Emerging negative meme on Obama
As I've been monitoring the "Who is Barack Obama" branding for the general election, I'm starting to get a little worried that early negative memes will start to stick.The Obama campaign is trying to deal with some of the concerns that were exposed during the primary with the new campaign commercial - "Country I Love," - and I think it is a pretty good.
However, all it does is really go on the defensive. I'm from Kansas. I am a Christian. I love my country. Those are easy to understand, but boring from a media coverage side of things. Not a lot talking heads can say about being from Kansas or loving your country.
But there is much to say about the attacks coming from the right and the left. After Obama opted out of public financing, McCain and surrogates hammered him for appearing to flip-flop on the issue. Certainly not that big of a deal early in summer and something to be expected from political opponents.
But it did get lots of play from the political talking heads and front pages of newspapers.
So the threat from MoveOn toward Senator Obama isn't good news. MoveOn is insisting that Obama keep his previous promise to filibuster to the FISA compromise/cave bill that just passed the House.
If Obama can't navigate this, we'll start to see the negative meme develop that Obama said one thing a year ago, but is saying something else now as the nominee. Sorta a 2004-redux.
Stay tuned to see how this plays out...
Updated: Looks like CNN is on the "flip-flopper" bandwagon now.
Later Update: The Washington Post has a story on Obama's efforts to reintroduce himself to the American public.
posted by Expat Teacher @ 10:33 PM
