BARACK OBAMA' CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

BARACK OBAMA'S CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

Kenneth Hacker

September 20, 2008


Many campaign experts believe that this is Obama's election to lose. He has the momentum against the incumbent party on his side and he has an old man with old ideas carrying along an unknown with nutty discourse as his opposition. Still, he is gasping for air in the polls. The reason is a credibility issue that is essentially a failure to yet make most American voters comfortable with him as the chief executive (which includes being commander-in-chief) and getting rid of high-risk perceptions that some voters have of him.

Two Republican consultants who openly note this problem are Dick Morris (dickmorris.com) and Karl Rove (rove.com). Both correctly note that Obama should have been able to start closing the sale by now and can only do so by Election Day by dealing with the Obama Factor and forgetting the Palin Factor.

Like Ronald Reagan running in 1980, voters are seeking change from a man they respect as honorable but not quite up to the job (Carter, McCain). The consultants for Reagan made it clear that he would have to make himself more comfortable for those voters who saw him as dangerous. Perceptions can be changed and they were in the 1980 campaign.