On the trail in Powder Springs today, Barack Obama responded to those — from Bob Herbert to Rich Lowry to Rick Ellensburg to just about everyone — who think he has been lurching rightward to pose as a centrist over the past couple of weeks:
“Look, let me talk about the broader issue, this whole notion that I am shifting to the center,†he said. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me.â€Â
To this, he adds, parenthetically: “And I must say some of this is my friends on the left†and those in the media.
“I am someone who is no doubt progressive,†he said, adding that he believes in universal health care and that government has a strong role to play in overseeing financial institutions and cracking down on abuses in bankruptcies and the like.
Setting aside Obama’s cozy relationship with Wall Street’s subprime lenders, his declaration of progressiveness carries several dangers.
First, the back-flip is always a trickier move than the flip-flop. David Burge’s version of Barack Obama’s ideological shell game is a funny joke. But as Obama begins to sound like Burge, he starts sounding like an unfunny joke.
Second, Obama is adding insult to injury. He has already disappointed some in his base with his feints toward the center. Now he is telling them — people who are politically active enough to get involved in the primaries and such — that they “haven’t been listening.” And in this case, the video carries a much nastier tone than is conveyed by print. [7/9 update — Ann Althouse wants to like Obama, but is dismayed by his blaming us as bad listeners.]
Third, if John McCain has chosen to go with a more partisan campaign, instead of the Mavericky reformer theme (and I am not totally sold on that story), Obama’s comments may set him up as the radical who is dishonestly mouthing centrist lines.ÂÂ
Obama may be calculating that in an environment seemingly favorable to the Democrats, a more partisan campaign could work to his advantage. That does (or did) not seem to be the case, however. Rather, as people like Lowry have suggested, Obama seemed to calculate that he could keep his young, more progressive base enthused while pretending to shift to the center. Obama has seen himself as a “blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views,â€Â and likely thought he could remain one through November. But shifting rightward has not pumped up his polling numbers, which is one reason Obama was out declaring himself progressive today.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Heh. “Lurching.” They don’t even realize, do they?
What you folks don’t like change?
“that government has a strong role to play in overseeing financial institutions ”
More green jobs at the O! Bank of the United States.
He meant to say they haven’t been genuflecting.
“I am someone who is no doubt progressive,â€Â
Bullshit. You opposed the liberation of 26 million people. You are a regressive leftist panderer. And clueless about how to protect the United States from Islamofascism – which you don’t even acknowledge as a threat.
Baracky has seen so little of this country. Harvard-HydePark-Georgetown mostly. This “center” is something he really just has to imagine. He doesn’t actually know any of the for real people there. Hopefully he’s watched a lot of tv.
Ed Rendell knows his chickens – white voters, 30, have very strong opinions concerning affirmative action and ‘reparations’ of any stripe. It really doesn’t matter what bait Senator Obama drags in front of that very, very large group. They ain’t bitin’ and they ain’t gonna bite. All they see is a younger Jesse Jackson or a thinner Al Sharpton. The good Senator’s record suggests that they have the right of it.
He ran a nice putsch – better than Lamont’s. Knocking Clinton out was no small feat. He’s earned his footnote.
What I think Obama needs is a catchy party salute. Something like Spock on Star Trek, for example, and a motto, like “Hail Obamassiah”!
This would be really attractive to his base too I think. Many of them seem to enjoy flashing signs.
Should be “white voters, under $50K, over 30, have very”. No “less than” or “greater than” signs allowed, I guess.
Rick, here are the html codes that include “less than” and “greater than” symbols.
Thanks, 711.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 7/8 @ 5:56 pm #
Thanks, 711.
I’ve yet to find the html code for the Yankees logo.
First Canada now Europe the Community Organizer™ works his magic:
“Barack Obama’s Berlin visit sparks German diplomatic row”
Link
When you watch someone pitch associates over the side when it is expedient, you have to know that at some point you are going over the side as well.
To the youth Obamamaniacs: Ask not for whom the underside of the bus tolls. It tolls for thee.
He’s only blank on one side.
