Why Obama hasn't sealed the deal
Sun Feb 03, 2008 at 08:25:20 AM PDT
I see in this primary election a race where Democrats have a clear chance to nominate a winning candidate, Barack Obama, who represents a clean break from the old style of Democratic politics that has brought us 2 heartbreaking defeats against George W. Bush, a narrow victory over Ross Perot and G.H.W. Bush and 2 landslide defeats at the hands of Ronald Reagan (sorry, I mentioned Reagan- time to get the vapors!).
But I also see why Democratic voters aren't yet sold on Obama and it has to do with the party's continued efforts to shoot itself in the foot every four years. Please join me behind the jump to see what I have cooked up...
The way I see it, the biggest problem Obama is experiencing is his unwillingness to cater to the base in the way most Democratic primary candidates do- rhetorical red meat. We saw in this election where a conservative DLC-style Democrat from the south with a moderate voting record transformed himself into a progressive fighter for the working class and convinced many Democrats to back him despite a Senate record was that was to the right of Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, who has a consistent record of liberal votes draws fire from Democratic circles because some view him as some sort of right wing plant- a wolf in sheep's clothing. I think these people are as deluded as those who believe the email smears about Obama's "Muslim" background. At first I didn't get why they couldn't see in Obama what I saw.
But after some time, and reading the recent diaries posted here concerning George Lakoff's discussion of the difference between the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama it clicked why many Democratic voters prefer to go with Clinton, the candidate who in my opinion has a greater chance at experiencing the same result as John Kerry, Al Gore, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale- losing the White House to the GOP- a result that we all know we can't afford to have happen again.
Unfortunately, I think too many Democratic primary voters are so frustrated by the Bush administration and Congressional Democrats' failures to push back against the excesses of the past 7 years. They want a candidate who will toss around fiery rhetoric and promise to be the most liberal. Sadly, I think you have to look at American history and realize that far too often the Democratic tendency to win elections by promising programs to appease individual constituencies comes across to most voters as the same old style. What too many Democrats also fail to realize is that MOST Americans voted for George W. Bush twice, his father once and Ronald Reagan twice. The same old way of campaigning does NOT work. It's time to try something new.
To this end and to relieve myself of the frustration in seeing a Democratic Party once again set to commit electoral suicide by nominating a candidate who is hated by the media and mistrusted by the masses, I have decided to use my skills as a cartoonist to say what words can't express.
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