by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 25, 2008
All Rights Reserved.                    

       Keynoting opening night at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama hopes to tell her and her husband’s story, Democratic presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.).  Michelle will try to make the sale reminding undecided voters that the Obamas are like other hard-working American families.  At the same time, she’ll show both their remarkable accomplishments, from her days at Princeton University, his days at Columbia and both at Harvard Law School.  Not since the Clintons have a husband-wife team had so much accomplishment.  Michelle hopes to counter GOP propaganda that Barack is a closet Muslim, having spent a few short childhood years in a Muslim school in Jakarta, Indonesia.  Yet despite all the biography, Michelle should direct voters’ attention to two active wars, the sick economy, runaway gas prices and failed domestic agenda.

         She and Barack have overcome many obstacles but the real issue for voters boils down to whether they’d be better off with an Obama presidency.  Picking Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) Aug. 22 threw many pundits for a loop, not because he wasn’t considered on the short-list but because insiders expected a more bold move.  With  recent polls making the race a dead-heat, Obama’s brain-trust couldn’t afford a dramatic gamble, namely, picking retiring Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel, now a shoe-in, should Obama win in November, for Defense Secretary.  No one in camp-Obama could find a way to reconcile with Barack’s closest rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, unlike other primary candidates, pulled out all the stops attacking Barack’s fitness for duty as president.  Now Michelle and others must mend bad feelings and then urge Hillary’s supporters to come on board.

             Hillary’s supporters wanted Barack to bury the hatchet and select her as VP.  What they don’t get is that with Hillary comes Bill, still filling the tabloids with more rumors of infidelity.  With former presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) in the headlines recently caught with his pants down, and completey shunned by the convention, Barack couldn’t afford the risks.  Picking Biden was a good compromise, opting with sold foreign policy credentials at a time of increased geopolitical tensions.  Michelle and others must find a way to sincerely venerate Hillary for her unprecedented campaign—the first serious woman presidential candidate.  Once Michelle goes through her biography, she should pay tribute to Hillary and her many loyal supporters.  Today’s USA/ Gallup poll indicated that a whopping 27% of her supporters still haven’t committed to Obama.

           Selling Barack isn’t only based on humanizing his sometimes overly Ivy-League demeanor.  Michelle and others must methodically make the case against eight years of Republican rule in which the country is at war with a sick economy.  Voters want to know some details about presidential candidates but, more importantly, they want to know how their lives will improve.  Selling Barack involves more than making him the next Horatio Alger Jr. story or Jackie Robinson.  Barack’s character witnesses would be better off talking about how the oil industry under Bush and Cheney were given the green light to fleece the U.S. economy.  They’d be better of focusing on a wasteful Iraq war that his opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues to hype as the “central front in the war on terror.”  Selling Barack is inextricably tied to making the case against four more years of Bush’s foreign and economic policy.

             Opinion polls have remained close because undecided voters continue to make up their minds.  Tying McCain to Bush isn’t that farfetched when you consider McCain’s diehard commitment to staying in Iraq.  Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insists today on a date-certain for U.S. withdrawal.  McCain stubbornly insists that Barack’s 16-month withdrawal timetable is tantamount to surrender.  McCain has wed himself so closely to Bush’s policies on Iraq and elsewhere, that the U.S. may confront unending war.  McCain has made it clear that he won’t tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, threatening, if needed, to “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” should he become president.  McCain’s recent tough talk about Russia, and his support of Bush’s missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, could result in a military confrontation with Russia in the not so distant future.

             Selling Barack isn’t primarily based on exposing every detail of his youth or private life.  Itemizing Bush’s failures and expected parallels under a McCain administration should help Barack make the case.  Reminding voters how Bush and Cheney allowed the oil industry to reap record profits at the expense of virtually all other businesses should keep the focus where it belongs:  On Bush’s disastrous management of both domestic and foreign policy.  Making the case against Bush and McCain will help remind Hillary supporters why they must get over their disappointment.  After hitting Barack with everything but the kitchen sink, he won the primaries fair-and-square.  No one stood the political heat better than Barack and he deserves Hillary’s unequivocal support.  When Hillary takes the podium Tuesday night, she needs to remind her supporters what’s really at stake.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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