Obama Won First Skirmish With McCain

[Dr Ron]

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3356


Obama Won First Skirmish With McCain

June 4th, 2008 by Ron Chusid

If we can consider tonight a view of the general election campaign, Democrats should feel very good about their presumptive nominee and Republicans should feel very bad. Comparing the speeches made it clear that Obama is setting the agenda and the election is his to lose.

Barack Obama campaigned with a slogan, “Change You Can Believe In.” He backed up this slogan both in the manner in which he campaigned and in the more detailed policy proposals he discussed. Hillary Clinton failed to understand that a slogan is meaningless unless you can back it up and thought she could compete by also using the word “change.” It did not work.

Now John McCain is making the same mistake as Clinton in thinking he could defeat Obama by taking his slogan. McCain’s version was, “A Leader You Can Believe In.” This only emphases the fact that he is reacting to Obama as opposed to setting forth a meaningful agenda of his own.

McCain tried to make the argument that he was the better candidate to bring about change, but seemed oblivious to the fact that you cannot be an agent of change when you are supporting the policies of the past. Even most of those who favor McCain over Obama understand that this is election is about generational change and, right or wrong, McCain is on the side of the old.

Obama responded to McCain’s challenge by appearing more articulate, more inspirational, and more presidential than McCain in his speech (video above and transcript under the fold). Even the commentators at Fox were critical of McCain’s speech. Obama countered McCain by saying:

In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda. They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically. I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.

Obama comes off classier than McCain and sets the stage for a real debate over the issues during the campaign. While the Republicans might try to continue the politics of personal destruction and Swift Boat tactics of previous years, Obama is prepared to show that his policies are better for the country. He certainly showed he is more skillful at making his case.

I’ve never been a supporter of campaigning against McCain by making comparisons to George Bush the main argument. However tonight McCain acted like the candidate doth protest too much. By discussing George Bush he wound up reinforcing the connection between himself and Bush. Besides, his claims of differing from Bush on the war are not convincing. The error was going to war in the first place. Nit picking over strategy does not make McCain appear significantly different from George Bush. As Obama said:

Change is a foreign policy that doesn’t begin and end with a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. I won’t stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what’s not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years—especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.