Slate's (Worthless) Gabfest

A couple of weeks ago I commented that Slate's podcast called the Political Gabfest has become less useful now that the general campaign is on. In the first Podcast in August,David Plotz made the following statement, in a discussion about McCain's attacks on Obama - "If the campaign is about the issues, McCain has no chance." Slate is not alone in this logic - E.J Dionne argued that the "one contest that McCain can win is about Obama."

That kind of savvy wisdom is what makes the rest of us, who do not live in the rarified air of Washington cringe. Ultimately this race comes down to Obama and whether the American people can trust him. But part of that will come from whether they think his policy proposals make any sense. The evidence in the last couple of weeks is that as Obama becomes better known, people are beginning to have questions. The democrats have the eternal dilemma that many of their supporters have positions which are far outside of the mainstream.

For example, 60% (in a recent poll) of Americans support expansions of drilling for oil in US territory. AND, a good percentage of the American people are grumpy about high gas prices. Obama, seemed to move away from his party in the last couple of weeks about drilling, but was his move credible?

McCain's potential strength in issues can come from a couple of areas - Trade (Obama seems to be a protectionist - at least he was in the rustbelt primaries and if he is a good deal of the rest of the country will not be supportive), Immigration (while the two candidate's positions are nearly identical - McCain has taken a real leadership position on these issues - which put him at odds with the majority of republicans) Obama has done little but mouthed the party line (no evidence of leadership) and Taxes Obama seems to be oblivious on the risks of raising our rates well above other economies in the world.

There is one other underlying issue which Obama seems to be falling into - it might be called the "Tough Talk" dilemma. For a number of presidential elections, democrats have been lured into offering tough talk. Remember, Walter Mondale's tax talk, or Jimmy Carter's sweater? There is an undercurrent among some liberal policy wonks that the American voters are mislead and even stupid. The more that Obama's rhetoric leads down that path, the less likely he is to be elected. Voters don't like being compared to rubes.

This looks to be a very tough year for republican candidates - but that in no way implies that issues will not count. Plotz, and the entire Slate crew, could benefit from getting outside the beltway.