The Gallup tracking poll bumps along, “with no sign yet of a significant ‘bounce’ from [Barack] Obama’s high-visibility world tour.” The weighted average of recent polls at Pollster.com shows the presidential contest tightening, with Obama holding a mere 2% lead over John McCain.
At the New York Times, Alessandra Staley cannot stop fawning over the fabulous “optics” of the Obama tour, though she wonders if some will find his supremely confident pose presumptuous. At NRO, Victor Davis Hansen calls the media coverage “something like an embarrassing retrogression to teen-age Beatle-mania.” New York Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas DeFrank calls it “Obama’s best week since winning North Carolina in May.”
So far, the polls suggest that voters are either less impressed or are simply not paying attention.
Polls are for mortals. Obama is no mere mortal.
I think cause the optics are just a tv thing. As in merely. There’s no message really that can be reinforced or extended in other media. And on the tv there’s no real storyline other than rah rah Obama. Here’s Baracky looking fabulous over here. And then he went over here and looked fabulous some more. Everyone agrees he looked fabulous. Back to you Katie. Thanks, Lara. Any complaints that perhaps Baracky looked too fabulous for a presumptive nominee? What’s the feeling on the ground? Well Katie, we have heard grumblings to that effect but by and large the consensus is that he looked just fabulous enough. Indeed he did, Lara.
A great deal is made, albeit in fits and starts, whether or not “America is ready for a black president.”
We’ll be ready for a black man winning the Presidency when we can accept the notion of one losing without petty recrimination or conspiracy theory.
Voters: either not paying attention (likely) or don’t care.
If that’s true, DC, it’s gonna be a long while I think.
Unless it’s a Republican Black candidate. In which case, he’s an Uncle Tom already and deserves to lose.
Much to my surprise, Katie actually smacked Baracky around a bit yesterday and then went to John McCain. Hot Air has the video.
Look at it this way.
We no longer have a “press”. They have abandoned all pretense, gone to “Obama vor Prezident” 24/7, and no longer apologize for that. If the intent of the Law were followed, the entire editorial budget of the networks and newspapers would be counted as contributions in kind to the Obama campaign.
…and Obama’s up in the polls. Within the statistical margin of error. Must be frustrating.
Regards,
Ric
“Yeah, yeah, he’s a light-bringer, a one-man revolution of Hopeyness and Changeitude, we get it. Now PUT THE FUCKIN’ GAME BACK ON!”
It’s no gage of the Country but here in our office even the Obama supporters (there are only a few) are taking a serious ribbing from the non-supporters. When even his supporters seem embarrassed but his antics it can’t be good.
I agree with VDH – it seems the media hasn’t graduated from high school yet. Should be fun when one of those teeny-boppers has a falling out with another over their crushes on Mr. Obama, that “totally cute new teacher”.
“And they call it puppy love…”
Obama as tattoo.
Media-hype notwithstanding, I get the feeling that the vast middle group of voters may be turned off by the Obama world tour.
I just wish McCain and his campaign had played the week smarter. Watching his campaign is like watching a slowly sinking ship. Despite recent changes, I see zero improvement.
Today, on Morning Joe, they were comparing still photos of Obama and Petreaus in a helicopter with footage of McCain and the elder Bush buzzing around Kennebunkport in a golf cart. It was awful; I immediately thought of Dukakis in that tank. For crying out loud, McCain wasn’t even the guy driving the damn thing.
This week, McCain’s ass should have been in one of two places. Either he should have joined those Republican representatives on their trip to Alaska and then announced he was for drilling in Anwar, or he should have been in San Francisco visiting that women who lost a husband and two sons to senseless murders by an illegal immigrant.
McCain has too many Obama negatives that he’s letting pass by. So much so, I’m convinced that he’s taking a dive in this campaign. Nobody can run such an ineffective campaign. He and his surrogates are always three steps behind and saying the wrong things. And Obama is a very weak candidate.
McCain is the Barabbas of New New Testament and the believers of this generation aren’t making that mistake again! The Chocolate Dashboard Bobble-Head Jesus ministry will not be deterred by mere reality. The New Jerusalem is just about to start descending.
Get on board or get run over, Sucka.
I think Mikey is on to something. They flat out hate for a living, and can’t help but turn on their own. But…
McCain has Bob Dole stink all over him. Shit we could have run damn near anybody and won. But McCain won’t campaign (See what I did there? Eat that Dan).
