The Obama's Fist Pound

This picture says it all...


"Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama bumps fists with his wife Michelle before his speech at his South Dakota and Montana presidential primary election night rally in St. Paul, Minnesota June 3, 2008. (Eric Miller/Reuters)" (source)

Obama and the Foreign Press

It is 10:55pm EST and I'm watching Senator Obama shake hands with people after his speech live on MSNBC. Nonetheless, look at the news papers from the foreign press. They have already put Senator Obama on the front page of their website.

Bobby Jindal VP Stump Speech Tryout

Did you see Bobby Jindal "happen" to introduce Senator McCain and give a 3 minute stump speech supporting McCain on prime time TV at about 8:30pm EST? I have to suspect that Senator McCain's campaign is trying to feel out Jindal's political prowess on a national scale.

I give the McCain credit for capitalizing on a large national prime time TV audience that is certainly filled with democrats wanting to watch Senator Obama's speech.

Fox and NBC/MSNBC in War

I was watching the O'Reilly factor on May 29, 2008 and listened to Bill O'Reilly rant on MSNBC/NBC and its supposedly unfair and biased coverage favoring Senator Obama. Although O'Reilly is definitely not the gold standard for fair journalism, I post about this because it is a new dimension of today's media--fighting about fairness and bias within the media. No longer is it political pundits complaining about media coverage, now the media personalities themselves analyze and criticize other networks. View O'Reilly's complaint here (short version) and here (longer version).


View more here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Persuasive Ad Analysis: Senator Obama: When will you finally visit Iraq?

I recently saw the following PAC ad attacking Senator Obama about his Iraq policy and failure to visit Iraq (view here at YouTube). This ad dovetails with Senator McCain's attacks on Senator Obama for his failure to visit Iraq and acknowledge the progress made.

Why This Ad is Effective

• It does not feel like a typical attack ad.
• Between the music and soft voice, the ad does not engender the feelings of a typical attack ad with dark colors, deep music, and slashing commentary.
  
• It inspires/plays on patriotism.
• It uses Senator Obama's own words against him.
• The subtle reasoning is that if Senator Obama will meet "one-on-one unconditionally" with Iran, why won't he meet under similar circumstances with American troops in Iraq.
  
• It uses a veteran.
  
• This ads credibility and makes it more difficult to attack the source of the ad.
• It plays on the perception of Senator Obama's foreign policy weakness.
  

One of the Best Speeches of This Campaign

I recently re-watched Barack Obama's speech in Iowa in which he essentially celebrated his primary nomination by thanking the people who made his campaign possible--the voters of Iowa who catapulted him to a national candidacy that could overcome the inevitable.

The speech is available here on YouTube and here as a transcript.

To get an idea of the enthusiasm and the passion of the crowd and of Senator Obama, begin watching at 17 minutes.

Why This Speech is Effective

• Senator Obama thanked the people who made his candidacy possible
• It is far too rare for politicians to go back to their base and thank the people who made their candidacy possible. Senator Obama was extremely smart to do this.
• Senator Obama is subtly reminding the country that he is popular in "white America"
• By holding an event in a largely white state that he won, he is trying to counter the idea that he cannot win white votes
• Senator Obama is extremely gracious to Senator Clinton
• Senator Obama stays on message
• Emphasis on hope and change
• Subtle attacks against John McCain, who is linked to George Bush

My final comment is that I struggle to imagine how Senator McCain can win in the fall with an orator like this as an opponent and a crowd that is this excited. (I still think it is possible since democrats seem to specialize in loosing elections).

Democratic Establishment Turns on Clinton

As I've been monitoring the news commentaries, I've noticed how the democratic party and its news outlets (MSNBC, New York Times, Daily Kos, Huffington Post) have turned against Senator Clinton.

In the past few days, the following storied have been published:

• Keith Olberman absolutely exploded in his "special comments" against Senator Clinton last night (May 23, 2008). (see here)
• Daily Kos (here)
• New York Times (here)
• MSNBC (Florida coverage)
• MSNBC (Chris Matthews almost cries over thought of Senator Obama loosing; here)

Notice the following comments that the Clinton campaign/etc. has made about the biased news coverage:

• Terry McAuliffe Says Chris Matthews is pro-Obama (here; this is an absolutely blistering on-air critique of Chris Matthews--wait until the end of the interview for the comments)
• Joe Scarborough on MSNBC news bias (here)
• About Keith Olberman (here)
• Even CNN noted it (here)
• Fox News slams MSNBC (here)
• As early as May 2007, Fox attacks MSNBC (here)
• Hillary, Bill, and Lanny Davis on Fox (here)
• Terry Mcauliffe on MSNBC (here)
• Terry Mcauliffe on Fox News congratulating the network (here)
• Terry McAuliffe slams NYT (here)