Starting Gate: Almost Famous?
He's appeared on "Monday Night Football" and "Saturday Night Live," been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey and has raised over $80 million for his presidential campaign. Yet, his campaign insisted yesterday that Obama remains a mystery to many voters. "There is no doubt that we have a knowledge gap between us and Edwards and Clinton in most of the country. People may know Sen. Obama's name, but they don't know much beneath that," said Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe in a conference call with reporters.
Obama himself made the observation on a television appearance Sunday, arguing that states like Iowa and New Hampshire are important to his campaign. "The early states are critical to us because, you know, I am not as well-known as Senator Clinton and some of the other candidates in this race," Obama said. "And my biography is not known, what I stand for is not known as well."
The campaign may have a point and it's a dynamic which could be both a benefit and a hazard for Obama's quest to win the nomination. As a newcomer onto the national scene, Obama has reached celebrity status due to his youth, rhetoric that echoes national leaders of the past and the fact that he is the first African American who is perceived as a serious contender for the White House.
But every time he grooves with Ellen DeGeneres or is the subject of another "I've Got a Crush on Obama" viral video, it builds his celebrity profile at the expense of his policy portfolio. Voters may know that Oprah likes him but not much about where he stands on the issues. As Obama tries to distinguish himself from Hillary Clinton, he celebrity could get in the way and it's something the campaign appears eager to alter.
Reformer With Risks: For John McCain, the ongoing flap over independent expenditure advertising is a double whammy. On one level, it makes the Arizona Senator look hypocritical for receiving this kind of help after leading the charge on campaign finance reform – the success of which has opened the floodgates for such advertising. On another level, it once again reminds GOP primary voters of his role in that reform, something that has angered party activists.
It's no wonder McCain yesterday forcefully called for the ads, being run in part by a political ally, to cease. "Anyone who believes they could assist my campaign by exploiting a loophole in campaign finance laws is doing me and our country a disservice," McCain said. "I ask all of my donors and supporters … to cease and desist immediately from supporting any independent expenditures that might be construed as benefiting my campaign indirectly. If you respect me or my principles, I urge you to refrain from using my name and image in any ads or other activities."
And, it's no wonder why the McCain camp would be sensitive to criticism from other campaigns. Mitt Romney questioned the practice, saying, "it is an entire end-run on any effort to control campaign spending and offer transparency," a comment McCain adviser Mark Salter did not take lightly. Noting that Romney has spent millions of his own fortune on his campaign, and claiming that the former governor once supported campaign finance reform, Salter said in a statement: "Mitt Romney once promised not to self-fund his campaign, and ever since has been busy robbing his kids' inheritance to do just that. If hypocrisy were an Olympic sport, Mitt Romney would be a multiple gold medal winner."
Boys Will Be Boys: The gender issue continues to roll through the political psyche, thanks to the latest comments from former President Bill Clinton. Speaking to students at Trident Technical College in South Carolina, Clinton said his wife is handling the criticism she's getting from the rest of the field just fine. "Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it," he said.
Clinton's comments are sure to raise more eyebrows and spur more conversation over whether the New York Senator's campaign is attempting to play the "gender card" in the campaign and elicit sympathy for the only woman in the race. Clinton's campaign has pushed back at that suggestion and yesterday told the New York Times that Bill Clinton's "boys" remark reflected his Southern roots, not an effort to bring gender into the mix.
Around The Track