What a difference a week can make. Last Friday, we were discussing the Obama acceptance speech and the media was touting a unified Democrat party. Then McCain made his move, selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. The selection has sent a shock wave across America, and the GOP has seized momentum. Meanwhile, Democrats and the MSM are worried. They may say otherwise, but let’s look at the evidence.
First, while the mainstream media did its best to ignore the cover up of Obama’s relationship with William Ayers exposed by Stanley Kurtz (here and here), they have launched into full attack mode against the life and family of Sarah Palin. The plan is backfiring, as a Rasmussen poll is showing Palin is more popular than both McCain and Obama, and another shows a majority of Americans recognizing the media’s attempt to smear Palin (many Democrats are in denial, as only 28% agree). Meanwhile, the race is basically dead even.
On the campaign trail, Obama is reeling to assure voters that he isn’t who the right says he is, and is desperately trying to earn the trust of voters. Friday, he stepped in it while trying to assure Pennsylvania voters he won’t take their guns away:
Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress. This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.
So if Obama had the votes in Congress, he still wouldn’t take your guns away? You be the judge. He also sounds like he’s begging, trying to convince voters that gun control cannot be their primary voting issue. In the meantime, Obama has called upon female Democrats like Hillary and Kathleen Sebelius to counter Sarah Palin’s appeal to women. Then there is the community organizer faux-debate.
Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani both highlighted Barack Obama’s inexperience during their convention speeches. From Giuliani’s address:
On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer, and immersed himself in Chicago machine politics. Then he ran for the state legislature – where nearly 130 times he was unable to make a decision yes or no. He simply voted “present….”
A few years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate. He won and has spent most of his time as a “celebrity senator.” No leadership or major legislation to speak of. His rise is remarkable in its own right – it’s the kind of thing that could happen only in America. But he’s never run a city, never run a state, never run a business.
He’s never had to lead people in crisis.
This is not a personal attack….it’s a statement of fact – Barack Obama has never led anything.
Palin took it a step further, mocking Obama’s insistence that his experience as a community organizer in Chicago qualifies him to be president:
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.
Michelle Malkin has chronicled Obama’s work as a community organizer, and she recently summed up why it is laughable that anyone would pretend that community organizing requires the kind of leadership needed to be president.
In response to Republicans laughing at Obama’s inexperience, the Obama campaign panicked. Campaign Manager David Plouffe felt compelled to issue an email in the middle of the night, after Palin’s speech concluded. Plouffe attempted to defend community organizing by issuing talking points like this one: “Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.” Plouffe should explain why Obama would join and become one of the out-of-touch politicians whose failed policies must have driven Obama to be a community organizer in the first place, assuming Plouffe’s statement is true. Plouffe then proceeded to ask for a donation in the email. The fact that Obama’s campaign manager was having trouble sleeping and had to ask for money after Palin’s speech indicates that Team Obama is worried.
The Democrats and the MSM are also concerned by the Nielson ratings that show that the Republican convention had the most viewers of any convention ever on television, McCain’s ratings matched Obama’s, and Palin received better ratings than Hillary. This only proves that the Obama speech, while impressive, was effectively countered by McCain’s addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket. While Democrats are downplaying the significance of the ratings, claiming many people watched who aren’t voting Republican, one has to ask why they’d be interested in an opponent that they are so certain they’ll defeat. Believe me, they are worried.
With the speech of a lifetime matched, the glorified Democrat convention outdone, Obama dispatching Hillary in desperation to hang onto female voters, Obama’s campaign losing sleep trying to convince voters that community organizing is relevant, the media questioning whether Obama should have taken Hillary (and polls reflecting similar sentiment), and Obama pleading to voters to not reject him because they don’t trust him on issues like gun control, it’s apparent that the Democrats and the media are in disarray. The man that Nancy Pelosi believes was chosen by God to represent the nation is in trouble, and the Democrats know it.
