Why Obama may lose a gimme election

Reading Paul Krugman's column today, which resonated strongly with me, I started dealing with my own feelings about this election.  Five months ago, I didn't really support either candidate, but watching the same bullshit attacks on Hillary play out as they did in the 90s, I found myself rising to defend her and eventually coming to her side.  On the issues, the differences were minor but important (Social Security and healthcare are major policy issues and he's bad and she's good on those issues), but it was the awful tone of the Obama campaign that turned me off.  I know all of you here are so strongly in the Obama camp that you can't see it that way, but stop for a moment and realize that half the party sees it exactly the other way.

Still, I kind of liked Obama at the beginning.  But it didn't last.  Especially after this week, and the ridiculous spin that Obama put on Hillary's off the cuff remarks in South Dakota (and Obama's campaign starting that spin on it), I now find myself really, really strongly disliking Obama, or perhaps more accurately, the Obama campaign and its supporters.  

I'm sure I'll hold my nose and vote for him, but there's no enthusiasm for him, and I can't imagine gathering any.  My $2400 check for the nominee that I planned to write as soon as the nomination was wrapped up will sit in the checkbook for now.

He's just not "likeable enough" for me to get behind him, and I find many of the people around him repulsive.

This may not be as widespread as I fear.  I've probably spent too much time around the web interacting with ranting/shouting Obama supporters.  Krugman likely gets email from the most enthusiastic posters on this site, and if those emails resemble their blog posts here, they are rants with little substance but a lot of ill will.  

It's a surprising end of the process for me.  I was a strong believer in the view that an intensive primary fight is a good thing because it stirs up interest, drowns out McCain, and drives registrations.  It has done all those things.  Has anyone even heard from McCain these last few months?  

But the hard feelings are getting harder, and Obama's campaign seems intent on getting Hillary's supporters to hate the man, and they're doing a great job of it.  I'm just telling you how I feel in my gut at the moment -- there's not much more to it than that.

Time heals all wounds.  By the convention, I may be back to liking Obama, but the process has been eye-opening.  For example, I won't watch Olberman's show anymore because he's been revealed to be a jingoistic buffoon chasing ratings from the easily stirred up yahoos.  

Krugman has suggestions for healing this divide.  Here are mine:

1. Dial down the rhetoric -- everyone.

2.  Shut up and let the process play out for one freaking more week.  I know Obama's supporters are worried that he's going to lose the popular vote (he probably will after Puerto Rico votes), but he's going to have to live with that.  Maybe he should have been more popular.

3.  Deal fairly with MI and FL.  There should have been a revote, but at this point, he should just accept the results.  If I were him, I'd wait until after the last primary, check the delegate math, line up the superdelegates to make sure he's got a FL-MI proof majority, and then support counting those votes. In that situation, its a no brainer.  In the meanwhile, he should appear open to the issue, but not commit to anything.

4.  Hillary as VP -- I couldn't see it three weeks ago, but now its starting to look sensible.  Obama needs to at least meet with her to discuss it.  I never thought she'd want it, but Bill now realizes it gives her the inside track for 2016, so he's pushing her towards it.  A VP pick is almost irrelevant in the end, so why not use it to heal the party divide?  That would accomplish more than any pick in recent years. I don't think Obama has to pick Hillary, but if he's as smart as some claim he is, he's got to consider it very closely.

5.  Stop playing the race card.  Obama said he wanted to have a conversation on race -- that's a terrible idea.  Everytime Obama's message becomes racial, he becomes less popular with white male swing voters.  Playing racial victim stirs up a backlash that will only sink Obama in the end.  The only way he can win is by going back to his February "post-racial" campaign themes -- his hallmarkesque lines about how there's no black america, no white america, there's just america.  He's got to sell that, and sell it hard.  Throwing around charges of racism -- particularly the trumped up charges thrown by his campaign -- actually weaken Obama as a candidate.