Strange Fixations

What can you even say to this? Thomas Friedman in the New York Times today:

This race has a long way to go. It is still Obama’s election to lose. But Obama got where he is today by defining himself as the agent of change and by defining change as the issue in this election. McCain, with Palin’s help, has once again not only made Obama’s experience an issue, but has now moved in on Obama’s strength and tried to define the G.O.P. ticket as the party of “change.”

How, you ask, can two people running with the exact same policies as the party that has been in power for eight years, claim to be the agents of “change?” That’s politics. There’s no shame. But what this has done is to make the word “change” as a campaign slogan meaningless. Obama will need to find another way to connect his ideas — clearly, crisply and passionately.

Has our political culture truly become so debased that candidates are lambasted for sticking to facts, policy proposals and the idea of competent governance? Do Americans truly only care about what they feel “in their gut”? If John McCain is wrong on virtually every issue, if he is running a substance free campaign based upon the constant repetition of lies and well known authors writing columns for the nation’s largest newspaper decide to write about how Barack Obama isn’t “connecting” with people, what, exactly, is Barack Obama supposed to do about that? What are any of us supposed to do?

Perhaps Thomas Friedman should concentrate some more on discussing why people should vote for Obama, instead of bemoaning the fact that people still like the media golden boy, the gamblin’ flyboy John McCain. Obama has to make his case through the media. I’m getting heartily sick of listening to media figures bemoan the fact that Obama isn’t making his case. Well, Obama can only make his case through the media – and if they keep on concentrating on how much more people like Sarah Palin than Barack Obama, it’s going to be awful difficult for him to do that. Perhaps Thomas Friedman should spend some more time discussing why he prefers, especially, Obama’s energy policy. Perhaps instead of writing about why he thinks the candidate he prefers is likely to lose, he should write about why he thinks that candidate should win.