When both look like losers
- From: jose <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:20:30 -0700 (PDT)
When both look like losers
Wesley Pruden (Contact)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What happens if it turns out that we've nominated two unelectable
candidates for president? Do we get our money back?
This illustration provided by The New Yorker magazine, the cover of
the July 21, 2008 issue by artist Barry Blitt, shows Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim and his wife
as a terrorist. The magazine says the cover is meant to satirize the
use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election
to derail Obamas campaign, but Obama's campaign called it "tasteless
and offensive." (AP Photo/New Yorker)
Logic, common sense and the Constitution insist that either Barack
Obama or John McCain must be elected Nov. 4. Right now it's difficult
to see how. This could be the big break for Ralph Nader and Bob Barr.
Together they could break 1 percent.
The senator from the South Side of Chicago is too grassy green, the
man from the Hanoi Hilton is too old. Mr. Obama continues to
demonstrate that lean and lithe or not, he may not be ready for prime-
time politics. Mr. McCain looks like he may be past his prime. He
delights mostly in needling Republicans, and mavericks are clever only
the first time. Mr. Obama threatens to desert whoever brung him to the
dance, giving conflicting hints as to who he intends to go home with.
The late, great Casey Stengel's plaintive benediction on the New York
Mets in their inaugural season applies on any given day to both
candidates: "Can't anybody here play this game?"
Mr. McCain gained considerable ground in the public-opinion polls over
the past fortnight, with Rasmussen (the current hot pollster),
Newsweek and Gallup all saying the race is a dead heat. Allowing for
"the Bradley effect," that more people will say they're voting for a
black man than actually will, Mr. McCain may be ahead by a point or
two. A poll in mid-July is hardly worth a nubbin, except to show that
events and familiarity have steadily nibbled away at the rock star's
once-formidable persona. "Yes we can" has become "maybe we won't." Mr.
McCain's great white hope lies in the ancient folk wisdom that most
people vote against, not for, and Mr. Obama's inexperience would give
Mr. McCain the edge, just. We probably have to get used to the idea
that we're permanently polarized.
The McCain campaign put out a list last Tuesday of 17 examples of
Obama flip-flops, ranging from a flip on the immediate withdrawal of
troops from Iraq (once demanding it, but not now) to flops on public
financing of presidential campaigns, presidential debates, taxes,
welfare reform, nuclear power, monitoring of electronic
communications, the death penalty, guns, gay "nuptials" and diplomatic
relations with Cuba. It's an impressive list. But all politicians flip
and flop, dating from the early days of the republic when a right
honorable gentleman could be for hanging horse thieves in one town and
prescribe Christian mercy down the railroad line, and get away with
it. The invention of the telegraph ruined that.
But Mr. Obama's trouble is more fundamental. He's becoming familiar,
aging like a French cheese left out overnight, or a groupie who
insists on staying around the morning after. Most voters, similar to
the man who's been to both Natchez and Mobile, have seen too many big
towns and heard too much big talk to be easily taken in. Body-slamming
in the mosh pit is said to be fun, but eventually everybody tires of
the act on stage and wants to climb out of the pit and go home.
Since he won't reveal who he is, or was, this enables everyone to
define Mr. Obama for himself. The cover of the New Yorker magazine
this week depicts the Obamas as a mullah-like figure and his moll
(Michelle with an AK-47), and the scorched remnants of an American
flag in the fireplace. The editors of the magazine insist it's satire
aimed at the hayseeds who actually believe the discredited rumors, and
satire it no doubt is. But the Obama campaign said it "'taint funny,
McGee." The senator could see this cover becoming an icon, reproduced
in the millions by Election Day. Sophistication on the Upper East Side
runs only to wine, cheese and the occasional beansprout.
Soon Mr. Obama is off to Berlin in pursuit of a Leni Riefenstahl to
duplicate spectacle when he stands before the Brandenburg Gate. He
will reprise John F. Kennedy's Cold War promise to West Germany that
"Ich bin ein Berliner" - "I am a Berliner." Since some polls show that
72 per cent of Germans are itching to vote for Mr. Obama, he'll get
his photo-op. But a Berliner is also a jelly doughnut, like a
Frankfurter is also a hot dog. If the Obama speech is a dud, he could
sell the videotape to Krispy Kreme. He's a man with perfect pitch.
c Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Times.
.
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