Obama's rope-a-dope

As more than a casual observer of modern-day politics, I have been appreciating Obama'a political gifts. Win or lose this race, and I think it is his to win, he has demonstrated that he is a brilliant politician. It is the type of brilliance, though, that does not blind you. Obama is easy to underestimate...he is understated, he is positive, he is wry.

Obama watched the republicans disassemble the Kerry/Edwards ticket in '04. McCain has most of the '04 republican crew on his staff, so the strategy is fairly easy to predict. This group is attacking Obama on his strength (popularity, ability to draw large crowds, excellent speaking ability) and are hoping that they can get under Obama's skin and make him seem angry. Thus far, Obama has been cool (sometimes too much so) and more recently has turned to a little mockery to strike back. This seems to be a better counter for Obama - as he appears to be having some fun with McCain, which should irritate McCain all the more.

Kerry picked Edwards sometime in June in '04 giving the repubs much time to focus on the ticket. This year, Obama has kept the repubs (and the media) guessing - as each day goes by, the republicans lose another day to gather information and formulate attacks on the ticket. And while this is all happening, the focus remains Obama vs McCain, young vs age, new vs old, change vs same. I think Obama wins in these mini-battles.

Similar to his battle with Clinton, Obama is absorbing all the attacks by McCain. He is dodging and weaving, allowing McCain to lob all he has at him. As long as McCain fails to connect, and he hasn't, Obama is content to keep his campaign on the high road and control the message. McCain must be completely irritated at not being able to get his message out. Obama speaks, and everyone listens; McCain speaks and everyone yawns.

Obama is using the Olympics to cast a very positive image of himself. His latest ad doesn't even mention McCain. As Obama introduces himself to more of the public, what they are seeing simply doesn't jive with McCain's attacks.

I see more of this going through Labor Day, with the possibility of McCain going more negative. Clinton made many of the same mistakes that McCain is making. Too negative, too much focus on her opponent, not enough focus on local issues and the GOTV efforts.

Having watched the republicans destroy many good democrats over the years, I must admit that there are times when I want BO to strike back harder. But I look at what he has accomplished - and chiefly among those accomplishments is beating the premier brand in Democratic politics in the past 40 years, and becoming the first African-American nominee for President of the US. He has surrounded himself with big thinkers and intelligent people. Sure, they're going to make gaffes, but so far they have limited the damage.

I think they deserve the right to run the campaign as they deem without second guessing - at least not from my section in the bleachers.