Underestimating

Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 23rd, 2008 4:35 am by HL

I suspect the McCain campaign really believes Sen. Barack Obama is an inexperienced empty suit who is only good in front of a teleprompter. It’s the only explanation for their foolish strategy.

As said here before, making “experience” your main theme is a proven loser in presidential campaigns. Voters ultimately care more about where a candidate will take the country than the length of the candidate’s resume.

But the McCain campaign made an extra error: believing the conservative hype that Obama is hollow.

The McCain campaign tried to mock Obama for not knowing anything about foreign policy by offering to have McCain lead him around Iraq.

Obama essentially called the bluff: arranging a high-stakes multi-country trip, where he can hold court on foreign policy, display his knowledge and provide assurance to undecided voters that he can command the world stage.

It’s much harder to make the charge stick that a candidate is in over his head when you just saw him navigate the currents.

Now the trip isn’t over yet, and the visits to Israel and Palestine will be the trickiest visits of all. A high-profile mistake by Obama (and even the best politicians can make a mistake in those treacherous political waters) would justify the McCain approach.

But the McCain campaign effectively ceded control of the argument to Obama. They didn’t respect his skills and believed he would fumble.

Not smart.

Such is the risk of underestimating your opponent. You presume he can’t handle a challenge, you sit back believing he will fail, and he ends up showing you up.

If they were paying closer attention during the primary season, objectively assessed their rival, they wouldn’t have levied such an attack.

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