Why are Obama and McCain so close nationally
I am posting (for the first time) to find out why Obama isn't farther ahead of McCain in the national polls. Nearly everyone I talk to, even McCain voters, admit that Obama is a better candidate. His ideas are more sensible, his oratory is miles ahead, his strategy is stronger and his organization has no peer. So why is it so close. The popular answer is that a sizeable fraction of voters will not support him because he is black and that keeps the race close. I'm not so sure.
I think Obama's problem is that he is too cold.
He is a poster child for American yuppie success. Double Ivy educated, president of the Harvard Law Review, became a community organizer instead of souless corporate lawyer, ran for office in Illinois, impressed everyone and became a U.S. senator only to aim higher. He beat the unbeatable Clinton machine and now has been out-fundraising, out-speech-giving, out-policy making and out-promoting his far more experienced oponent.
More than that he is ferociously disciplined. He works out everyday, has (and actually seems to love) a thin, pretty professional wife and two healthy daughters. He has a little money from two books he wrote himself. Nobody left him anythng in a will and he married into no money at all.
He eats healthy and is polite to people even when they are impolite to him. Other than youthful drug use, he seems to have no vices. On top of that, the fact that he was abandoned by his black father at age 2 and raised by his white mother and grandparents seems to have no effect on his self confidence and ego. It's intact and supported by a winning smile.
And this, I think, is his problem.
Many, many people admire him, but I wonder how many actually like him or feel that he is human like they are. I think that to the bulk of us with our 20 extra pouds, dull jobs, occasional Big Mac, inconsistent gym attendence, career disappointments and mediocre marriges, Obama just doesn't seem like a guy we can understand. We wonder if he ever fights with Michelle or gets really mad and throws something.
I think that when most people sift through the choices for President, they don't think too much about policy. I think they settle on the guy who seems most like themselves and go with him. I wonder if Obama should show a few flaws or admit a few missteps. It might warm him up a bit.
I think Obama's problem is that he is too cold.
He is a poster child for American yuppie success. Double Ivy educated, president of the Harvard Law Review, became a community organizer instead of souless corporate lawyer, ran for office in Illinois, impressed everyone and became a U.S. senator only to aim higher. He beat the unbeatable Clinton machine and now has been out-fundraising, out-speech-giving, out-policy making and out-promoting his far more experienced oponent.
More than that he is ferociously disciplined. He works out everyday, has (and actually seems to love) a thin, pretty professional wife and two healthy daughters. He has a little money from two books he wrote himself. Nobody left him anythng in a will and he married into no money at all.
He eats healthy and is polite to people even when they are impolite to him. Other than youthful drug use, he seems to have no vices. On top of that, the fact that he was abandoned by his black father at age 2 and raised by his white mother and grandparents seems to have no effect on his self confidence and ego. It's intact and supported by a winning smile.
And this, I think, is his problem.
Many, many people admire him, but I wonder how many actually like him or feel that he is human like they are. I think that to the bulk of us with our 20 extra pouds, dull jobs, occasional Big Mac, inconsistent gym attendence, career disappointments and mediocre marriges, Obama just doesn't seem like a guy we can understand. We wonder if he ever fights with Michelle or gets really mad and throws something.
I think that when most people sift through the choices for President, they don't think too much about policy. I think they settle on the guy who seems most like themselves and go with him. I wonder if Obama should show a few flaws or admit a few missteps. It might warm him up a bit.
