Tonight’s message is going to be all about Obama and the economy. The Democrats want to paint Obama as a tribune of the middle class and as a member of it; they want to reduce the sense of otherness about him, what Mark Penn called his ‘lack of American roots.’ This is a crucial task, if they can’t do this then you have to expect the undecideds to break heavily for McCain which given the current closeness of the race would be enough to put him in the White House.
In the security queue we got talking to one of tonight’s featured speakers, Tom Balanoff, a Union official from Chicago who is getting a few minutes in cable primetime to describe Obama’s community work there. His job is to tie Obama’s work among communities gutted by the closure of steel mills to current economic concerns. He’ll also, though, be taking some pot shots at McCain. It seems that the Obama camp realise that they mustn’t let this election turn into a referendum on Obama and they are trying to pull reluctant Clinton Democrats back into the fold by hitting McCain hard on the economy.
The mood here in Denver is more nervous than triumphal. Two subjects are ever-present in conversation: race and Hillary. Many Democrats are convinced that the polls show things so close because of racism, but talking about racism turns off precisely the kind of downscale white voters that Obama needs to win over. If this theme spills over from conversations here into the media coverage that could be real problem for the Obama campaign. On the Clinton front, a lot of Obama supporters are understandably irritated that the Clintons won’t just row in behind the nominee. But Clinton supporters are acutely sensitive to any slights and the Obama campaign undoubtedly handled the whole VP thing badly in regard to Hillary. It also is silly of the Obama campaign not to let Bill Clinton talk about the economy if that’s what he wants to do.
One prominent Obama backer said to me earlier today that the Clinton supporters have this week to get over it, but this kind of attitude is precisely what annoys Clinton supporters. The danger is that if the race stays close, Obama supporters will become increasingly frustrated and vocal in their criticism of Clinton dead-enders, keeping the split going.
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