MyDD :: The Obama of February

The Obama of February

by wasder, Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:41:45 AM EST

A few days ago Jerome posted something that irked me, that somehow there was some "Obama of February" who no longer exists. I desperately wanted to believe he was wrong and tonight I feel confident that he was. Both in the electoral results and in his oratory tonight Barack Obama was every bit the electrifying and paradigm shifting candidate that he was in winning 11 primaries in a row in February. He showed a side of himself in that speech that clearly demonstrated why he is running, what he stands for, and why he loves the country. And he returned again and again to the notion of uniting the country across all manner of artificial boundaries. This was the Obama that electrified the country earlier in this campaign and I hope that Jerome will wake up Wednesday morning and concede this point.

And to top it off I think it was the gas tax argument that put him back on his game. As much as Jerome wanted to believe that it was a winning issue for clinton I think tonight's results show that Obama got the better of this argument by trusting the American people to understand the truth.

What a night!!!!

Tags: Obama, February, Jerome (all tags)

Permalink :: 3 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: The Obama of February (none / 0)

Obama performed well in NC, but not at his Feb level, which would have meant an 18% victory, and Obama's campaign predicted that he would win Indiana as well. Ultimately, the two states favored Obama, and Clinton did close the gap a bit, but not enough.

I did like a bit of his speech too.

by Jerome Armstrong on Wed May 07, 2008 at 12:56:09 AM EST

Re: The Obama of February (none / 0)

Thanks for responding. Your points are fair enough I guess but I think it is splitting hairs to say that he didn't quite meet his February standards vis a vis VA or SC. He won very convincingly and certainly far exceeded the averages of the polls. I am not going to suggest that there was no negative effect on both his crossover appeal and his overall positive ratings in the wake of the Wright and Bitter affairs but I think that tonight's results in NC more than answer the question of whether he can take a punch and keep a winning coalition together. In Indiana, we have all been preaching demographics demographics demographics and here we see that despite the fact that he clearly is running as strongly as he is on the overwhelming support he enjoyed in the AA populations of Gary and Indianapolis, he must be doing better among blue collar white voters or he wouldn't be this close.

The speech was very powerful and he had an energy to him that has definitely been lacking of late in his stump speech. But the framing was remarkable and the message of love for the country and the opportunities it has presented him was very effective.

Thanks again for responding.

by wasder on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:06:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Obama of February (none / 0)

There's a difference between the Obama of February and the Obama of now, I'm sure. But the Obama of February was unbeatable - you had guys like Frank Luntz throw their hands up and say "I don't know how you run against this guy."

Just because he's not going to sweep all before him and there will be no great rejoicing and weeping and gnashing of teeth, doesn't mean he isn't a potent candidate.

(PS - I'm INCREDIBLY psyched that he apparently won the "gas tax holiday" argument. It's terrible policy, but any other year it would be an election winner.)

by Mostly on Wed May 07, 2008 at 02:59:36 AM EST

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