Obama: Raising his voice
Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:16 AM by Mark Murray
The Los Angeles Times notes that Obama has been raising his voice more on the trail. "Obama is recalibrating his tone at a time when the race is in flux. Palin's nomination as vice president has shaken up the election in ways Obama campaign aides concede they don't fully understand. Obama professes not to care about poll numbers, but his campaign is well aware that his lead over McCain has evaporated. Within the Democratic Party, some politicians are getting antsy about the latest polling trends, having seen previous Democratic nominees blow leads at the end."
Last night at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's Annual Gala, Obama told the audience to not expect McCain to fight for immigration reform when he won’t even make it part of his party’s platform, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones reports.
As he has in past speeches before Hispanic groups, Obama hailed his rival for initially bucking his party by working for comprehensive reform, but said McCain had "abandoned his stance" on the issue as he sought his party's nomination and added a new dig questioning the Arizona senator's reformer credentials. "When it came time to write his party’s platform, comprehensive reform never made it in," Obama said. "So you’ve got to ask yourself: If Sen. McCain won’t stand up to opponents of reform at his own convention, how can you trust him to stand up for change in Washington?"
So do Obama and Bush agree on the idea of allowing special ops in Pakistan without the permission of the Pakistani government? Apparently so. (Or better yet, is Bush following Obama’s lead here?) "President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials."
Karl Rove, in his Wall Street Journal column, believes Obama has allowed himself to be distracted by Palin. "In Mrs. Palin, Mr. Obama faces a political phenomenon who has altered the election's dynamics. Americans have rarely seen someone who immediately connects with large numbers of voters at such a visceral level. Mrs. Palin may be the first vice presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson to change an election's outcome. If Mr. Obama keeps attacking her, the odds of Gov. Palin becoming Vice President Palin increase significantly."
Biden wasn’t exactly on message yesterday. In defending Hillary Clinton, a self-deprecating Biden "told a crowd of supporters yesterday that Hillary Rodham Clinton 'might have been a better pick' as Barack Obama's running mate."
