Pandering So Thick You Can Drill It

Years and years ago, which is when the Democratic primary felt like it took place, Obama scored principle points for being the only one of the presidential trinity opposed to some sort of gas-tax summer holiday flim-flam, which has the distinction of being one of the only tax cuts I've ever opposed. Obama's one universally-compelling narrative is that of the Great Reformer, and this suggested a notable level of seriousness about it, like his critical speech to Big Three executives in Detroit, or McCain's repeated disavowal of farm subsidies on the trail in Iowa, which probably cost him a win when he desperately needed one.

All of which raises the question: was Obama opposed to a gasoline subsidy back in the Spring for good, fundamental reasons, or because it was good primary politics? Because it now looks like he was just keeping his powder dry for his own version of good old-fashioned gasoline-and-circuses:

“This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold in the winter, it will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills.

Oh, I'm sure his people will be full of reasons why everything-is-different-now or a-rebate-is-nothing-like-a-tax-cut or only-racists-favor-high-gas-prices. The question is whether Obama believes that concrete policy actually matters, or if he thinks that the single most important accomplishment of his presidency will be the totemic power of his election itself.

Get That Man a Drink!

When Ulysses Grant's star was beginning to rise, another general cautioned Lincoln that Grant was a drunkard, earning the reply, "well I wish Grant would send a barrel of his whiskey to every other general in the Army."

On that note, it seems like Team McCain is starting to find its groove after months of tiptoeing around Obama, Chuck Hagel-style. First the "celebrity" commercial, now this:



I don't know if Obama has a sense of humor about himself--Ford, Reagan and both Bushes certainly did, as did Bill Clinton (at least in public), and towards the end even poor Hill was starting to look a little more human. Nixon and Carter, not so much, John Kerry only haltingly so, while Algore seems like the kind of guy whose idea of humor is when you realize you put on the red tie with blue stripes instead of the blue tie with red stripes by mistake. Given that the present hour has a whiff of the 70s about it, perhaps Obama will abide.

But his response to the "celebrity" ad--to preemptively shriek "racist!" over an ad that isn't even playing that sport--suggests brittleness, and it's a concern that is substantive as well as stylistic. POTUS is a job that, done properly, entails letting a veritable Niagara Falls slide off your back. There are a host of senators, congressmen, governors, secretaries, not to mention foreign leaders, who will gladly seize on any means available to throw you off your game. Humorless, imperious gasbags tend to make bad leaders whose flaws are all too easily exploited.

Today is August 1, and we have been saying "it's still early in the campaign" for so long that it is almost reflexive, but we are now a lot closer to the beginning of the end than the end of the beginning. With 13 weeks to go, Obama has a lot of growing-up to do.

This is Your Brain on MoveOn

Barf.



Ok, so, I get that they are trying to appeal to a certain demographic, but is this demographic (DUMBO-dwelling hipsters, Nob Hill trustafarians) one which really needs appealing to? It's not like Coors advertising to 19-year-olds--if they don't Budweiser will--and if McCain gets to the point where he's picking up the stoner-pinko-bedwetter vote, then Obama is toast. No, the only logical conclusion is that this is for membership and fundraising, and candidly, I would hate to be associated politically and intellectually with these people, though I suppose that is because I am not part of the Chosen Demographic. No, I am much more content to be grouped with these people.