Word: conventionalization
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Nothing makes me feel sorrier for the once powerful local bosses of each political party than the spectacle of a modern nominating convention. In their glory days, these wily neighborhood sloggers would listen to speeches, size up the appeal of each candidate against hometown tastes, wheel, deal and finally make...
Today there is only one big decision to be made, and the job belongs to a TV programmer, not a political boss. Conventions are little more than soundstages now. Everything from the backdrop to the musical choices asks the question, Who is the convention trying to reach?
Unless Obama can break down the wall between him and these Barry-cratic voters, it will be very hard for him to seize the game-winning electoral prizes of Michigan and Ohio. The convention message and optics would be a very good place to start.
To that end, many of the old-school party regulars now assigned to loyally wave HOPE and CHANGE signs for the TV cameras in Denver would dearly love to see Obama switch out some of his "together we can" endive salad for a big populist pile of economic red meat...
Heading into a crucial moment in this race - his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention - Obama was failing as a candidate in two crucial areas. He had failed to define his opponent, and he was failing, in all but the most amorphous ways, to define himself. He desperately needed...