The Eight Things that Will Win (or Lose) This Election for Barack Obama

Surprise! John McCain is surging in the polls, and pundits as well as stunned Obama supporters such as myself are asking themselves how and why. Yet, a cold critical look at how this thing has been going since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination from the hands of Hillary Clinton in June can help to explain the hows and the whys of the McCain surge. These explanations have more to do with what the Obama campaign failed to do as opposed to what John McCain actually did. A number of mistakes are now apparent in the Obama campaign strategy which are threatening to lose him an election that was his to win… or lose.

In a context that was highly favorable to an easy Democratic victory in November, Barack Obama seems to be struggling. While many factors, such as race, could indeed contribute to this unexpected struggle, I believe that the negative impact of race on the perception of Barack Obama by white America cannot, alone, account for what is happening to the Obama campaign. If anything, I would argue that the answers to Obama’s inability to close the deal against John McCain come from mistakes committed in the very strategic choices made by the Obama campaign itself. Among these mistakes, one notes the following eight things: Read more