WyoCo / HearIt / Trabing

Obama the Politician

Even the best made suit will come apart if only the right string is given a pull.

Sometimes that’s all you need to know about politics.

In May of 2008 Senator John McCain’s campaign thought they had found a promising loose thread dangling from Senator Barak Obama’s well tailored positions on Iraq – Senator Obama hadn’t been to Iraq in two years!

On May 27th Senator McCain offered to travel with Senator Obama to Iraq. This offer by Senator McCain was promptly rejected by the Obama camp, the last thing they wanted was live video feed of Senator Obama being tutored ‘On The Ground’ in Iraq by his rival Senator McCain. Go figure.

Senator McCain had scored a hit, how could Barack Obama’s opinions on Iraq be taken seriously when Senator Obama hadn’t visited the country since January of 2006?

On top of the ‘how can Senator Obama be so sure the Surge is a failure since he hasn’t been to Iraq in two years’ factor there was Senator Obama’s perceived fear of anything General David Petraeus might tell him.

Barack Obama was willing to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but won’t meet with General David Petraeus? What gives? Maybe Senator Barack Obama was scared of what Petraeus would show him and have to admit he was wrong?

Suddenly Senator Obama had a problem. On one hand if Senator Obama didn’t go to Iraq he would look stubborn and uninformed in the eyes of the much coveted Independent Voter. On the other hand Senator Obama can’t admit that the Surge has succeeded or he risked alienating the far left MoveOn.org wing of the Democrat Party.

What a pickle.

On June 16th Senator Obama made the decision to visit Iraq, being pummeled by Senator McCain over the issue was just to painful politically .

Senator Obama decided to go large, in addition to visiting Iraq and Afghanistan Senator Obama would lead an extensive entourage of fondling media groupies to Kuwait, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. Once the Middle East was left behind it would be off to Germany, France and England.

Senator Obama should have stayed home.

Here we are on August 5th. There was no much expected bounce in the polls for Senator Obama as a result of his whirlwind tour, if anything Senator Obama has lost around 10 points to senator McCain.

Why?

Senator Obama couldn’t have picked a worse time to leave the United States and he couldn’t have been more condescending on message. Most of all, I don’t mean to be snide, his talked a lot.

While all across the United States Independent Voters were paying nearly $5.00 for a gallon of gas Barack Obama was on the other side of the planet trying to convince himself that the Surge was a failure, proclaiming he was a ‘Citizen of the World’, and making backhanded remarks about the country he was running to be President of.

At one point he decided it would be a good idea to blow off a hospital full of wounded United States soldiers because he couldn’t take his camera crew in with him to record his visit.

Not good.

While Senator Obama’s campaign sought to solve one problem (their candidate’s perceived ignorance of what is happening in the Iraq and Afghanistan of 2008) his handlers have unintentionally spotlighted Senator Obama’s real weaknesses – Senator Barak Obama is a politician of the lowest common order.

From a marketing standpoint the one thing Barak Obama had going for him was vagueness. Hope and Change – vague ethereal goals that simultaneously mean everything and nothing at all.

In attempting to deny the McCain camp a medium sized issue, good for maybe one or two percentage points in the polls, the Obama camp has exposed their candidate for what he really is – a ruthless politician who will say anything to get elected.

No Hope. No Change. Not very appealing to the garden variety Independent Voter.

Every day Senator Obama was on his overseas tour of the Middle East and Western Europe he spoke and pontificated and the attractive vagueness dissipated, the man who held himself out as an agent of change was revealed as nothing more that a unprepared one term senator from a radical district in Chicago.

At least that’s how I see it.

That’s it for today, take care and be safe.