WILL BARACK CLOSE THE DEAL OR NOT?

WILL BARACK OBAMA CLOSE THE DEAL OR NOT?

Kenneth Hacker

October 29, 2008

There is less than one week left. The Obama campaign needs to close the deal now or risk some form of October surprise leading to a McCain upset on election day next week.

McCain is like the Energizer Bunny; he will not stop running. His supported are charged by the claims that an Obama presidency could bring socialism or even the Anti-Christ to the White House. Dick Morris and Karl Rove correctly note that Obama is not far enough outside of the polling margins of error to be confident of a definite win.

There are obstacles that can diminish the winning margins for Obama we see in the polls. These include voter fraud, voter intimidation, voting machine and softward tampering, a possible Bradley Effect, expected lower voter turnout for young voters, and challenge regarding taxes and wealth redistribution that begin to move up Obama's negatives or at least doubts about him.

Obama is doing fine on candidate images traits but still need to find the tipping points that close the deal with voters. He must neutralize all doubts that voters have about him and generate new doubts about McCain and Palin. There is a tendency for even Republicans to vote for McCain because of Palin's incompetence and frightening closeness to assuming high office. Joe Biden should be given a strict set of talk points that rip into Palin. He is no longer in the debate with her and he does not have to be nice. He needs to point out the lies she tells about her record in Alaska, the nutty church she attends, the insane comments she makes about foreign policy and religion, etc. etc.

While Biden axes the other team, Obama needs to clarify that he is not socialist. Republican communication director for Ronald Reagan, David Gergen should write the Obama text for the next few days. Just yesterday, Gergen took fellow Republicans to task to allowing McCain to call Obama a socialist. He noted that Republican president Teddy Roosevelt, McCain's favorit president, was a proponent of the progressive tax -- where the wealthy pay larger percentages of their income than the middle and working classes. He also noted that the proposal for earned income tax credits, which help "spread the wealth around," came from Ronald Reagan.

So much to say and so little time to say it. Use it or lose it. Say it or go back to Illinois.