Obama the Chameleon

By Chris

Over the past several weeks, the McCain campaign has been working hard to attempt to locate the weakness in Barack Obama’s seamless teflon packaging.  Through various sources, McCain and his surrogates have pointed out Obama’s inexperience, his liberalism, his elitism, his verbal gaffes, and his flip-flops on a variety of policy positions.  To date, none of these lines of attack has proved effective. 

Indeed, should the McCain campaign continue this multi-pronged approach to chipping away at Obama’s armor, I suspect that it will be a very long and frustrating summer for Team McCain.  But there is another way.

In the process of reading his New York Times-bestselling book “The Audacity of Hope,” I have come to realize that Obama’s approach, and his appeal, are really quite simple.  While Obama certainly begins with a natural talent for public speaking, that’s not all there is to it.  Rather, Obama makes a concerted effort to identify himself with his audience, no matter who they are.

Obama’s strategy is to make himself seem accessible to his audience by giving them something they can agree with.  He complements them, he gives recognition to ideas he fundamentally disagrees with, and then he soft-pedals his own views with vague and inoffensive language.  As a result, one finds that pinning Barack Obama to any particular policy position is a bit like pinning Jello to the wall.

Truthfully, all politicians play this game to some extent, it is simply that Barack Obama has turned it into an art form, and looks ready to ride it straight into the White House.  Unfortunately, the McCain campaign has thus far failed to focus on the most concerning thing about a potential Obama presidency, that if elected he will have won by promising everything to everyone and will be fundamentally unable to deliver on any of it.

It should be obvious by now that the “Flip-Flop” attack on Obama is worthless.  The effectiveness of that tactic against John Kerry has made Obama immune to it, as it is now perceived as a partisan attack against a post-partisan candidate.   Further, Obama is much better at finessing his positions than Kerry was.

The only way to defeat Obama is by tying all of his minor flaws and foibles into a coherent theme that will resonate with the American voter.  It is not to distort Obama’s record or turn him into a caricature, but rather to reveal him for what he truly is: a political chameleon of the highest order. 

It is not that Obama changes his positions, but rather that he paints them in such different colors, depending upon who he is speaking to, that no one can discern what the true color is, not even those who support him.  In other words, it is not that we can say with certainty that what President Obama will deliver is bad, but rather that we have no idea what he will deliver. 

And in a world of political, economic and strategic uncertainty, an uncertain Presidency is the last thing we can afford.