Posted by
Mike Bates on Saturday, August 09, 2008 3:33:43 PM
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin today explains "Why polls aren't worrying Obama's team." As it turns out, there are several reasons:
Obama can certainly lose this race. But McCain's going
to have to find a better way to win it than by invoking Paris Hilton or
by sniping in his most recent ad how "life in the spotlight must be
grand but for the rest of us, times are tough."
What's tough for McCain is that despite having had a practice run
at the presidency once before, it didn't limber him up, cause him to
realize that even the elderly now skillfully navigate the Internet or
help him craft a "vision thing."
In the short run, jealous jabs at Obama for having too much face
time on the covers of Rolling Stone and GQ may appear to close the gap
in national polls. But the aggregation of images -- Obama in Germany,
Obama with his cute girls and beautiful wife, Obama visiting his
grandmother in Hawaii -- is by dribs and drabs helping America feel
familiar with him, visualize him on foreign soil, and see him, perhaps,
as both human and presidential.
In some ways the tightening numbers work for Obama, not against him.
"No cause for panic," said Kupper (one of Obama's political flacks).
No, indeed, he's off to splash in the Pacific surf with his family.
Hallelujah! It's gonna be OK. Sure, Obama is running against a
party that has terribly low approval ratings. Obama has enormous
financial backing. Obama receives unprecedentedly favorable coverage
from a mainstream media eager to serve as his lapdogs most of the time.
And yet, and yet. . . the race is extraordinarily close at the same
time he should enjoy a huge lead. So it's great that media types can
assert McCain isn't limber. He's not an Internet wiz and doesn't have
a "vision thing." But Obama's pregame victory lap in Germany, his cute
girls and beautiful wife, his visiting his typical white person
grandmother and other things will ultimately turn things around.
In the media, hope springs eternal.