ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="24"> <td width="624" height="24" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2"></td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font size="5" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"><b>Dems Make the Sale</b></font><p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>(310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright August 25, 2008<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Keynoting opening night at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama hopes to tell her and her husband s story, Democratic presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Michelle will try to make the sale reminding undecided voters that the Obamas are like other hard-working American families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>At the same time, she ll show both their remarkable accomplishments, from her days at Princeton University, his days at Columbia and both at Harvard Law School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Not since the Clintons have a husband-wife team had so much accomplishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Michelle hopes to counter GOP propaganda that Barack is a closet Muslim, having spent a few short childhood years in a Muslim school in Jakarta, Indonesia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Yet despite all the biography, Michelle should direct voters attention to two active wars, the sick economy, runaway gas prices and failed domestic agenda.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;&nbsp; <![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>She and Barack have overcome many obstacles but the real issue for voters boils down to whether they d be better off with an Obama presidency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Picking Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) Aug. 22 threw many pundits for a loop, not because he wasn t considered on the short-list but because insiders expected a more bold move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>recent polls making the race a dead-heat, Obama s brain-trust couldn t afford a dramatic gamble, namely, picking retiring Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel, now a shoe-in, should Obama win in November, for Defense Secretary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No one in camp-Obama could find a way to reconcile with Barack s closest rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, unlike other primary candidates, pulled out all the stops attacking Barack s fitness for duty as president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Now Michelle and others must mend bad feelings and then urge Hillary s supporters to come on board.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Hillary s supporters wanted Barack to bury the hatchet and select her as VP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>What they don t get is that with Hillary comes Bill, still filling the tabloids with more rumors of infidelity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With former presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) in the headlines recently caught with his pants down, and completey shunned by the convention, Barack couldn t afford the risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Picking Biden was a good compromise, opting with sold foreign policy credentials at a time of increased geopolitical tensions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Michelle and others must find a way to sincerely venerate Hillary for her unprecedented campaign the first serious woman presidential candidate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Once Michelle goes through her biography, she should pay tribute to Hillary and her many loyal supporters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Today s USA/ Gallup poll indicated that a whopping 27% of her supporters still haven t committed to Obama.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Selling Barack isn t only based on humanizing his sometimes overly Ivy-League demeanor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Michelle and others must methodically make the case against eight years of Republican rule in which the country is at war with a sick economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Voters want to know some details about presidential candidates but, more importantly, they want to know how their lives will improve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Selling Barack involves more than making him the next Horatio Alger Jr. story or Jackie Robinson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack s character witnesses would be better off talking about how the oil industry under Bush and Cheney were given the green light to fleece the U.S. economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They d be better of focusing on a wasteful Iraq war that his opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues to hype as the  central front in the war on terror. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Selling Barack is inextricably tied to making the case against four more years of Bush s foreign and economic policy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Opinion polls have remained close because undecided voters continue to make up their minds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Tying McCain to Bush isn t that farfetched when you consider McCain s diehard commitment to staying in Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insists today on a date-certain for U.S. withdrawal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain stubbornly insists that Barack s 16-month withdrawal timetable is tantamount to surrender.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain has wed himself so closely to Bush s policies on Iraq and elsewhere, that the U.S. may confront unending war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain has made it clear that he won t tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, threatening, if needed, to  bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, should he become president.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s recent tough talk about Russia, and his support of Bush s missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, could result in a military confrontation with Russia in the not so distant future.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Selling Barack isn t primarily based on exposing every detail of his youth or private life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Itemizing Bush s failures and expected parallels under a McCain administration should help Barack make the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Reminding voters how Bush and Cheney allowed the oil industry to reap record profits at the expense of virtually all other businesses should keep the focus where it belongs:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>On Bush s disastrous management of both domestic and foreign policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Making the case against Bush and McCain will help remind Hillary supporters why they must get over their disappointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>After hitting Barack with everything but the kitchen sink, he won the primaries fair-and-square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No one stood the political heat better than Barack and he deserves Hillary s unequivocal support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Hillary takes the podium Tuesday night, she needs to remind her supporters what s really at stake.</p> <p><b><u>About the Author</u></b><br> </p> <p><b>John M. Curtis </b>writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He&#x2019;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>