Will Obama really shift the focus to McCain?

April 23, 2008

In a televised speech in Indiana last night, Barack Obama, who had been challenging Hillary Clinton very aggressively of late in Pennsylvania, mentioned her name just once, and that was to congratulate her for her Keystone State victory. In contrast, Obama mentioned John McCain’s name seven times, in each instance, in a negative light.

The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny makes the argument today that this is just part of a new shift — Obama intends to transition away from the intra-party fight and towards the general-election campaign.

Senator Barack Obama opened the next phase of his presidential campaign [in Evansville, Ind.] Tuesday evening, seeking to turn his focus away from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and persuade party leaders that time is running out for Democrats to start defining their Republican opponent.

A series of endorsements are scheduled to be announced in the coming days, including superdelegates who intend to pledge their support for Mr. Obama. And more campaign workers in the Chicago headquarters will be dedicated to taking on Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee. […]

“There is a sense of urgency about the time we’re losing and a sense of urgency that we not savage each other to the benefit of Senator McCain,” said David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Mr. Obama. “Ultimately, what this is about is the race in November.”

Great. Wonderful. I’m genuinely delighted to hear it. I hope, desperately, that the Obama campaign means it.

But I hesitate to believe them because they’ve said this before and changed their minds.

This AP item ran three weeks ago:

Sen. Barack Obama is talking about the elephant in the room — Republican rival John McCain — and all but ignoring the Democratic donkey who stands between him and his party’s presidential nomination.

Even though Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was campaigning down the Northeast Extension in Philadelphia, Obama criticized the likely Republican nominee’s policies on the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, trade and tax cuts. In his town-hall session Tuesday, and in other campaign appearances in recent days, Obama has sought to frame the race as a general election matchup between him and McCain.

That seemed to me, at the time, to be the right idea. But before long, the temptation to respond to Clinton’s intra-party attacks proved irresistible, and the Obama campaign was trading some surprisingly ugly shots with its Democratic rival, not the Republican nominee.

In other words, I’ve heard this before. Does Obama mean it this time? Can his campaign really start overlooking Clinton, whom Obama aides insist can’t win the nomination anyway, and begin focusing on the candidate they’ll have to beat in November?

The more Obama quarrels with Clinton, the more we’re led to believe the Democratic race is still very much up for grabs. For the Clinton campaign, that’s the ideal — Clinton and her team need everyone to believe that anything can happen, and criticisms from Obama keep her in the game.

Why, then, has Obama been playing by Clinton’s rules? By pivoting to McCain, Obama starts to put his campaign in a pseudo general-election mode, which is where he’s presumably wanted to be for weeks.

For them to be able to do this means The Empress would have to agree that it’s important to go after her soul mate, McCain. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen to Mrs. MeMeMe.

  • She’s like a yippy dog biting at his ankles all the time and occasionally taking a bite out of his calf. Kicking at her won’t get rid of her – ever. Her supporters seem to get more rabid as this insanity goes on and on.

    While Obama’s busy trying to deal with McCain, I suppose he eventually feels he has to address the lies she and her surrogates tell about him constantly before they take hold with the corrupt & pliant media. Obama is running against all 3 Clintons, their loyal sycophants, the media and the Republicans as well as McCain. It’s a wonder he’s still on his feet.

  • I agree with you, but what do you expect Obama to do? He can’t just ignore her increasingly outrageous attacks, and I can certainly sympathize with the frustration that’s led his campaign to go more negative against Clinton. I have no doubt that he has the political sense to understand that this approach is self-defeating, so hopefully he’ll have the discipline to keep the focus on McCain going forward and transition into general election mode. Let Clinton become the irrelevant afterthought that she should have been for two months now.

  • The woman is a Rautweiler. You chop her head off and the jaw locks on a death reflex. She’s snarl through her neck.

    Obama could sleepwalk to the Whitehouse after he does her in.

  • Sen. Barack Obama is talking about the elephant in the room — Republican rival John McCain — and all but ignoring the Democratic donkey who stands between him and his party’s presidential nomination.

    Donkey? That’s a bit generous.

  • Doesn’t the fact that Karl Rove was pushing to interfere in the Rezko prosecution in an effort to remove Patrick Fitzgerald distract from the fact that Rezko lived in Obama’s district?

    Or does this simply make Rezko old news?

  • It’s as if Obama is in the ring with a tag team—every time he wades into Khrushchev Junior, he gets sucker-punched with a folding chair by McSame’s pet troll, Hillary. I’d love to see him stay on the upside, but the time has come to define both McSame and McSameSame as “one in the same”—politics as usual. Tie Hillary to the Bush, McSame, and the GOPers—and tie McSame to Bush, the GOPers, and Hillary.

    It’s a win-win “two-fer….”

  • Hillary Clinton has created a ‘damned if you do/damned if you don’t’ situation for Barack Obama. And her minions think that this proves she is ‘winning.’ Since she is losing by every other way of looking at it – including delegate count, which is what the primary structure is all about – this has to be her proudest accomplishment. Sure does make you feel good for her, right?

  • It’s as if Obama is in the ring with a tag team… -Steve

    Yeah, it’s weird…it’s like McCain and Clinton both have strategists who work for the same firm and an adoring media.

