The Thermostat Question

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 21, 2008 8:08 AM

We want our presidents to be calm, cool and collected, especially in a crisis.

But is that what we want in a presidential candidate?

I feel safe in saying that Barack Obama is one of the more thoughtful candidates to seek the Oval Office. Sometimes you can see the gears turning as he answers questions. Sometimes he meanders too much. He was conversational and even eloquent fielding Rick Warren's questions at Saddleback, but was panned in some quarters for lacking John McCain's directness and bluntness, which also might be described as pre-programmed answers.

And therein lies the paradox: If there's one attribute that has served Obama well, it's his steely self-confidence, the way he carries himself, the aura he projects that he can handle anything on the world stage. But many voters, and we saw this in the primaries, see him as detached, aloof, somewhat disconnected from their daily concerns.

He may care deeply, but from observing him up close, I can tell you that he's not a feel-your-pain politician. He's an I've-got-a-plan-to-fix-your-problems politician.

There is increasing grumbling among Obama supporters that he needs to kick it up a couple of notches, emotionally speaking. This is not unrelated to his dip in the polls, which leaves him essentially tied with McCain in several surveys (the numbers in a moment). It's white-knuckle time for the Dems, who thought this would be an easy race for Obama, and some accusatory fingers are being pointed at his personality.

Maybe that's why Obama said in a speech yesterday, "I want someone who's mad right now that people are losing their jobs."

The Huffington Post's Tom Edsall offers this academic analysis:

"During debates Obama - the former University of Chicago professor of constitutional law -- keeps his head tilted thoughtfully, as if in a seminar. His answers weave in and out, sometimes incisively, sometimes evasively. When pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church asked Obama last Saturday if life begins at conception, Obama's 210 word response, or perhaps, non-response ran as follows:

" 'From a theological perspective or scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade . . .'

"There are legions of voters who clearly thrive on the considered intellectual approach that has characterized Obama's presidential bid, finding it his core appeal. There are potential costs, however, according to a number of political observers. Obama's cerebral style and anti-war stance can be seen as detached, condescending, or even worse 'effete' in the opinion of some -- potentially evoking the diminishing enthusiasm that undermined the Democratic campaigns of Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Bradley, Gore, and Kerry.

"The McCain campaign, has aggressively capitalized on this perceived vulnerability in Obama's performance, portraying him as disengaged from the high-pressure concerns central to the working and middle class."

At Slate, John Dickerson picks up on a telling metaphor:

"Speaking in Albuquerque, N.M., Monday about equal pay for women, Obama said that he didn't want his daughters 'to ever confront a situation where they are disadvantaged because of their gender. The thought of it makes my blood boil.' Really? Perhaps he watched Jack Cafferty while on vacation, because that's not the way the senator usually speaks, and you won't find that kind of language on his Web site. When he's spoken about pay equity before, he's mentioned his daughters, but he hasn't reached even a simmer.

"This little rhetorical flash of passion connected with something I've been hearing from Obama aides lately. One of the challenges for the Obama campaign is showing that a man of his unusual background shares the values and concerns of 'regular Americans.' (Mark Penn focused on this difficulty in his famous strategy memo that argued Obama wasn't 'fundamentally American.') The campaign has tried various ways to show Obama's core. They've used ads in which he's said the word 'values' a lot, and they've highlighted his biography.

"But talking about the temperature of his blood is a whole new way for Obama to connect with voters. He's showing that he can get emotional about the same things everybody gets emotional about."

It's a Goldilocks problem: McCain has long been said to have too much of a temper, and now Obama not enough.

If the rap against Gary Hart was where's the beef, the question about Obama now is, where's the passion?

"One of the great strengths of the Obama candidacy," says Time's Joe Klein, "has been the sense that this is a guy whose blood doesn't boil, who carefully considers the options before he reacts--and that his reaction is always measured and rational. But that's also a weakness: sometimes the most rational response is to rip your opponent's lungs out. On the same day as the North Carolina meeting, Obama spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and reacted with carefully prepared passion to John McCain's scurrilous campaign theme that Obama doesn't put America first. 'Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country,' he said, to the best applause he received from that skeptical crowd. It was an effective moment, but defensive. It was not how you win a presidential campaign."

Some liberal bloggers, such as the Guardian's Michael Tomasky, are practically writing the attack ads:

"We now know that John McCain wears $520 shoes, owns an obscene number of homes (variously placed at seven to 10) and has probably never written a check to a utility company or a home contractor or a dentist in at least 26 years (since he married La Hensley). And Saturday we learned that he thinks someone with a net worth of only $4.9 million is not rich. He can be painted as -- and indeed is -- out of touch with what regular Americans go through every day.

"If he were the Democrat, everyone in America would know the above. The Republicans would have run ads featuring those Ferragamo loafers and aerial photographs of the seven, eight, nine or 10 houses. For good measure, the script of these ads would have cleverly made sure that viewers knew that this emasculated sissy-man didn't earn a penny of the fortune that purchased all this. He married it!

"Can't do that to McCain because he's a war hero? Nonsense. It was done to John Kerry. He was a war hero. In fact, Kerry, we can safely assume based on the things I've read, killed more men in a face-to-face way than McCain ever did. That's arguably more manly than even surviving five years' torture. It can be done to anyone.

"But the Democrats just don't think this way. No, it's not that they're better human beings. They're afraid to go toe-to-toe with Republicans on these things because they figure (accurately) that Republicans have more experience at this stuff. And they're more concerned about media reaction. Republicans don't care about editorial criticism from the major newspapers -- they tough it out until the charges stick. Democrats would start backing off if the Times and the Post wrote editorials taking them to task.

