PICAYUNE —
Politics. At times, we all get tired of politics.
Politicians, partisanship and spin. Even pundits like myself can get tired of defending the indefensible and making sense of the nonsensical. And “jabberwocky” has more truth than most talking points.
I get annoyed with the media preference for melodrama, especially when it turns otherwise rational people into Chicken Little panic-bots.
After a less-than-stellar debate performance, some Democrats decided they must be desperate. But being frustrated with President Obama follows the media’s playbook, which is part of Mitt Romney’s game plan. But, to continue the analogy, the Democrats have a superior, agile quarterback and a much better game plan.
Polls repeatedly demonstrate that Democrats at all levels strongly support the president. Yet after Obama’s debate fumble, a handful of progressive bloggers began crying, “The sky is falling!” This is exactly the same refrain Romney heard from the majority of Republican professionals for weeks. Ann Romney felt compelled to make a public plea: “Stop. This is hard.” Peggy Noonan, a Republican columnist for The Wall Street Journal, called Romney’s campaign “a rolling calamity” just six days before the debate.
It’s a rare game without a turnover. And campaigns often require course corrections.
The Romney campaign went through the political equivalent of a fumbling turnover a week ago. It will do so again. And Obama has been through this before. Remember August 2008? Democratic professionals were thrashing Obama for not hitting the McCain campaign hard enough. Obama agreed, and came out swinging.
Not surprisingly, the elite media fell for Romney’s latest spin — that his 2-point rise in the polls is earth-shaking. I say “not surprisingly” because reporters have unabashedly allowed themselves to be manipulated by Romney’s strategists. As Politico columnist Roger Simon wrote: “When Barack Obama was up by 4 percentage points in the polls, the media said the race was a dead heat ... Now that Obama is down by 4 percentage points in the polls, the media say he is dead meat.”
No one plays the political game without sustaining injuries, (though most are self-inflicted — ask Romney and Biden). Every so-called gaffe makes headlines and candidates’ words are taken out of context and used to fit an existing narrative.
Obama is a competitor who came out of the cauldron of Chicago politics. News professionals and opponents who gloss over his Chicago toughness grossly underestimate him.
The polls show this race remains highly volatile. It can change on a dime. The real news story after the first debate is that the race remains within polling error — a dead heat. Obama’s slip was only that: a slip — not a fall.
Internal polls show that Obama has not lost supporters to Romney. The debate did cause some independents to take a second look at Romney; they’re still wary of him, though, and still not quite ready to pull the lever for either candidate.
The National Journal quoted Obama’s Ohio statewide chairman, state Sen. Eric Kearney, that Obama’s post-debate handling “(has) been a healthy exercise in how to regain enthusiasm and momentum. There is now a renewed spirit to pull the oar.” Kearney added, “The question I hear everywhere is ‘What more can we do?’”
After the debate, volunteers flooded headquarters across Ohio in greater numbers than before. The “It’s in the bag” mentality vanished, and people began to feel as needed as they did in 2008.
A handful of liberal dissidents want Obama to focus on Romney’s dishonesty. But remember what happened during the GOP primary, especially in Florida. Newt Gingrich grew increasingly frustrated with the onslaught of negative ads sponsored by Romney’s super PAC allies. He even called media attention to Romney’s campaign character, using the word “liar” on CBS and CNN. The media shrugged. Rick Santorum, a devoutly religious man, held a news conference to say Romney was “lying to the American people” about his Massachusetts health care plan. Santorum got nowhere with the truth. The media didn’t follow up. Nailing Romney on his fabrications is like nailing Jell-O to the wall.
President Obama has to do two things to regain momentum: First, he needs to get tough with Romney on his many distortions of Obama’s record, press Romney on his flip-flopping and pin him down on specifics. The list of issues where Romney has planted his feet firmly on both sides of the fence is overwhelming. Romney has engaged in so many twists and turns, he could attend a Halloween party dressed as a corkscrew.
But President Obama must also talk to the American people, explaining how the next four years will be different. What now? The good news is more Americans perceive the president as honest and trustworthy.
Can we give President Obama a little time to exhale? Obama, be yourself. Give your innate optimism and idealism full reign.
Opinion
President needs to up his game to win
- Opinion
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Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
Attorney General Jim Hood’s office issued an opinion this week that went a long way toward establishing some order and applying some common sense to what has become a contentious and confusing debate both for proponents and opponents of free exercise of the Second Amendment.
House Bill 2, which becomes law July 1, was authored and led to passage by state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton. Gipson has told the press that he believed the legislation was necessary to clearly define what a concealed weapon is under the law and to distinguish between “concealed carry” and “open carry” rights. But many law enforcement officers charged with enforcing the state’s “concealed carry” law and other contradictory statutes, the bill created some confusion and Hood’s AG opinion brought some clarity to the ongoing debate. -
Analysis: Miss. supes discussing county budgets
Mississippi supervisors gather on the Gulf Coast this week to talk about roads and bridges, economic development, water resources and other issues.
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The Loss of Trust
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this administration’s contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.
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Mary Dorsa Guttry
Mass of Christian Burial for Mary Dorsa Guttry, 90, of Carriere, Miss., who passed away Friday, June 14, 2013, will be held Wednesday, June 19, 2013, at 2 p.m. at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.
Visitation will be Wednesday, June 19, 2013 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at McDonald Funeral Home.
Burial will be in New Palestine Cemetery under the direction of McDonald Funeral Home. -
We all need to be prepared for disasters
When my father was alive, he left New Orleans only two times in his life. The first was to serve his country in Korea. The second was when the federal government evacuated him to San Antonio in 2005.
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How much spying needed for security?
Ever since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have vacillated between their desire for safety and their desire for privacy.
The federal government, whose spying on its own citizens has been further exposed this past week, says Americans can’t have it both ways. -
State lags in early child ed
The bad news is that Mississippi remains the only state in the South without a state-funded early children education program. Only eight states nationwide do not invest in some form of early childhood education and only 11 states don’t have a state-funded pre-kindergarten program.
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A hard rain is gonna fall...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez/Syndicated columnist
After disappearing during his term in office and bringing scandal to his family and state, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is going to Washington, having won election to Congress. And that’s far from the worst story reflecting the current character of our nation.
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Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
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