I fear a ceartin time on a November night when we kick our TVs and yell, ‘GODDAMNIT!!!’ so loud the neighbors hear.
I have med kits, 500lbs of MREs, potable water from a well spring, and 7,582lbs of ammo in my cabin by the lake.
Whatchoo got?
SAM- you made my point nicely (and much better that I did).
There will be room for you in my cabin.
I stock .45, 5.62, 7.62, 000 buck, hot grain slugs, tear gas and flash bangs.
Please tell your family to pack accordingly.
I have had to listen to a lot of Obama talking the last few days. I have come to the conclusion that I hate, that’s right, hate the way this clown talks, particularly the way he cuts off the ends of his words in an attempt to sound ‘folksie’ or ‘country-fied’. God damn it.
Baracky is a bad liar.
All we need is music by Andrew Lloyd Webber to complete the resemblance to the Rainbow Tour.
LYBD – don’t worry, the New Obama Order will put things right. You’ll just have to give up that cabin by the lake and sacrifice to bring the new world about. I am looking forward to the new breast patch for my uniform shirt.
Resistance Is Useless! Embrace the love of the leader, it will be for the best.
Lamontyoubigdummy:
Thank you for the invitation; I may take you up on it. For now, I had to laugh at your username because I’ve said for a few months now that Obama’s wife has such a sour dispostion that she reminds me of Aunt Esther from “Sanford and Son.”
BTW – IIRC, Lamont was Lamont’s middle name. Fred and Elizabeth never gave him a first name because they couldn’t agree on one.
Sort of like Harry S. Truman. His parents couldn’t agree on either ‘Shippe’ (for his paternal grandfather) or Solomon (for his maternal grandfather) so they compromised on ‘S’ – cutting the baby’s name in two, as it were.
“This is the sound of Beatlemania!”
“Esther, I’m gonna shove your face in some dough and make me some gorilla cookies!”
“Fred Sanford, you old heathen!”
A great tv show – and Aunt Esther was the greatest foil to Fred Sanford.
…”I hate, that’s right, hate the way this clown talks, particularly the way he cuts off the ends of his words in an attempt to sound ‘folksie’ or ‘country-fied’. God damn it.”
You should’ve heard Jesus.
He was all like, ‘ni**er take up all this bread…it’s in my way n’ shit! Damn! Wait bitch, gimme that fish. I’m gonna strait up miracle its ass. Yeah…now all ya’ll thousands of folk got bread AND panko encrusted mahi-mahi. Who’s yo Jesus?
Damn straight. You betta say my name.
Democrat ‘Surge Miracle’ over here yo!
I wish I was born earlier.
This shit isn’t for them. Voters are unsusceptible to further Obama image-making, except of the accidental/catastrophic Gary Hart kind. I assume the campaign is unstupid enough to know this.
If so, domestically, these are press rallies — insurance against those accidents, and foreplay for a post-win media bend-over the likes of which the world has never seen. Are DeFrank and Staley going to team up and Monkey Business or, later, All The President’s Men this guy? Are any of them? Never, now, no matter what. No one can climb back down, psychologically, from this kind of fawning with self intact.
Internationally, how staging a Nazi rally re-enactment — with optics, no less — on the heels of the Israel “gaffe” is meant to play, well… Global test: B+.
Or he and his campaign are a top-to-bottom solid block of dumbass, squandering now-short domestic campaign time (if you believe it matters) and accidental-Hitlering their way across the world media (if you believe it’s unintended), to no good effect.
Win-win!
Mikey & SAM- My Dad would like to invite ya’ll over to dinner and then watch TVLand.
He’s a mad bastard on the grill, so it’s worth it.
Aunt Esther was the greatest foil to Fred Sanford.
Little-known fact: In her younger days, Lawanda Page was an exotic dancer who did a fire act, and worked many a burlesque show with Redd Foxx. They were life-long friends.
Evidence.
The Bronze Goddess of Fire.
Come on Baracky is like JT on “Good Times”.
…”Hitlering [his] their way across the world “…
Thank you Psycho.
With that phrase, I will annoy my girlfriend and completely piss off everybody at ‘dinner club’ on Friday.
Awesome.
I’d send you a fruit basket if I knew who you were.
Let’s just say that if this is an example of how Senator Obama will spend his campaign contributions, Senator McCain has little to worry about.
