Is Obama boring?
by WonkoKevin
I was watching Barack Obama on an hour-long forum sponsored by MTV in Cedar Rapids Iowa, at Coe College. My wife, who was not too anxious to watch, came into the room about 20 minutes in, listened for 2 minutes, and said “My God, he’s boring.” While running back and forth with the laundry, she also said, “Snoresville…”, and “He seems like a really intelligent and competent person, but do we want to elect Kirk or Spock?”
Having tracked all the candidates so closely, I don’t watch these things for content, but rather for style. I thought John Edwards appearance in the same medium was about the best political performance I’ve seen from Democrats this season. Last night, I found myself checking my email and falling asleep. With only a few exceptions, it was boring. Obama stumbled for the right words very often, wouldn’t answer many questions directly, and didn’t seem to connect. A question by a student whose father had been deported seemed to catch him off guard; he answered “no amnesty” but couldn’t empathize with the student. A truly talented politician could have convinced this student, despite losing her father, that “no amnesty” was the right thing to do.
A lot has been made of the Obama campaign this week, listing issues of campaign incompetence, or at least, a lack of brilliance. I’ll add another cause, and maybe the root cause: he’s boring. The talk of a “new way” is intriguing, but it’s hard to sell when your policies don’t seem that different from competitors. He’s not the policy wonk that Clinton is (could he talk for an hour on science policy and fulfill each micro-niche desire?); he’s doesn’t outwardly have Edwards passion; he’s lacking the senatorial experience that Dodd and Edwards have; and he’s not far enough left to appeal to that portion of the base, who usually call him a hawk.
He does have the money though, he’s still got enough time, and under the rhetoric he can present true differences. Al Gore had to lose an election to re-invent himself. Obama supporters hope it can happen before that.