And his numbers can’t be changed significantly by any non-catastrophic event, because following candidates’ shifting positions and comparing them to their own is not how voter decisions work. Those decisions are all already made. Fluctuations in polls that happen after candidates have established a media image (or vice versa) are polling errors.
The only remaining question is who votes, how much McCain’s being a shitty alternative suppresses turnout among not-Obama voters — or would-be not-Obama voters, a huge majority that McCain (and the GOP, of which he’s sadly exemplary) has already largely alienated. He has a couple percent left to play with.
Obama doesn’t. His people are his.
#15 Psycho
Solid analysis, however, you neglect the effects of the 18-24 vote. They have historically been fickle. At some point they may turn out on election day. It just hasn’t happened yet. Anything BO does to lessen their enthusiasm hurts him greatly.
Where’s ProggHero? Disillusionment setting in? Starting to wonder of your guy is all aht and no cattle?
AHT=hat
We have been listening, Baracky. We just think you are a twit.
Big D,
Battleground turnout for the 18-29 bloc was 64.4% in 2004. The bloc has dropped by almost a full percentage point since ’04. I make it 18.93% today versus 19.84% (VAP not VEP) in ’04. Youth turnout in the battleground states has hit the point of sharply diminishing returns. It will be very expensive for Senator Obama and the potential ROI just isn’t there.
That’s why he’s seeking new boots to lick. ‘Cept – ya gotta be young and dumb to buy his blather. It’s a real tough row for a man with a busted hoe.
JD,
You have the ability to boil the proper response down to two sentences. I yield to your superior rhetorical skills, Sir!
Rick,
I agree. My point is that he stirred their passion with talk of hope and change. Once they figure out that he is no more than an ordinary politician, they begin to search out other fads.
Oh, and I love the busted hoe line.
I’ve been listening, Barry. A lot. And what I hear is plenty of slick talk from a pussy-whipped, uber-liberal con man. The only thing you got going for you is your opponent. In a just world you’d be nothing more than a bigger no-name political hack than you are now.
One thing is clear: you’re a big enough of a dick to not offer McCain a cabinet post.
Gah. We’re screwed.
<blockquote …)Now he is telling them  people who are politically active enough to get involved in the primaries and such  that they “haven’t been listening”
He meant to say they haven’t been genuflecting.â€Â
I would laugh at ObamaLamaDingDong hiring a seventy five thousand seat stadium for his acceptance speech, but I keep getting visions of Hitler and Mao.
I hope this is just a bad dream.
So, LTD?
How are you with HTML?
Apparently, putting the second cue in would haep…
Oh. And LTD stands for “Lost The Drift”.
Time to go have some musical fun.
Actually, I like McCain. I like an S.O.B. George Bush is a quiet S.O.B.; he won’t say anything but just keep on keepin’ on. McCain is an S.O.B. – not an Andy Jackson, sure; but an S.O.B.
IIRC, the Democrats picked Harry Truman for VP because he had criticized and investigated how war funds were being spent, to the detriment of the Democrats. He was seen as a maverick, who put the country before party. That ‘plain speaker’ has proved to be the right man and gained a historical reputation beyond the alarms and excursions of his day.
An independent minded S.O.B. who loves his country isn’t a bad choice in the long run, and the long run is what we give to our children. Better than a weather vane whois focused on the current polls.
America is not a high school girl worried about what the cheerleaders think of her, willing to do anything that the ‘cool kids’ ask. America shouldn’t be, and as I watch Sen. Obama I see him as a hnager-on of the ‘cool kids’. He will do what is popular to his crowd, not what is right no matter how unpopular it is. I do not have the same fear with John McCain.
Fire up.
cracking down on abuses in bankruptcies
Since when has any progressive worried about sticking it to “The Man” ?
“…they haven’t been listening.” Obama Won Konobi is just playing Jedi mind tricks on his starry-eyed followers nee worshipers.
Ho-boy. At least there’s an honesty there. Now, could we get someone in the press to talk about the history of the progressive movement?
We need to find out who’s been hired to plan the rally. I bet there’s a Hollywood type who has expressed admiration for Leni Riefenstahl involved.
[…] version of the Great Wall of China), and really, what are the disappointed progressive Dems who “haven’t been listening” to his nuances going to do come election time, vote for […]