I just love how the anchors sit back and ask the question “Is this trip working, is Obama acting presidential?” Like they did not already decide the fuckin answer to that question was yes when they sent everybody that worked for them to follow him around and lay at his feet like Princess Leia in Star Wars. This rhetorical question crap is really starting to irritate the hell outa me. I guess I better get used to it though it is only going to get worse. I fully expect before the election for some reporter to ask for his child to be blessed by Obama.
Mr. Pink-
Are you saying John Lennon was wrong. The ‘Beatles’ aren’t as popular as Jesus, er, uh, Obama?
Cuz…Screw Obama. I’ve bought the White Album three times.
#26 psycho:
Voters are unsusceptible to further Obama image-making, except of the accidental/catastrophic Gary Hart kind. I assume the campaign is unstupid enough to know this.
Never assume that hubris has a governor – that engine goes flat-out.
#27 LYBD:
I’m in Lansing, MI, and I like BBQ’s. How far a drive are we talking?
#26: psycho,
Do not underestimate the ability of a big chunk of the public to be tuned out to this stuff until the Fall. In theory, O! could still move people with the big convention rally (on the anniversry of the “I Have A Dream” speech, no less), or late deciders could break for him after the debates. In theory.
#28 SBP – I had heard somewhere that Redd Foxx knew her and got her the role. It doesn’t surprise me that two old road actors would work well together.
Somehow, the old shticks are still funny…
“You don’t say? You don’t say? You don’t say?” (hangs up)
“Who was it?”
“He didn’t say.”
Or…
“Doctor, it hurts when I lift my arm like this. What should I do?”
“Don’t do that.”
Mikey,
Bad news: It’s gonna be a long drive.
Good News: I’m in Texas. We have a proper constitution that lets us succeed whenever the hell we want to (ya know, provided we all sober up and get around to it.) Combine that with a nice ‘concealed carry’ law and the Texas Rangers, and my lake cabin is definitely the sweet teat on the hog.
So to speak.
LYBD, is Woolsey Drive in the “South Oak Cliff” oasis you spoke of awhile back, or is it in the ‘other’ part of Oak Cliff you described?
Oh, and Mikey? BBQ up the yin yang (and done the right way) down here.
That should start a fight that needs a good post, but we’ll see.
Is Fred’s still around, LYBD?
“LYBD, is Woolsey Drive in the “South Oak Cliff”…?
It’s smack in the middle, but far enough from the well to do ‘burbs’ that you might not actually hear the gun shots.
In fairness I should fess up that (in the last three months) I now lease that house, and live in north Dallas.
Smack in the middle is sort of reassuring I guess. Thanks for the info. (Grandparents, house is on that street. I spent a lot of time there in the ’50s-80’s. Both GP’s deceased.)
God bless your Grandparents, Sdferr.
South Oak Cliff is a freak show miasma now. As you well know, there are tons of 50 year old beautiful homes with hundred year old trees…and now, crips and bloods, and S-13.
In the late 90’s and early 2000 there was this big reconstruction (think ‘M Streets’ along Greenville Ave). What they did with the homes was spectacular. Everybody in Dallas wanted a peice. Cops rolled in force. It was perfect..for a while.
Now it’s back to bad. Property value is still good, but if the gangs move west I’m screwed.
That’s a bit too far for a drive, LYBD. Though if you and I are still here and I am heading that way, then I will contact you on that offer.
#45 – sounds like in the 1990’s when Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies made a show of force in Pontiac, Mich. The bad guys were arrested and the regular locals were so thankful ‘I can now sit on my porch at night’.
‘Crime Falls While Prison Rates Soar’. No kidding? Whoodda thunk that?
It was a great neighborhood back in the day. GP’s place had a huge, huge Osage-Orange out near the street, though it seems to be gone now (via google-earth).
Fred’s was the local BBQ purveyor, located on South Llewellyn across from Wynnewood Shopping Center. Great Aunt used to make a game of seeing how many of Fred’s sandwiches I could scarf down in a single sitting. I was always ready to oblige. When she moved out to Duncanville (really I think it was Redbird) she got the moniker Duncanville Fats. God I love BBQ.
“God I love BBQ.”
Me too. Sad to say I don’t know ‘Fred’s’. Crazy as it seems, good BBQ is hard to come by in Dallas. East, west and south of here I got good, smack yo mamma places can “fill up your bib.” But, so far, no BBQ here in Dallas has got me to pay the cook and not the waitress.
One of the best meals I ever had was at the Dearborn Inn when I was in a wedding party in 2001. I told the waitress to tell the cooks how wonderful it was, and they sent out another plate for me and their compliments. Bonus!
