Obama vs. August
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, August 22, 2008; Page A17
Don't worry, Democrats, the worst of August is over.
Like baseball players, political people are superstitious. In the Democratic imagination, August is the month when Republican presidential candidates destroy their opponents with clever, underhanded attacks that meet with ineffectual responses. Democrats are petrified that if John Kerry was Swift-boated in August 2004, Barack Obama was Paris-Hiltoned this summer, and there will be no coming back....
(Y)ou don't have to be superstitious to notice that the polls have edged in John McCain's direction since June, or that Obama seemed to lose the initiative from the moment he returned from his foreign journey last month -- a trip whose triumphs were quickly undermined by McCain's cheap but apparently effective attacks. The next week will test whether an Obama campaign that has earned respect for its discipline and steadiness is also capable of adjusting quickly, responding and listening to advice. The Obama folks will hate hearing this, but in planning for the next 10 weeks, their campaign would do well to learn from what Bill Clinton achieved in 1992....
***
Over in the Philadelphia suburbs, Rep. Joe Sestak agrees that Obama needs to engage in more down-to-earth campaigning -- "a diner in the morning, a hoagie in the afternoon, a bar at night."...
"It's not so much about whether they know him," he says of his constituents and Obama. "They want to know that he knows them." In other words, empathy, the gift that Bill Clinton kept on giving, is now an Obama imperative. And some of the Democrats' policy mavens see a link between empathy as a personal attribute and the way a candidate discusses policy -- again, something Clinton understood. What Obama still lacks, they say, is a compelling narrative about how Americans who now feel economically insecure will find their way toward greater confidence. And he needs a few signature policies to drive home to voters so they can remember them, as Clinton did with health care and job training. McCain not knowing how many houses he owns should help Obama in the empathy battle....
***
Around this time last summer, the Obama campaign was being written off as a desultory failure, and the candidate was forced to reassure his donors that he knew what he was doing. There are signs -- notably during his trip through rural Virginia this week -- that Obama has been listening to his critics on the centrality of economics and the empathy imperative. At next week's convention, understanding both will be essential if Obama is to consign the August jinx to the dustbin of Democratic fears.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103107.html?nav=most_emailed 
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