With the conventions passed and the vice presidential picks announced, the campaign is now in full swing. Election Day is only 61 days away, so what do the VP choices say about the state of the campaigns?
For months now, Barack Obama has been charged with not having enough experience to step into the role of commander in chief. It is an allegation that has been leveled by former rival Hillary Clinton, current rival John McCain, and early in the primary season by then rival and now running mate Joe Biden. The allegations have received substantive media coverage as well, hanging over the campaign like a dark cloud.
Biden was touted by the Obama campaign as someone who could bring foreign relations experience to the ticket due to his tenure as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is a smart choice, and one that shows Obama's good judgment as a leader, but it is also a silent admission that Clinton, McCain and media pundits were right: Obama is inexperienced, therefore he picked someone who could balance that out.
Obama should have taken the step to shut up the "experience critics" a long time ago. He should have delivered a statement that went something like this:
"There is more to leadership than having 'experience.' Good leadership is about being able to assemble a team of people to meet the challenges we face as a nation. There have been plenty of leaders with 'experience' that have failed in their duty. George Bush had 'experience' as governor of Texas, yet he has taken our country onto a path of war and isolation, while assembling a team with the likes of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Let me tell you about my experience: my experience is that we cannot solve the problems facing our nation by following the same failed policies from term to term."
In one fell swoop, Obama could silence critics, reinforce his image as someone who is not interested in politics as usual, tap into the people's idealism, and display his leadership abilities by announcing his VP pick as being the first step in building a strong White House team.
Instead, Biden looks like an attempt to silence the critics in a way that will only put a smug grin on their faces followed by a "See, I told you so." The end result is the same, an Obama-Biden ticket, but there was an opportunity to spin the announcement in a way that highlights Obama's strengths instead of silently acknowledging his weaknesses, and that opportunity was mostly squandered.
Obama will continue to fight an uphill battle against the experience issue all the way until Election Day. Six of the last seven McCain television ads released since the Biden announcement continue the charge that Obama is unprepared to be president (the seventh being a statement of congratulations by McCain on Obama's historic nomination).
On the GOP side is the mystery candidate Sarah Palin. Commentators were quick to pick up on the fact that Palin has served as governor for only two years, and was mayor of a town of about 7,000 before that, which turned the tables on the experience issue.
The move was clearly designed to address the conundrum McCain found himself in: how to tap into disaffected Clinton voters while retaining the conservative base. Answer? Put a conservative woman on the ticket! It's a gamble, but Maverick McCain seems to enjoy gambling.
Therein lies the question of how McCain will run the White House as president. Will he shoot from the hip, taking risks, hoping to hit the target? The choice of Palin seems to be aimed more at getting people into voting booths than being the first step in assembling a strong White House team. No one is going to turn out and vote for Obama because Biden is on the ticket, but the whole point of Palin is to attract conservatives and Hillary-voting women. What does Palin really bring to the ticket, other than potential voters? It might be a smart campaign move to help get McCain into the White House, but then what?
The Obama campaign should not focus on Palin's relative lack of experience, because it will only turn into a battle of comparisons to Obama himself. Instead, they should question McCain's credibility as a leader if his judgment is to pick a running mate that will help him get votes, but not do much to help him lead.
That will be the debate over the next two months, at least as far as the vice president picks are concerned.
Let the games begin.
Be the first to comment on this article!