Of course, they grew their own herbs on site. (Henry Ford founded the Dearborn Inn, and as an old farm-boy, he had his insistences – and one one was ‘fresh’ food. Seeing a cook come out to the garden and cull herbs was a sight, let me tell you!)
Oh wait – I just did.
When the GA moved out to Redbird (’66? ’65?) there was a new place, gone now I’m sure, called “Little Roland’s”, of course because Roland was 6’6″ and 325lbs. But man, could that guy cook a brisket. The whole place was built of unplaned lumber (Roland built), sawdust on the floor, absolute heaven for a beef lover. Saliva builds up in my mouth just remembering the place even though I last saw it around ’74. More addictive than cocaine or cigarettes.
He’s 12-points up if you include the ancillary candidates.
Heard that on Olbermann tonight.
Karl.
And then he went over here and looked fabulous some more. Everyone agrees he looked fabulous.
You know, everyone that Obama has met with has to be at least publicly neutral about him. Our allies aren’t going to say anything bad about him in the middle of the race, just as we would never show favorites in a foreign election. Petraeus can’t get involved in the political race. Everyone he’s meeting with and is having these photo ops with may need him in another few months.
So of course the photo ops look presidential. Everyone is required to treat him presidentially.
>>He’s 12-points up if you include the ancillary candidates.
Linky.
Crosstabs. Sample. Olberdouche. Details.
Per Drudge, Barry has apparently decided that the Brandenburgh Gate is not the only place he’d like to politicize…
“OBAMA VISITS WESTERN WALL IN OLD CITY JERUSALEM… ARRIVES AT 5:08 AM LOCAL TIME [10:08 PM ET]… SUNRISE… SHOUTING MAN: ‘JERUSALEM IS NOT FOR SALE, OBAMA’… MOB SCENE… CHAOS… BOWING HIS HEAD IN PRAYER… PLACES NOTE IN WALL… POSES FOR PHOTOS… LOTS OF SHOUTING… LEAVES 5:20 AM… DEVELOPING… ”
Take it FWIW…
POSES FOR PHOTOS… DEVELOPING…
You’d think they’d have switched to digital cameras by now.
LYBD, we have some tasty pork in the fridge. the office seems to prefer Dickey’s BBQ, maybe cause they’re easy to find. um, we don’t eat out much.
“So far, the polls suggest that voters are either less impressed or are simply not paying attention.”
or dont have landlines
“don’t have landlines” skews young. Also hispanic. Probably gay, but I haven’t seen data. But among these demos I guess it’s only with the hispanics he can really hope to move the dial in any appreciable way, cause they aren’t really as swoony about him as other people with the ethnicity thing. My guess is really that when balanced for voter likelihood the cell-only issue is not really a factor, least not one that you can’t effectively weight for. It you’re calling to check brand awareness on a new energy drink then it would be an issue, but Baracky is a politician. No, really.
[…] Yesterday, I noted that the current polling trends were not showing any sign yet of a significant “bounce’” from Barack Obama’s world tour. At almost the same time (accounting for time zones) TNR’s Jonathan Chait was noticing the same tightening of the race, under the title “Maybe Pundits Need to Spend More, Not Less, Time Following the Polls,“ juxtaposing the current trend with this lede: I see that John has already beaten me to this, but I continue to be amazed at how many people seem to believe that Barack Obama is crushing John McCain. Kevin Drum writes, “McCain is pretty obviously doomed this year.” Howard Fineman writes, “You can’t make up how bad things are going for McCain.” […]
Didn’t have my glasses and I thought that said “or don’t have lanolines” and I thought “What does dry skin have to do with voting preference? Oh well, I’d better moisturize.”
Thanks for clearing it up happy.
For me as US voter this tour reflect more the real Obama cancidate. During the primaries said one thing and now another thing. I can’t see the Sen. Obama clear positions in many ways…just dancing at the sound of the music in the moment. In Israel said one thing and in Iraq another. For me EMPTY CANDIDATE. Please don’t get me wrong… I am Democrat voter thinking to support John McCain and why? because his honest speaking, positions and sacrify for this country. Go McCain!!!
Yeah, what exactly is his deal of “campaigning” in Europe? It’s not like its gonna get him any extra votes.
Surely, some of the talented readers here could do a lyrics set for this to the tune of “Rainbow High” or “Waltz for Eva (Obama) and Che” from “Evita.”