RealClearPolitics - Articles - Obama's Altitude SicknessFor anyone that wonders what happened to BO, I think Charles has it pretty much covered. It is WELL worth reading the whole deal, but like all retrospectives, it is simple in hindsight.
BO based his candidacy on smooth speaking, "hope", and the idea that he could run against Bush. He selected Slow Joe Biden as a "run out the clock" running mate. He felt he was ahead by two touchdowns at least, running out the clock was prudent.
What he didn't realize is that novelty is a VERY important part of celebrity. When you choose to base your appeal on celebrity, you better not let the novelty wear off, or worse yet, get eclipsed. His Sermon to the Germans was certainly over the top-it was "presidential", but BO was just plain old celebrity BO, NOT the President. People tend to not like posers. Last January, we all knew that the Pats would win the Super Bowl. Sure, America likes an underdog, but we KNEW the answer. Oh, wait, the game still had to be played and wonder of wonders, the Giants won and the Pats lost. BO forgot that the presidential election game has to be played through--until the fat lady sings.
So McCain threw the Palin hail mary, and if trends continue, the end will have been "obvious". Of course, I'm far from certain that will happen-it is more like half-time in the Superbowl and the underdogs are ahead. There are A LOT of things that almost certainly WILL go wrong, and they may well be fatal to McCain / Palin.
One thing is clear, BO can make strategic mistakes, and a lot of them. BUT, is he going to be able to equal George Bush and recover his election as Bush recovered the Iraq war with the surge? That is the kind of thing that leadership is about, so maybe it is a good test. BO has never faced a challenge even close to this large, but McCain has. Right now it appears that the only answer BO has is to pull out the negative stops in ways beyond any political hack job I've ever seen. Make fun of the fact that a war hero can't use a computer because of injuries solved in the service of our country? Seems "out there", but that is where BO is at now. Does that help him win? Wow, I hope not, it OUGHT to BURY him, but with the MSM on his side it is always hard to predict. It certainly seems to to lower than "Willie Horton" or "Swift Boating"--we need a cool one-liner. "BO POW Attack"? "POW O-Bashing"?