  • Ironically it doesn’t matter much how negative Obama goes on Clinton because she is almost certainly not going to be the candidate in the fall and therefore won’t be damaged by any hits she takes.

    Now it’s some sort of undefined campaign for superdelegates’ votes. And remember, a lot of those superdelegates are of the same establishment as our wonderful DemCong 2006. And you know how they’ve come through for us. (snark)

  • One of the most pernicious side effects of racism (or any other kind of discriminatory “ism”) is that both the dominant and subordinate groups take the dominant rules as given for all.

    Too many pundits, voters and ex officio delegates are assuming, incorrectly, that the Clintons and Obama are playing by the same set of rules. Given that, there’s a tendency to criticize Obama for not “closing the deal”. It’s assumed he’s weak because he’s not throwing the kitchen sink back at her,. He’s being too much a Hamlet or Kerry or Dukakis. He’s too idealistic or hopeful to get down and dirty.

    The wonder is that a state senator from the midwest with a terrorist-invoking name, black and ferociously cool, has done this, starting with, really, nothing. The wonder is that he cut Her Majesty’s rock-solid lead in a state dominated by bitterness and bigotry in half. The wonder is that he has stood up to and surpassed the plutocratic establishment creeps who ever since DADT and NAFTA have turned the Democratic Party over to the corporatists. The wonder is that, as she transforms herself into a female Lieberman, he remains calm and in the lead by all meaningful measures.

    As a black man in America he entered the ring with an enormous disadvantage, one which our principal pundits in the MSM and the Party itself are almost totally unable to appreciate because of their privileged status. He’s walking an extremely dangerous tightrope, and he’s doing it without a net. While we can’t possibly expect to share his perspective, let’s hope we have the patience, as onlookers mostly, to let him lead us across the abyss he’s trying to navigate for us.

    Otherwise the corporatist Liebermans of both parties win once again.

  • He can’t wholly ignore her (she’ll shiv him if he does) but he can focus on McSame mostly.

  • The risk in taking on McCain now is that Obama might do it ineffectively or make a huge gaffe and Clinton will jump on it to woo the supers.

  • If this is the case, I will start sending him money . It is past time to take on McCain; I wish HRC would do that too.

  • Part of the problem was the long period of time between contests, and the fact that so much was concentrated on one primary. The pace is now going to pick up considerably, and in two venues (Indiana and NC). Obama would be smart to start rolling out any new superdelegates he has, in a regular pattern, and start acting like the nominee by going after McCain about representing the same *old* politics.

  • Obama’s fighting a two front war, and unfortunately if you leave a front unguarded you’re going to lose ground, so he has to respond to her, especially since she only wants to hurt him not do anything to McSame

  • It would be nice to pretend Hillary doesn’t exist, certainly better for my sanity at least, but I don’t see how it will actually work like that. He is still in a primary until she concedes, and that is never going to happen.

  • On the other hand, people have a point about attacking McCain as more of the same. That is an attack that could easily turn into a two-fer with the right message prep. I personally don’t see much difference between McCain and Clinton, they are vulnerable to many of the same charges and represent flip-sides of the same more-Bush coin..

  • axt113 said: “Obama’s fighting a two front war, and unfortunately if you leave a front unguarded you’re going to lose ground, so he has to respond to her, especially since she only wants to hurt him not do anything to McSame.”

    He’s got more money than the two of them combined. The only danger is that in dealing with one he might expose a weakness to be exploited by the other.

    Really, all this aside, the trick is the focus of the MSM. Let Barack STOP saying ‘Washington has failed you for DECADES’ and actually deal with McCan’t policy positions and I’d be happy.

    But he does seem to love trashing the whole Bill Clinton administration record. If he can’t stop attacking that Democrat, then he can’t complain.

    But you can 😉

  • Come on! Let’s get going with the campaign against the Republicans! Obama – we want you as our President – you have most of the votes and delegates, now. Forget about her! Go after Insane McCain. Now! Ignore her. Okay, you can respond to her attacks, but don’t focus on them. Go after McCain – no more free ride for him!

  • Why can’t Obama do both — defend himself from the most egregious Clinton attacks AND go after McCain? He could respond to both by putting Clinton and McCain in the same camp, showing how they’ve both used the same arguments against him, and then make his positive pitch.

  • I am glad about this decision. I have wanted Obama to do this, but I think he really wanted to concentrate on knocking Hillary out in the Pa primary. Now that it is over, it is time for him to act like the nominee, and go after McSame. What Hillary does is immaterial now. She has lost, and her flailing is looking more and more pathetic.

  • I’ve noticed that, at least for Hon. Sen. Obama, that even when he speaks about Hon. Sen. McCain on the stump, CNN (for one) will only show sound bites which relate to some MSM idiocy or HRC attack.

  • I have seen on the Drudge Report and Newsday that the Clinton campaigne are the ones who instigated Rev. Wright to go public.

    Why doesn’t Mr. Obama denouce this publicly? I am frustrated that it seems he will not stand up for himself! I know he wants to stay focused on the facts , but if Clinton’s campaigne are fighting by going below the belt, why not address it?

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