I have spent the morning scrolling lazily through various articles about the state of the race, something I haven't been able to do for months. As recently as Monday, plunking the term "Obama" into Google News brought back only headlines that made my heart sink. Lots of "Why can't he close the deal?" alongside COUNTLESS, ENDLESS articles about Rev. Wright. No, I couldn't deal with that. So I sheltered myself to Daily Kos and Countdown with KO and wept bitterly at the "MSM"
But for the last two days, most headlines read "It's over" and suddenly...reading the news is fun again! Not even Hillary's race baiting can get me down!
Anyway, I've mostly been reading my FAVORITE type of articles, which are those detailing what goes on "behind the scenes" of this brilliant campaign, and how they have crafted the strategy that brought us that lovely tie in Indiana. A news roundup, below the fold.
On Barack's reaction to Pennsylvania and crafting the Indiana strategy:
Two days after his damaging defeat in Pennsylvania last month, Sen. Barack Obama gathered his wife and senior campaign staff around the dining-room table of his Chicago home.
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"It wasn't like, 'Let's have a discussion.' It was, 'One, two, three, four, here's what we're going to do,' " a staffer said. "When things don't go well, he doesn't yell and scream. He's very prescriptive. Everybody understands this isn't about having a discussion. He's got 99 percent of the voting shares. There's no point in taking a vote."
Implored by some Democratic strategists to go more negative...Obama instead went "more intimate, less iconic," as one aide put it. There would be picnics, small gatherings, games of P-I-G in the backyards of basketball-crazy Indiana, his wife and two daughters in tow at times...
On Barack's reaction to Rev. Wright:
Obama's luxury campaign bus had just pulled out of Wilson, N.C., and was heading to Chapel Hill for one of his patented mega-rallies when the call came in on the candidate's cellphone.
Ashen-faced and visibly shaken, the senator from Illinois begged apologies to Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and retreated to the back of the bus.
Wright had gone "haywire," Axelrod, his message man, was telling him. At the press club that morning, with television cameras rolling.
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That night, at Chapel Hill's genteel Carolina Inn, Obama pored over the transcripts of Wright's appearance, watched the ubiquitous replays on cable news, and jotted down the notes for an address that would come the following day.
On the gas tax holiday:
When Clinton embraced the "gas-tax holiday," Obama's aides became convinced that a tailor-made issue had fallen into his lap, an issue that could change the subject.
Obama and Axelrod talked that Sunday and agreed that the gas-tax holiday was the perfect vehicle to reintroduce Obama as the responsible reformer who refused to pander, even with a presidential election on the line.
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On Tuesday, Clinton aired her first ad that criticizes Obama for rejecting the gas-tax holiday, and Obama advisers began debating an appropriate response. Jim Margolis, the campaign's media strategist, was screening some generic footage he had shot of Obama on Monday — including the gas-tax riff that he introduced in Wilmington, and polished throughout the day.
"As soon as we all heard it, we thought, 'We can't do better than that,' " Axelrod said. "Let him do the talking."
The issue ignited quickly,
And finally, the strategy going forward:
Confident that he has built a near-impregnable lead, his campaign aides said Wednesday that Obama would begin shifting his focus toward the general election.
Obama still plans to campaign in states that remain on the primary calendar -- he is to appear in Oregon over the weekend -- but he may also start showing up in states that are considered important in the November contest: Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. (All three have held their Democratic primaries.)
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"Everyone is eager to get on with this," said David Axelrod, the Obama campaign's lead strategist.
"We've got to multi-task here . . . Sen. McCain has basically run free for some time now," Axelrod added.
So basically Barack wants to demonstrate that he can go toe to toe with Mccain, obviously as a challenge to Hillary's concern-trolling. He is basically ignoring her and pivoting to the general election.
I think this is a sound strategy...the last time he tried this was after Wisconsin and Hillary basically smashed him over the head with a hammer over NAFTA/3AM and etc. But this time, I really think engaging Mccain can only help him by assuaging doubts that he is "tough enough".
Anyway, I am cautiously optimistic that the rest of the month will work itself out... and on August 28th, the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama will make history of his own, accepting the Democratc nomination for President in Denver, Colorado.