Thursday, May 01, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

46 Percent of Americans Don't Relate To Obama's 'Background and Set of Values.'

While some are seeing an ominous cloud above the Obama campaign, I'm not so sure that the latest NBC/WSJ poll is such bad news for Obama. Between the initial Wright sermon revelations, "bitter," "cling,", the awful debate performance, the question about William Ayers, and losing Pennsylvania, he's in as rough a patch as he's had in his political career. Yet when asked about whether Obama has a "background and set of values I identify with", he's only 45 percent yes, 46 percent no. That number could be a lot worse; since the poll was taken before the latest Wright mess was digested by the public (April 25-28), perhaps it will.

Also, I wish the "background" and "set of values I identify with" questions were separate. In and of itself, it's not surprising that Americans may not identify with the background of the guy named "Barack Hussein Obama" whose father was a polygamist, who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, who went to Columbia and Harvard, who has relatives in Africa, who spent much of his early career as a community organizer, and who lives in Hyde Park. The "set of values" is a bigger question, and potentially a bigger problem for the campaign.

Meanwhile, John McCain, doing Scarborough, notes that while the Republican party is unified, it's not energized.

He just laughingly suggested that the people who oppose a holiday for the gas tax may include, "people in Georgetown who walk to work." Heh.

He also said Congress' approval rating is down to "blood relatives and paid staffers."

05/01 08:47 AMShare