Barack Obama before he embarked on his look how patriotic I am program[Pruden on Politics]
Wesley Pruden posted a revealing piece that is linked today on the Real Clear Politics website (the home of those poll averages we read so much about, and that overstated Obama’s strength in Pennsylvania by 100%, a phenomena we have talked about here).
Pruden begins provocatively:
“Patriotism is not always the last refuge of the scoundrel. Sometimes it's just the last refuge of a frightened politician.”
Notes Pruden:
“Barack Obama, hotly pursued by his preacher and the crazy preacher's aggressive racism, has revised his stump speech. His once formidable polling lead over Hillary Clinton has dwindled to the single digits. The man who wouldn't wear a tiny American flag on his lapel is looking for a flag pin the size of a bass fiddle.
“"You want to know who I am?" he asked a crowd in North Carolina this week. "You want to know what's in me? It's a love of country that made my life possible. It's a belief in the American dream."
“All no doubt true. But the senator's own dream, which only a fortnight ago looked so dreamy, has begun to feel more like a nightmare. He was leading in North Carolina by 25 points — unrealistic then, to be sure — and yesterday that lead had shrunk to 14 points (Rasmussen), 12 (Public Policy Polling) or even to 5 (Survey USA), depending on which pollster you believe.
“Worse, a poll taken for New York Times-CBS News shows a spectacular decline in the number of voters who think Sen. Obama is the inevitable Democratic nominee. (Hillary was once inevitable, too, so inevitability is not always reliable.) A month ago, nearly 70 percent of the Democrats expected Sen. Obama to be their nominee; now barely half (51 percent) do. Worst of all, such a turnaround comes only five days before crucial primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. The big 'mo is not always everything, but it's always a lot.”
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