Obama Losing the Substance Argument
Any war should be short and swift. A vigorous destruction of one’s enemy is the most humanitarian thing you can do under the conditions of war. A long drawn out war makes a return to civilized normalcy impossible. The longer wars drag on, the sooner they—and potentially you—become savage.
Thus, the Surge should have come right after Shock and Awe. It didn’t. The war dragged on, and as Iraq began to demoralize the American people and breed political cynicism, out came the desperate Surge. As far as it goes, the Surge has been a success in uprooting the opposition because that was its intention—an intention that was previously lacking.
It is not to Bush’s credit that the Surge succeeded. It was his opposition to the Surge from the beginning, his Long Delay in implementing the obvious, which deserves note, and precipitated a permanent crisis of confidence in his leadership.
Nevertheless, as a political matter, the Surge worked. McCain backed the Surge and wants to apply its method of success to Afghanistan. Obama resisted the Surge and has nothing to offer on Afghanistan. He is left with his pants down. An Iraq “listening tour” does not lead the issue. McCain beat Obama to the punch on this one. It is a knockout punch.
On the economy, Obama hasn’t offered any comprehensive ideas, even though McCain has admitted that he is an ignoramus in economics. McCain says cut the gas tax. Obama says no. Something is better than nothing. Obama has nothing.
There is the phrase, “these colors don’t run.” Well, Obama has “run out of color,” i.e., people more and more care less that he is black and realize that a slick dresser and a slick talker may be good for daytime TV, but not leader of the semi-free world.
That is the only reason why the New Yorker Magazine cartoon has some power and and a cartoon for McCain doesn’t. While the McCain cartoon is a funny gag, the Obama cartoon contains a kernel of truth. Instead of saying his cartoon is wrong, Obama whined that it insults Muslims. That’s the last thing he should have said because nobody—least of all John Q. Public—cares about the feelings of Muslims.
Obama didn’t deal with all the fishy things his cartoon sums up and projects to the voter. Obama can ride dressed up emptiness to media stardom to the equally empty-headed pundits, who can’t figure out that government bailouts are wrong.
Obama can’t make a majority of Americans drink a second round of a 1960’s black power, hate-America, Islam is cuddly, cocktail. That, people now suspect, is his core—because of his wife’s attitudes, his minister’s attitudes, his terrorist-friends’ attitudes, etc., etc—and his lack of substance. Denials are not a positive presentation of who you are.
A smear doesn’t stick if it has no substance. There’s enough substance to make that Obama cartoon the defining image of Obama and the 2008 campaign.
As of today, Obama is a lost cause. He lead is gone, his shine is gone, his charisma is gone. When even liberals question his moral stature because of his flip-flops, he is less Jesus and more Judas. Without being strong on the key issues, you have no moral strength. That is the key to charisma. Obama has lost his angry progressive base. There are not enough independents to make up the difference.
Lorenz Kraus © 2008
