The Occasional Observer

I watched most of the first hour of the Dem debate last night, and what I saw was...encouraging. Encouraging that McCain may have a good shot at winning. Neither candidate looked great, and both clearly bring a lot of baggage to the table that the RNC can have a field day with.

Obama made a statement at one point similar to my post a few days ago, that it's unfortunate that so much of campaigning these days is focused on gaffes or misstatements. This really is not a useful way to elect a president, and I agree with him there. Unfortunately for Obama, he then went on to make two mistakes (IMO).

First, when asked to clarify his recent "bitter" comments, he took the exact wrong tact. Instead of saying that he meant that some people are angry or bitter towards the current administration, he reinforced what is apparently his true belief that the only reason people have faith or guns is because they are unhappy and harbor some bitterness. So it in fact appears that his original statement was not misspoken; it is what he believes. On the other hand, Hillary mopped the floor with him in her follow up by saying it exactly correctly. People being bitter towards the current administration is a valid but completely separate issue from whether they are religious or have guns.

Second, Obama fails to directly address and answer legitimate questions. Specifically, he talked around the issue of why he won't wear a flag pin; he tries to downplay his 20 year association with Rev. Wright as so inconsequential that it couldn't possibly be legitimately used as a proxy for his own opinions; he downplayed an association with William Ayers and wouldn't more directly condemn both Ayers' actions and comments; and he never really came out and directly said he loves this country. He makes round-about statements such as "How could I not love this country?" instead of "Of course I love this country, with unquestionable passion. Even though I think we are the best nation in the world I want to strive to make us even better."

I think between his comments, personal associates, and his wife's comments and Princeton thesis he is going to have a hard time getting around the patriotism issue this fall. That, plus his flawed opinion about the driving force for religious convictions is going to be his downfall.