Obama in Austin

I thought Obama handled himself like a boxer who comes in on an opponent and never gives the other fighter the separation they need in order to land a knock out punch. Obama matched Clinton's ability to deal in policy specifics toe to toe and while she did have the inspirational moment of the evening, she also had the only boo inducing line too. Guess which one was the lead story in the NY-Times...the booing. In fact you have to know it's not going well when these are the stories about your campaign in the New York Times the next morning:

Clinton Says Debate Remark Not Meant as Farewell
Clinton Plans to Press for Florida and Michigan Delegates
Donors Worried by Clinton Campaign Spending

I don't understand why she is pushing the MI and FL thing. I mean look at this quote coming out of a Texas Monthly interview she gave this morning:

“I think it’s important for the DNC to ask itself, Is this really in the best interest of our eventual nominee? We do not want to be disenfranchising Michigan and Florida. We have to try to carry both of those states. I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.”

She is playing into Obama's premise that the political establishment is corrupt and unfair. I hope someone asks her about this in the next debate. Plus she is also disregarding the importance of Texas when only seven days ago she was in El Paso claiming the state was like home for her and insinuating that Texans would deliver big for her!

I read a great article this week on Obama's ability to create a narrative that people want to buy into. Here's an excerpt:

As Obama tells it, the country is held hostage by a political class that sows partisan and cultural division, making solving problems ever more difficult, while the country yearns for a new day of unity. As the youngest candidate, the only post-boomer candidate, the only bi-racial candidate, and the one candidate with a preternatural ability to obtain the good will of those who disagree with him, he can bring all Americans together and lead us to a future built on hope.

Your own reaction to that story may be a quickening of the heartbeat, or a disgusted '"Give me a break.'" But there is no denying that many, many people are willing to sign on to it. And though he is careful not to say it himself, Obama's story benefits greatly from how often other people say that he is a Man of Destiny.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, McCain offers no indication of where we as citizens fit into his story, what a vote for him is supposed to say about us. And this is precisely where Hillary Clinton has had trouble countering Obama, despite her prodigious policy knowledge and disciplined campaigning...Instead, she has offered multiple variations on a theme, most of which have been reactions to Obama. He was the candidate of change, so she became the candidate whose experience would enable her to achieve change. He gives great speeches, so she now says, "My opponent makes speeches. I offer solutions." There may be merit in that argument. But it is an argument, not a story.

When you read a really good story, you sometimes reach the point where you almost forget that you're reading at all. When that happens, you experience the story in a fundamentally different way, as though you have entered it, and instead of taking place outside you, it proceeds around you, and you feel everything the story evokes more deeply and profoundly. Scholars who study narrative call this transportation.

The most successful political narratives are not only clear and compelling, but make us feel as though we are part of the story as well.

So is the narrative Obama's telling hard or easy for you to embrace? Does embracing that narrative mean you have to let go of you rational and intellectual side? What does it say about Obama that at minimum he engenders good will from those who disagree with him on policy and therefore wouldn't vote for him. At at most moves people to go against some of their core ideological interests to support him for President?

Also this will be the last Obama post until after March 4th. I am sure some of you are desperate for me to talk about something different :)

Remember Texans vote early and vote often!