"In general: Democrats try to turn the Republican into someone you disagree with on the issues. Republicans try to turn the Democrat into someone you wouldn't want to live on your street or let near your children. Is it any wonder the latter is more effective?"

But isn't there a potential backlash among those drawn to Obama's self-proclaimed new brand of politics?

Josh Marshall offers an alternative script that doesn't involve ripping McCain's face off:

"From Obama, honestly, I don't sense a really clear message . . .For my money, the essence of this campaign is -- Are you happy with the way the country's been run for the last 7.5 years. Has our foreign policy left us better off? Republican economic policy? You can go through all the different facets. But it's clear that the public overwhelmingly thinks the Bush presidency has been little short of a disaster. And do you want four more years of that? If that's the frame of the election, McCain will be crushed."

Obama leads McCain 45-42 in a NYT poll:

"Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is still closely associated with the deeply unpopular President Bush: nearly half of those surveyed said they expected him to continue the Bush administration's policies if he is elected president. But voters, by a wide margin, view Mr. McCain as better prepared to be president than Mr. Obama, and as more likely to be an effective commander-in-chief.

"Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was trusted more by voters to handle their top concern, the economy. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they were confident that Mr. Obama would make the right decisions on the economy, compared with 54 percent who expressed confidence that Mr. McCain would. When it came to foreign policy, the image was inverted: 66 percent expressed confidence in Mr. McCain to make the right decisions, and 55 percent in Mr. Obama."

A WSJ/NBC poll has Obama by the same statistically insignificant 45-42 margin: "The Obama campaign's biggest challenge may be attracting Sen. Clinton's supporters to his campaign. Only half the people who voted for Sen. Clinton in the primaries said they are now supporting Sen. Obama. One in five is supporting Sen. McCain."

The veepstakes chatter got hot and heavy again with a report that landed on Politico:

"BREAKING: In an encouraging sign for Bayh-for-veep supporters, the Nashville (Tenn.) Post is reporting that 'senior campaign officials from the Barack Obama presidential campaign are being dispatched from various locations around the country and are converging in Indianapolis for a "major event" to take place on Sunday.' Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh has been widely discussed as one of the final names on Obama's short list. The Post notes that Obama's first joint appearance with his running mate may take place in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday morning.'

"UPDATE: An Obama aide denied the report."

Never mind.

Jack Shafer has lost patience with the media:

"Candidates and the reporters who cover them share a problem from the time the campaigns begin until the voters cast their final ballots: how to keep the story alive. Why do reporters abet the orchestration of this media event every four years, fighting like wolverines to claim a 'scoop' that's so meaningless that nobody can remember a month (a week?) after the fact who scored it? Is it evidence of their cynicism or of their credulity?"

Some folks can't resist predictions. Red State's Erick Erickson bets his reputation on Tim Kaine:

"Kaine is a governor so Obama gets the perception of experience.

"Kaine is from a potential swing state, which helps Obama potentially on that front.

"Kaine also won't show up Obama. With Biden or Bayh, Obama would stand in their shadow. Not so with Kaine. Kaine makes Obama look like a pro."

The governor also has zero foreign policy experience.

At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey joins the conservative chorus against Lieberman:

"The addition of Joe Lieberman will not convince independents that McCain is a maverick; it will convince an already-skeptical GOP base that McCain is a RINO. Patrick knows better than most how essential enthusiasm is to the GOTV efforts and fundraising. McCain appears to have finally generated some of that enthusiasm, and picking Lieberman would snuff it out for good. Republicans respect Lieberman, but they don't want a liberal Democrat as the person who would succeed to the presidency if something happened to McCain -- which is the entire point of the vice presidency."

At CBN, David Brody wants you to know that he's been trying to get an interview with McCain for six months:

"There is no doubt that the McCain camp realizes that religious conservatives are crucial to winning in November. The McCain staff is working hard to get out the vote. But the thinking inside the McCain camp also centers on how they need to appeal to Independents and moderates who may get turned off to some degree with excess talk about faith and social issues. There may be a reluctance to appear in part for this reason. After all, Brody File interviews end up on The 700 Club. But what's important to remember about our audience (and I get reminded everyday in the emails I receive) is that we are read and viewed by voters from all faiths. It's a wide spectrum with various political views.

"So when you see Barack Obama sitting down with me and appearing on CBN, don't think for a minute that we aren't affording the same opportunity to John McCain. We are."

Did you notice that at Saddleback McCain invoked civil rights hero John Lewis as one of three people whose wisdom he values? Mother Jones's David Corn isn't buying it:

"A Lewis associate told me that McCain had never been close to Lewis . . .

"McCain had served in the U.S. Congress with Lewis for 21 years. But in all that time, McCain had not established any relationship with Lewis. If McCain really was so impressed with Lewis, why had he not reached out to him? Yet McCain, looking to grab a piece of civil rights history, was claiming Lewis was a leader to emulate . . . This was odd; McCain was attempting to sell himself by praising a fellow who was campaigning for Obama."

Ingraham Update:

Laura Ingraham, whose radio syndicator took her off the air in June during a bitter round of negotiations, has signed a new contract.

Talk Radio Network had barred the conservative host from her Washington studio in what Ingraham's lawyer called "a tactic in contract negotiations." But she quietly returned to the air and now has a new deal.

"Talk Radio Network and I mended fences after CEO Mark Masters flew across the country in the final hours to hammer out a syndication extension," Ingraham says. "It was down to the wire, but in the end, extremely positive--a great business agreement from both our perspectives.

"This deal is a fantastic one for me, and I am over the moon about it. We did a family sit-down and cleared the air, and now all is well. I look forward to growing the show with TRN, driving the loony left nuts, and spreading good conservative cheer for many years to come."