Barrel Strength

All of the spin on geographical balance and supposed blue-collar appeal cannot explain away the fact that Barack Obama panicked over the foreign policy attacks of the McCain campaign and conceded them by selecting Joe Biden as his running mate.

Consider the contrasts between the Democrats’ playbooks for 1988 and 1992. The Michael Dukakis campaign pitched their man as the architect of the so-called “Massachusetts Miracle” and the successful son of immigrants, yet they went with an old party warhorse to reassure the party base in light of Dukakis’ obvious lack of depth in foreign policy. But in securing an insurgent victory over the liberal party establishment for the radical centrists of the Democratic Leadership Council, Bill Clinton felt sufficiently comfortable to take onboard a contemporary colleague and brand his ticket as a team for youthful change. The Clinton/Gore partnership marked a watershed in American politics, as they became plausible standardbearers for generational change in Washington and defeated an incumbent with sterling foreign policy credentials but a lacklustre domestic record.

So one wonders why Obama’s strategy wizard David Axelrod has squandered a similar opportunity to seize the messaging high ground. Instead of proclaiming that Obama has a winning partner for “change we can believe in”, the choice of Joe Biden is a sop to the “nervous nellies” that with Dad in the co-pilot’s seat, they can relax knowing that the new kid is under adult supervision.

The Obama campaign still has in its favour a considerable margin in GOTV (Get Out the Vote). They can rely upon a much larger base of volunteers and a more motivated core group of voters, sobering facts to consider when interpreting polling results that show Obama either neck-and-neck or running slightly behind McCain.

Nonetheless, this ticket adds little to those strengths for the coming ground war. The Clinton/Gore ticket consolidated the Democrat campaign brand in 1992, while all that remains notable of Dukakis/Bentsen in 1988 is the memorable “No Jack Kennedy” shot at Dan Quayle… who shortly thereafter become Vice President Quayle.

Sometimes you gotta love it when a plan doesn’t come together.