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Outfoxed: Standing up the the Right, Part One
He did well. He needs to talk simpler, clearer, but not too much.
His nuanced helped when he talked about reaching across the aisle while not alienating the base.
Chris Wallace wasn't terrible. I wouldnt say fair and balanced, but better than ABC. GS: Can I carry that for your Mr. McCain.
A good start to defending the tax and spend label. A better start to showing that he is tough. Just a start though. He seems to enjoy talking about McCain and the differences.
Im relieved it didn't blow up. A risk, yes. But worth it. And I trust him more when he takes risks.
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Comments (10)
Update: Roundtable. Not bad, the NPR person seems to have an Obama axe. Wallace and the 70% white people: They don't get that the white women are the difference, not white men. But how do you reframe that without those women feeling taken for granted.
April 27, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does anyone have a link?
April 27, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is a link to the transcript.
Obama tried to lead him into talking about the issues early on, but Wallace would have none of that.
After which Wallace goes right back into:
I haven't finished reading it yet. Hopefully, it gets better.
April 27, 2008 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks!
April 27, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I thought he was boring and out of touch. They pounded him in the roundtable for not dealing with the issue of white working class support. I think they are beginning to treat him as yesterday's hero. Even allowing for selective perception, I think they have him pegged now as a candidate whose appeal is limited to blacks and "lace cuff" liberals. For some reason, he seems to need a prepared speech and a partisan crowd to seem exciting. Lacks fire. Lacks conviction or something. This was billed as him taking on FOX. Maybe they edited those parts out.
April 27, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes the roundtable was the worst part, if you dont mind listless. I will take that over scandalous though.
Brit seemed complimentary. The NPR woman had great advice for Obama: Fight. Wallace was half right, Barack did say he needed to do a better job letting people get to know him, but didnt say how he would better reach the whites in OA he couldnt with ample exposure.
But Kristol took some cheaps shots. Total non-sequitor unsubstantiated claims of "shes the better candidate, hes the better campaigner" and sexism.
Yes, sexism exists. But women are the reason she is so close to Obama right now, so I believe there are arguable pros and cons to Hillary being a woman. Obama has blacks, yes, but they have 1/4 the voting power in numbers; his coaliton has reached beyond that "base" more than HRC's.
April 27, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
His problem is that he's too respectful and treats people courteously. He's on Fox to reach out to voters that already have a skewed view of him because Fox news is so fair and balanced. He's shifted into general election mode and is talking intelligently about issues that are important to Fox i.e- flag pins, Wright, tax cuts etc.
April 27, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares what the Fox round table thinks of him and is treating him like yesterday's hero? Obama speaks to Americans as a whole, and doesn't compartmentalize his various demographic support bases and cater his message accordingly.
If anything I think he was being overly careful today, and he had every reason to be overly cautious. I think Matthews was trying to bait him into talking about "white people" so they could get a soundbyte and he didn't take the bait. He won Iowa and Wisconsin and thus had to have carried the white vote there. Of course that was before Rev Wright and the concerted effort by the Clinton Camp to define him as the "Black Candidate". He does seem to be taking such voters for granted though saying "they'll vote for me in the General", however realistically if they are voting issues they would as Obama is a helluva lot closer politically to Clinton (who they are currently supporting) than either is to McCain.
April 27, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point was it was risky for him to go on FOX. The only reason for him to do it was to reach out to the NASCAR fans and lower income white voters in Indiana where he badly needs to win and in NC where he needs to hold his lead. I don't think he did himself any good with them, and maybe did himself some harm. If he is going to get a chance to speak to the voters of America as a whole, doesn't he have to learn to speak to the voters of Indiana first? He is not doing well in models that predict the electoral vote in the Fall.
April 27, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Update: Roundtable. Not bad, the NPR person seems to have an Obama axe. Wallace and the 70% white people: They don't get that the white women are the difference, not white men. But how do you reframe that without those women feeling taken for granted.
April 27, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
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