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Timid Obama in serious trouble

Many Democrats are upset with Obama for not fighting back. Americans do not like a wuss or a sissy. If attacked, they expect a man to fight back. If the monster Grendel attacks Beowulf, they expect Beowulf to shred Grendel to pieces! To their dismay, Obama seems incapable of doing that. And the hour is getting late.

Fakhruddin Ahmed
IF things do not change drastically for the Democrats soon, American voters will engender the most colossal upset in the history of US presidential elections, by electing Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama. There has been a ten-point swing in the fortune of the Republican candidate John McCain ever since he picked Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska three weeks ago. Obama used to lead McCain by 3 to 5 points in national polls. All the recent polls show McCain ahead by 3 to 5 points
Pundits call it the "Sarah Palin'
effect The young, pretty, mother of five with views more right-wing than McCain's, has touched a chord with women and independents in general and the Republican base in particular. Whereas a McCain rally used to draw 200 to 300 people, these days with Palin by his side, they attract 30,000 people and require ou t door arenas.
Just as Hillary Clinton did not know how to deal with the "Obama phenomenon" in the early stages of the Democratic primary, the Obama campaign does not know how to deal with the Palin tsunami that has hit them! McCain is so energised now that he exudes more enthusiasm, talks much louder, and lies more vigorously about Obama!
Except for her youth and beauty, experts are at a loss to explain why Americans have accorded instant mega-superstar celebrity to this
unknown governor of a frontier state. It is certainly not her experience, national security, or foreign policy acumen. Granted, the Evangelicals are glad to have a true blue religious conservative, (Palin said that America's invasion of Iraq is divinely sanctioned), but what about the rest of the country? Why have they gone berserk?
One possible explanation is that many voters, not excited by the 72-year old, mumbling John McCain, were looking for an excuse to vote for him.Thcyoung, vivacious, and articu -late Sarah Palin provided them with the excuse, or the cover. Theycannow say to themselves and their friends that they are not voting for Obiima not because he is black, but because Sarah Palin "changeseverything."
How Sarah Palin "changes everything" is not up for debate. A white candidate's credentials are never questioned. Sarah Palin has visited just one foreign country, yet her ability to be the commander-in-chief and run the nation's foreign policy are not even issues. The Republicans are making everything about Barack Obama an issue.
Barack Obama himself is in part guilty for his predicament. His fundamental mistake was not picking Hillary Clinton as his running mate; something the writer advocated in this column two months ago. That would have completely neutralized Sarah Palin and energized women to vote Democratic. Now every commentator is saying that Obama should have picked Hillary.
A young man of 47, Obama has a penchant for taking too many vaca-tions. When Russia attacked Georgia in August, Obama was vacationing in Hawaii. It appeared that his whole campaign was also on vacation. McCain seized the moment and attacked Obama ferociously, effectively defining him as weak on foreign policy affairs and
national security matters.
Democrats do not learn from their mistakes. August is the month the Republicans have used to demonize their Democratic opponents. The racist Willie Horton ads were aired by the senior Bush campaign against Michael Dukakis in August 1988, without any response from Dukakis. The "swift boat vets for truth" ads, slandering John Kerry's Vietnam record, was run by Republicans in August 2004, without any response by the Kerry campaign. Obama, in August 2008 remained silent as the Republicans ads bombarded the TV screens, websites and blogs with anti-Obamaads.
The only Democrat to successfully counterattack the Republican smear machine in 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton, is the only one to defeat the Republicans. Obama met Bill Clinton on Thursday, September 11, in Harlem, to seek his advice.
Republicans do not let the truth stand in their way. Obama supported a widely applauded bill in the Illinois Senate to provide an "age and developmentally appropriate” sex education and to teach kindergarteners the dangers of sexual
predators. The McCain campaign ran an ad on the bill saying: "Barack Obama, would like to teach children sex before they can read." The New York Times editorial called the ad "false. ” The ad also carried a subliminal message that resonates well with many racist whites: a black man is obsessed with sex!
Four times in the last year, most recently in May 2008, John McCain referred to Hillary Clinton's health care plan on camera as "lipstick on a pig." When Obama referred to McCain's plans as "lipstick on a pig," McCain cried foul, accused Obama of calling Sarah Palin a pig, and demanded an apology!
When reporters pointed out that McCain himself had used the same phrase to ridicule Hillary Clinton's health care plan, McCain ignored the reminder and remained accusatory: "Obama should not have said it," he said Laughably, McCain a Bush clone, is now attempting to snatch the mantle of "change" from Obama!
The problem with Obama is that he is too cerebral, when Americans vote with their gut. Obama does not seem to connect with Americans on a gut level, like Hillary so success-
fully did during the later part of the Democratic primary. Obama is too professorial in his convoluted explanations, when Americans crave for simple one-liners.
That is where Republicans excel. Their messages are short and direct, and, more often than not, lies: "Obama will raise your taxes." (lie) "Obama is the most liberal senator" (lie). "Obama wants to teach children sex before they can read" (lie).
The other day I heard Obama say. "The American people are too intelligent to accept such misrepresentations."
"No they are nod" 1 shouted. Many Americans believe what they are told. They do not make independent judgments. This false assessment of the intelligence of the American voters doomed Dukakis and Kerry. The Republican assessment is that Americans are dumb and will believe anything they are told.
When Hillary Clinton said in March that Obama cannot win, she meant that he would not be able to stand up to the Republican attack dogs. That was an astute observation. Instinctively, Obama, like Dukakis and Kerry, is a nice person.
He does not like to attack opponents. The Republican candidates, senior Bush, junior Bush, and McCain are downright mean. They haw no qualms about shredding their opponents to pieces.
Obama and his campaign need a complete character transformation. If Obama and his campaign want to play nice, they will lose big time. Just as senior Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater boasted in 1988 that he had managed to make the election about tactics rather than issues, the McCain campaign has succeed in making the 2008 election not about issues but about person-alities: Who do you like? Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin? For them, it is a rhetorical question.
Many Democrats are upset with Obama for not fighting back. Americans do not like a wuss or a sissy. If attacked, they expect a man to fight back. If the monster Grendel attacks Beowulf, they expect Beowulf to shred Grendel to pieces! To their dismay, Obama seems incapable of doing that. And the hour is getting late.
Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed is a Rhodes Scholar and Da>ly Star coiumnrst