Obama the underdog
This is a very odd interview from President Obama.
In it, he breaks what I would consider one of the cardinal rules of campaigning for an incumbent, and answers the age-old question “are you better off than before I was elected?” with the truthful “no.” This seems to be an attempt to set himself up as an underdog, which is certainly an odd stance for an incumbent:
“Absolutely,” he said in response to a question from ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about whether the odds were against him come November 2012, given the economy. “I’m used to being the underdog. But at the end of the day people are going to ask — who’s got a vision?”
Wow. Obama is used to being an underdog? Certainly the 2008 election was hotly contested and close, but never was Obama an underdog except perhaps towards the beginning of the Democratic primaries. As for his earlier elections, he was always in safely Democratic districts, and his only underdog status came in the primaries as well. As far as I know, he lost only one of those, an ill-thought-out 2000 challenge against incumbent Bobby Rush for his House of Representatives seat; the older (and fellow African-American) Rush trumped Obama by stating the following about him during that battle (which I submit that a white man would not have gotten away with saying), “Barack Obama went to Harvard and became an educated fool. Barack is a person who read about the civil-rights protests and thinks he knows all about it.”
In fact, Obama’s main claim to fame in his campaigns prior to the 2008 election was his skill and/or luck in knocking his opponents off the ballots before the election, through means fair or foul, planned or fortuitous (see this and this). Underdog? Don’t think so.
And if Obama is an underdog today (and if he is, it’s by only a tiny bit, and it depends on who he’s running against) he has only himself to blame. But true to form, that’s not who he’s fingering. Why, it’s those Republicans:
“At every step of way, I have tried to get the Republican Party to work with me on the biggest crisis of our lifetime. And each time we’ve gotten ‘No,'” he said.
Let me get out my handkerchief.
And then there’s the vision thing. At the end of the day people are not going to ask “who’s got a vision?” That’s very 2008. Now that you have a record, Mr. President, people are going to ask about that.
It’s a smart ploy and one that Obama has often used: a shake and bake, fake-take of responsibility. The strategy heads off defensiveness and recruits “understanding” by feeling and caring people, just the sort of people who are upset over those darned angry tea party creeps who think they know it all. It’s a Rousseau confession all over again: “If I wasn’t so noble, I might have had more success.”
Obama the underdog? Perhaps his droppings.
A line of attack when Obama presents his “vision”:
You think the last four years were bad? Obama has been restrained because he wants to be reelected. Give him another four years and the first term will seem like the good old days.
When the Democrats accuse us of fearmongering, the response should be You’re damn right the American people are afraid. With good reason..
Good point, gs. We’re all just a little Obamophobic out here.
Obama, more correctly, makes underdogs:
http://minx.cc/?blog=86&post=322086
Neo:
“Wow. Obama is used to being an underdog?”
You miss the larger point, Neo: Obama doesn’t know how to answer a question like this without lying. F
Obama is used to being an underdog?
Perhaps he was referring to his intellectual acumen.
Of course his reference to underdog is all about his blackness. He’s like the gay activist whose genitalia habits would have to get mentioned no matter the subject of discussion.
I hear the big O has the hots for sweet polly purebred…
He certainly is becoming the underdog: http://www.redstate.com/littletboca/2011/10/03/obama-holder-%E2%80%93-in-deep-doo-doo/
The problem is who is waiting in the wings for her coronation… only thing possibly worse than B. Hussain Obungler, and that is definitely Hillary…
This is what the winner will be up against, whoever it is. Read it for Schwarzenegger’s account of how he tried to change California’s course — and what happened. (Liked by Monty “Doom” at Ace of Spades.)
“The smart money says the U.S. economy will splinter, with some states thriving, some states not, and all eyes are on California as the nightmare scenario.
“After a hair-raising visit with former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who explains why the Golden State has cratered, Michael Lewis goes where the buck literally stops–the local level, where the likes of San Jose mayor Chuck Reed and Vallejo ï¬re chief Paige Meyer are trying to avert even worse catastrophes….”
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-201111#gotopage1
It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes of Arnold’s governorship: how he tried to get the state’s finances righted, and what defeated him.
That should be “LINKED” by Monty at Ace of Spades.
University of South Florida psychologist Joseph Vandello studied sports and political underdogs. In one such study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was used. Participants were given the same history of the area, but two different maps. One showing Palestine as smaller, the other a smaller Israel. In every case, subjects decided to side with the smaller i.e., the underdog.
I’m no psychologist and haven’t any notion of what all this means outside the scope of a controlled study but I’m thinking Obama may be rooting for Chris Christie.
I’ll be interested to see if, at some point during the campaign, it becomes obvious that the President has simply run out of steam.
Not with campaigning, of course. That’s long been his strength; one could argue that, before 2008, he devoted his energies to little else. But he does seem tired of being President. (Why wouldn’t he? He has such great intentions and plans, but little people won’t stop yapping at him. He can’t accomplish great things easily, so as to show people how wonderful it is… and the hard work quickly stops being fun.)
THAT, I think, will be a useful concept on the campaign trail. “Mr. President, focus less on campaigning and more on being President! The nation’s problems won’t wait for you to stop campaigning.”