Obama's identity issues

Barack Obama survived his appearance on Meet the Press this morning. The interview was designed to show that Obama could handle questions about his relationship with Rev Wright, his extreme former preacher, from the toughest interviewer on American TV and to that extent it worked. The interview did not, though, shut Wright down as an issue; there are simply too many unanswered questions about what Obama knew about Wright’s views and when for that to happen.   

The last few weeks have been so rough for Obama as they have questioned...

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (4)

The gas tax ad wars continue

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The debate over whether or not to suspend the gas tax this summer has become a proxy for the divide between the two campaigns. Clinton is arguing that Obama's failure to support doing this is a sign that he's out of touch with working Americans. While Obama is claiming that Hillary's support for it is typical Washington pandering that won't solve anything. Here's his latest ad: 

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comment

Carolina in my mind

Barack Obama has had a bad few weeks. A heavy defeat in Pennsylvania has been followed by a renewed focus on Obama’s former pastor Rev Wright and his extreme views. The Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday will give us the first concrete evidence of the electoral impact of all this. Indeed, Tuesday’s results should give us an idea of how the rest of the Democratic primary season will play out.

If Obama were to win both, which is unlikely but not impossible, Hillary will come under huge pressure to drop...

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comment

McCain's challenge

First Read highlights just how well McCain will have to do to win this November:

"according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll, the biggest political albatross heading into November is -- drum roll, please -- George Bush. In the poll, 43% say McCain being too closely aligned to Bush and his policies is a major concern. That’s compared with 36% who say that about Clinton’s apparent flip-flops; 34% who say that about Obama’s bitter-guns-religion remark; 32% who say that about Wright and Bill Ayers; 31% who say that about Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness; 27% who say that about Bill Clinton having

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comment

Obama to Meet the Press

The seriousness of the Rev Wright affair for Obama’s campaign is demonstrated by the fact that this Sunday he is sitting down with Tim Russert for an hour on Meet the Press. The full hour on Meet is generally regarded as the toughest interview in US politics and the Obama campaign must be hoping that if he can get through this the super delegates, and Democratic voters more generally, will be confident that the issue will not destroy him in the fall. The danger, obviously, is that the interview goes badly further...

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (4)