last i checked, i was musing about obama getting control of his message. not sure it’s gotten any better.
first we have the whole “rev. wright” business. an astute politician, or a worthy adviser to that politician, should have seen this coming a mile away. and should have worked in advance to negate the effect, or had plans in place to blunt it immediately. as it was, he seemed blindsided.
yes, the subsequent speech on race was brilliant. could turn out to be a political recovery for the ages. the rapturous media response may help obama’s “wright” problem, though his subsequent foot-in-mouth moment about “typical white people” doesn’t help. and i’m not sure that long oratory lends itself to this era of “sound-bite” politics.
and this latest staged leak of the photo of clinton and rev. wright is about as clumsy and heavy-handed as you can get.
i know it seems like i’m dumping all over obama. i think he’s still the best choice, and has unlimited potential for improving this country like no one else can. today’s news cycle (the passport mess, and the bill richardson endorsement) is certainly more favorable.
but i think there needs to be an experienced, hard-nosed old-style pol installed near the top of the hierarchy.
update: to clarify my thoughts on the clinton/wright picture: good idea, poor execution. no way this should have been traceable to the campaign.
update update: and now there’s this. the obama campaign finally starts playing a bit of hardball. maybe there’s hope for hope.