Soccer Dad

The perfect stranger (krauthammer)

Charles Krauthammer calls Sen. Obama The Perfect Stranger. (also here) To Krauthammer (and to me too) Sen. Obama has failed to make the case of his fitness to lead the nation because he hasn't shown how his past experience has, in any way, prepared him to become the most powerful man on earth.

Eerily missing at the Democratic convention this year were people of stature who were seriously involved at some point in Obama's life standing up to say: I know Barack Obama. I've been with Barack Obama. We've toiled/endured together. You can trust him. I do.

So then Sen. Obama is running on two things: 1) unhappiness with the Bush administration and Republicans generally and 2) his considerable speaking skills.

Krauthammer at the end of the article points to why Sen. Obama is limited in his ability to get others to vouch for him.

So where are the colleagues? The buddies? The political or spiritual soul mates? His most important spiritual adviser and mentor was Jeremiah Wright. But he's out. Then there's William Ayers, with whom he served on a board. He's out. Where are the others?

The oddity of this convention is that its central figure is the ultimate self-made man, a dazzling mysterious Gatsby. The palpable apprehension is that the anointed is a stranger -- a deeply engaging, elegant, brilliant stranger with whom the Democrats had a torrid affair. Having slowly woken up, they see the ring and wonder who exactly they married last night.

It's hard to complain that Sen. McCain has shown poor judgment when you've attended Rev. Wright's church for twenty years and not noticing anything amiss until he becomes a political liability.

This is why the McCain "celebrity" approach has worked. It has emphasized Sen. Obama's biggest weakness: his lack of experience.

Still I wonder if Krauthammer's correct that Democrats wonder who they "married" last night. If Sen. Obama can use his considerable powers of persuasion to keep the campaign focused on unhappiness with the Republican, he will win the election. I think that Democrats believe, he's the candidate who can do just that.