Puffery: Wrong Strategy for Obama

The Other McCain makes a point.

The primary campaign was about convincing Democrats that Obama had a better chance than Hillary to win in November. This is why I have been so skeptical about the ability of Axelrod and Plouffe to translate their successful primary strategy into a win in November. A general election is not a primary. A general election is about swaying independent voters, who are profoundly different from the type of hard-core partisans who walk through January snow to participate in a caucus in Iowa.

Maintaining an image of insuperability was what that European tour was about -- convincing the True Believers that their belief is valid. But while seeing Obama feted in Berlin excited hard-core progressives, it produced an entirely opposite effect in independent voters, who perceived it as a grandiose overreach by a candidate long on confidence and short on credibility.

In other words, the O-and-Savior is campaigning against his last opponent--HRC--instead of against his current opponent.

Grandiose "I have come to save the world" speeches simply do not persuade; most Americans recognize that the President still has to deal with Congress and a bureaucracy which (frankly) does damn near whatever it wants to do, no matter.'

Few people actually believe what a politician says, and the more fantastic the promise, the less credibility the candidate has. It's kind of like resume-puffing. At some point in time, people catch on.

Good luck with that, O.