Obama Falls to Earth

Obama supporters are spinning his recent drop in the polls as a response to a few negative comments and ads. Whoddathoughtit? Two or three ads can puncture the Obama hot-air balloon and send the high-flying superstar hurtling back to earth with us ordinary folks.

Those spinning this tall tale usually have low opinions of the American public’s intelligence. Whenever their candidates have trouble, they blame the gullible American people. Evidently, they think that the public can be fooled easily - and inexpensively – by a few Republicans. I am flattered. According to their logic, the buckets of money Obama has thrown into the race, not to mention the Soros/moveon.org millions and media adulation are negated and reversed by a few McCain comments and a funny video comparing Barack Obama to Charlton Heston as Moses. Now THAT is an asymmetrical comment.

The reason Obama has been so evidently easy to deflate is because his campaign is based mostly on hope and hot-air. It has taken longer than anybody thought for someone to point out that the emperor has no clothes, but it is coming clearer.

Now we can have a real debate. The things Obama fans call negative campaigning is merely a reality check. They thought that their man could float above the fray all the way into the White House. It seemed to be working for them, but we cannot let that happen. Obama is just a man, after all, just a politician; he is nothing special. I am glad that Obama will have to compete as an ordinary candidate on his merits.

Obama has been skating on is lack of experience and parlayed that from a serious deficient to a positive benefit. It was a great trick. He was popular precisely because he was a good-looking outsider with little experience and so no record to judge, study or attack. Like Peter Sellers’ character in the classic “Being There”, Obama is blank screen onto which everyone can project his or her own story. But the longer the illusion lingers on the screen, the harder it becomes to sustain the pleasant fantasy. Obama may have peaked too soon. We are beginning to see the man behind the screen and he is not much to look at.

It is not negative campaigning to bring up legitimate flaws in your opponent. An accurate portrait contains light and shadow, as well as a lot of blank space. This allows people to judge. Perhaps Obama has a little too much blank space. Blank space need not be held against him, but it cannot work for him either.

The Obama campaign reminds me of a classical marketing case I studied in B-school. It explains why a particular dog food was unsuccessful despite a great beginning.

A major manufacturer wanted to get into the pet food business. They designed great packaging, with a superb ad campaign and made all the right moves to attract dog owners. It worked … at first. The product sold out and the factory geared for the big wave of demand. But it never came. Despite the fine packaging and marketing, the dogs couldn’t stomach the product and they were the ones that had to eat it.

As people get to know more about Obama, they find less to like. He says all the right things, but like the dog-food the great packaging doesn’t make up for the deficient product.

Full article: Obama Falls to Earth

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