Obama: How much damage was done?
Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:05 AM by Mark Murray
The Washington Post's Dan Balz points out an important fact about this campaign in his lead: "The pattern in Campaign 2008 is that nothing lasts; nothing has a shelf life of more than half a day. Cable and the Internet simply churn information too quickly. In this age of the continuous news cycle, the new pushes out the old regardless of significance or importance."
Also in his piece is this important point: “Democratic strategists see the dangers ahead for Obama. While not lethal to his hopes of winning the Democratic nomination or the presidency, they say, the damage could be lasting. ‘This has tarnished Obama's image, though certainly not in a fatal way, and we will see it used by the GOP repeatedly if he is the nominee,’ one strategist said in an e-mail on Wednesday. ‘At the end of the day, I believe whoever the Democratic nominee is will win, but those who think that, if Obama is the nominee, he won't have Clinton-like negatives by Election Day are naive. This whole episode underlines that point.’”
Bottom line: Obama can't make the case anymore that he expands the map in the fall; he just has a different path to 270 than Clinton -- but it's just as narrow. Trade Ohio (20 EVs) with the combination of Colorado/Virginia (21 EVs).
Obama's speech has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube, so reports the New York Times.
Gallup's Frank Newport makes an important point about Obama's poll numbers. "He has black support, and that's not going away," Newport said. "My assumption is that everything he does is aimed at white voters."
It's possible Obama actually has hit bottom in the primary because he has a base of support that just isn't going to leave him: black voters. If anything, black voters are now more committed to him, so any progress Obama makes with white voters will actually improve his standing.
Obama's campaign continues to try and change the subject today with a speech on the economy.
Speaking of the race speech from Tuesday, Obama supporter John Kerry gave an interview with a local N.H. paper, reports NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli. In it, Kerry said the color of Obama's skin makes him uniquely qualified for president and even reach out to the moderate Islam world. During an interview with the New Bedford Standard Times, portions of which were posted on YouTube, John Kerry says bluntly that Barack Obama has the potential to “bridge the divide in religious extremism” because he is black.
“It would be such an affirmation of who we say we are as a people if we can elect an African American president, a young leader who is obviously a visionary and got an ability to inspire people,” Kerry said. “It will give us an ability to talk to those countries, to in some cases go around their dictator leaders to the people and inspire the people in ways that we can’t otherwise.”
The Massachusetts senator said Obama has an ability to perhaps even empower moderate Islam “to be able to stand up against the racial misinterpretation of a legitimate religion.” Asked by a reporter what gave Obama the credibility to do so, Kerry said, “Because he’s African American. Because he’s a black man, who has come from a place of oppression and repression through the years in our own country. We only broke the back of civil rights, Jim Crow, in the 1960s here. Everybody in the world knows this is a recent journey for America too. And everybody still knows that issues of skin and discrimination still exist.”
The Boston Globe's Helman profiles Obama's decision to join Rev. Wright's congregation and notes for much of his political career in Chicago, he was not seen as black enough.
The question that comes out of this piece: Did Obama join Rev. Wright's congregation simply to prove his black bona fides?
