#29 It's the Math, Stupid. And the Charisma. And the Impulsiveness.

No, I'm not really calling anyone stupid. I'm just playing on James Carville's 1992 "It's the Economy, Stupid" line. And yes it is still the economy, but it's also the math. And Obama's advisors may be forgetting that ever so briefly right now.

The most recent VP rumors are that Obama's advisors are vetting retired military folk. Fine. But if they choose a retired military man (yes, I said "man"), he needs to be able to carry some specific state(s) that the Democrats need to carry to win the 270 electoral votes. Say, did I mention Jim Webb of Virginia recently? What's that? Only every other post? Oh. Okay.

Wes Clark has been mentioned. I really liked Clark four years ago, but his campaign never really got off the ground. Something about lack of charisma. Man, but the Democrats have a lot of folk without charisma. Luckily, so do the Republicans. Folk like, oh, John McCain.

Here's an article I read online:
“McCain’s speech, his “Kermit the Frog” green backdrop, even his physical appearance were fodder for scores of worried e-mails and phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday between Republican donors, operatives and lobbyists."...“'They were appalled at the environment the candidate was standing in and his performance,' said [one Republican] strategist. 'It’s a serious problem — the contrast is so clear that it’s demoralizing. And it deflated our balloon last night. When the guys on Fox are trash-talking, you know it’s bad.'”

Last evening on CNN I saw McCain delivering a prepared speech to I-don't-know-or-care-whom. He was standing behind the lectern, and began the speech looking to his right. As if on cue, he turned to the center of his audience, then as if on cue turned to the audience on his left, then back to the center, and finally back to his right. He repeated this pattern during his speech. It almost seemed as if he had a little ear microphone and someone quietly directing him: "Face right, now turn straight ahead, now to the left, now turn back to the center, now to your right."

About five seconds in each direction. Just enough to make him look like a robot. It was not charismatic.

But wait, there's more.

Another article, this one on May 29, from Michael Scherer of TIME:
"Back in Washington, the anxiety level of Republicans is rising. 'The McCain camp is now acting without much rhyme or reason,' says a prominent consultant. 'And it all goes to the top.' Another Republican campaign strategist, in a thinly veiled reference to McCain, says, 'Somebody is behaving impulsively is the point.'"

While McCain's forces try to raise the spectre of inexperience about Obama, McCain seems to have neither the charisma nor the disposition for a long-haul run for the presidency and, so far at least, Obama does. All is fluid, however, and I don't yet know what role the Evil Karl Rove will play, if any, in the McCain campaign. If the Evil Karl Rove gets involved, the center will not hold, and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. In other words, as Yeats titled it, the Second Coming is at hand. And it ain't a good second coming.

The Evil Karl Rove and Racism:
Not that the Evil Karl Rove is a racist, no, these are separate topics, but I couldn't resist the alliteration. Also, the juxtaposition of the two words is precisely the kind of damnation that the Evil Karl Rove used in 2000 against McCain in the primaries and in 2004 against Kerry in the election: innuendoes and word associations. I am concerned that the Evil Karl Rove may play a bigger role in this election than we want to see. I don't want to see the Evil Karl Rove at all. The man's an evil genius. I lay much of the blame for our suffering from dubya's poor policies with the Evil Karl Rove, just for getting him elected twice.

Separate from the Evil Karl Rove's possible entry into Republican campaign strategizing, I'm very concerned that racism may play a bigger role in this election than we yet think--quiet, underlying, implied racism. Racism may be the silent beast throughout this campaign, occasionally raising its ugliness as it did in the exit polls in Pennsylvania.

And we may not know til the votes are in. Even November's election-day exit-polls may not elicit the honesty of Pennsylvania (ugly honesty though it was), and so, until the votes are counted, we may not have a sense of the extent to which voters cast their ballots not for a candidate but against the race of one-half of one of the candidates.

As Jim Webb--still my favorite personal choice for VP, and former military man himself--said a short while ago (and I'm paraphrasing): "Why do people refer to Barack Obama as being the first African-American possibly to become president? If he's elected, why not refer to him as the fourteenth Scots-Irish to become president?"

That puts a person's race and the presidential race in their proper perspective. Thank you Senator.

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