Carefully Crafted: Obama, the Candidate
Interesting blog entry from Marc Ambinder up today on contrasting McCain's oft-mentioned penchant for making himself available to the media against the less-accesible Obama. Here's a quote:
Marc Ambinder - February 29th, 2008 Barack Obama doesn't have the warm and fuzzies for his press contingent and every casual encounter between him and them is painfully negotiated between, usually, the AP reporter and Robert Gibbs.
This strikes me as important. When a candidate seeks an inordinate amount of control over the circumstances under which they can be exposed to the public, it indicates either a lack of faith in the candidate's core, a lack of faith in their competence, or simply the belief that their reputation exceeds their reality. Campaigns that believe in their candidate through and through have less reason to restrict the way in which they make themselves available.
Combine this with the meme that Obama lacks susbstance, and it's easy to believe that his campaign thinks the idea of their candidate is a good deal better than the candidate himself.
McCain, meanwhile, is well-known for pontificating freely and answering any and all questions. The campaign rests on his ideas, and his ability to convey them.
One wonders if Obama's focus on "the people" is not just a method by which to inspire, but a means by which to remove the focus from himself. A fine line, maybe, and it may all be hopelessly Machiavellian, but it's a question worth posing.
Either way, Obama's tack is still a historically successful one. Eisenhower said that leadership is the "art of getting people to do something because they want to do it." Obama's focus on his supporters and vague concepts like "change" are the kinds of things that give people a stake in his campaign. It just so happens they might have the additional effect of delaying the time when Obama the Man has to replace Obama the Concept.
» February 29th, 2008
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