Half the time when I read one of Spengler's articles I think he's taken a good idea too far to be actually correct, but oftentimes he turns out to be right anyway. Here he argues that Barack Obama's insecurity has lost him the election.
Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain's choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain's selection was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama's prospective defeat is entirely of its own making. No one is more surprised than Republican strategists, who were convinced just weeks ago that a weakening economy ensured a Democratic victory.
Spengler attributes the decision to deny Hillary the VP slot to Michelle Obama's hatred for the former First Lady -- a hatred Barack Obama could not resist given his own insecurity and his devotion to his wife. Perhaps. And perhaps the choice of Biden will indirectly cost Obama the election. We'll have to wait and see.
But, as always, Spengler's perspective is worth reading and pondering.
Along the same lines, Obama wouldn't go on Fox News because he was afraid of "unfair" coverage.
At a secret meeting with Barack Obama three months ago, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says, he tried to clear the air with the Democratic senator by saying that his organization was determined to be fair but would not be "in the tank" for Obama's campaign.During the sit-down in a Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite in Manhattan that included Rupert Murdoch, the network's owner, Obama expressed concern about the way Fox was covering him. "I just wanted to know if I'm going to get a fair shake from Fox News Channel," Ailes recalled him saying.
"Senator, you're the one who boycotted us," Ailes says he replied. "We're not the ones who boycotted you. Nor did we retaliate for your boycott."
If Obama gets elected maybe he can carry around a giant hanky just in case Ahmadinejad or Putin is unfair to him.
(HT: Kiddington Oh! and JW.)
