in your thinking, but if you have not looked at the specifics of Obama’s tax plan by now, I doubt some guy on a message board feeding you cites and links will do any good. I’m just glad more than 50% of the population of this country tend to disagree with you.

I think you need to read the thread on conservatives losing touch with reality. According to the latest polls, more than 51% of the population are in disagreement with Obama.

44% are in favor of McCain. Probably because he flew a jet plane. Wheeeeeeee!

I’m in agreement with you though. My fear is that taxes will increase under Obama. Of course my bigger fear is that under another 4-8 years of Republican leadership, I won’t have any income to tax anyway.

Of course, this is all secondary to my fear that he will use his Black Muslim terrorist mojo to hypnotise all the major industries into disappearing so he can implement his Socialist New World Order.

[Phlosphr]

@drm

It struck me as I was reading the article that “swift-boating” may have the opposite effect in this case. This is a theory that popped into my head about 3 minutes ago so gimme a break:

Obama’s a guy that Democrats want to win A LOT more than either Kerry or Gore. It’s not that they didn’t want either them to win, but the desire wasn’t as great as it is with Obama. Obama has also been a fair bit ahead for a month and a half or so which may lead a few who would otherwise vote to skip it. With these negative stories trickling out over the last few days it may motivate those voters NOT to skip it as to them it may seem that this election isn’t as big as a lock as it once was.

Maybe I’m wrong…

I think your premise is sound, but I’m not sure of the result being what you think. Personally, there are several negatives about McCain that have nothing to do with negative ads, [his choice of Palin, 8 years of BS both economic and military to name a couple] and I think people are more at odds with voting republican for those reasons than are at odds over voting Obama because his aunt is here illegally, or whatever else the right has cooked up. Cockamamie associations swing few actual voters this late in the game, IMHO. Also, Obama’s numbers increased over the weekend. His campaign has been bathed in teflon it appears.

[Phlosphr]

@msmith537

snip - Of course my bigger fear is that under another 4-8 years of Republican leadership, I won’t have any income to tax anyway.

I think others feel the same way. I have not read the conservative thread…I’ll check it out. I thought the country was tending towards Obama on that issue. I’ve been very high lately on this whole thing, and it obviously effects my librul leanings.

[drm]

@Phlosphr

I think your premise is sound, but I’m not sure of the result being what you think. Personally, there are several negatives about McCain that have nothing to do with negative ads, [his choice of Palin, 8 years of BS both economic and military to name a couple] and I think people are more at odds with voting republican for those reasons than are at odds over voting Obama because his aunt is here illegally, or whatever else the right has cooked up. Cockamamie associations swing few actual voters this late in the game, IMHO. Also, Obama’s numbers increased over the weekend. His campaign has been bathed in teflon it appears.

I could’ve sworn I saw them decrease on Sunday (fivethirtyeight) to below 5, but that’s neither here nor there. I was really talking about the assumption of polls dropping rather than the actual polls dropping. I get what you’re saying though.