The rebranding of Barack Obama

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama bills himself as a new brand of leader poised to drain Washington’s swamp of political cynicism.

But despite spellbinding calls for ‘Change We Can Believe In’ the Democratic hopeful is not shirking from cold-eyed positioning to boost his hopes of victory over Republican White House hopeful John McCain. Obama has turned down the crowd-swooning oratory since pocketing the Democratic nomination last month.The Illinois senator is making a beeline for the fabled political centre, with policy adjustments, tonal shifts and speeches extolling faith and patriotism.Obama’s advisors also seem to be manoeuvring for room on Iraq, after his anti-war stance and calls for immediate troop withdrawals underpinned his primary triumph.”This is typical in presidential campaigns, to run with more extreme positions in primaries, and then to slowly drift to the centre to appeal to the greatest number of voters in a general election,” said political scientist Costas Panagopoulos.”I think for Obama it is especially crucial, because to some extent he can’t run away from his record, which is one of the most liberal voting records in Congress,” said Panagopoulos, of Fordham University, New York.Obama worried liberals by blurring previous positions last week to back a Supreme Court rejection of a ban on handguns in the city of Washington.He also went back on an undertaking to accept public financing for his campaign – a move which courted criticism but kept his multi-million dollar fundraising juggernaut rolling.Obama also sided with conservative Supreme Court justices, who liberals revile, against a majority ruling that child rapists cannot be executed.But the finessing has not been pain free.BUSH MARK 3? The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page this week mockingly declared Obama wanted ‘Bush’s Third Term’.”Most presidential candidates adapt their message after they win their party nomination, but Mr Obama isn’t merely running to the centre,” the paper said.”Who would have thought that a Democrat would rehabilitate the much-maligned Bush agenda?” McCain backers accuse Obama of making craven calculations at odds with his reformist rhetoric.Some liberals are also dismayed.Fierce debate broke out on Obama’s own website, after he switched course and backed a new spying bill offering immunity to telecoms firms which co-operated in electronic eavesdropping.”Obama has made a few moves that are really disappointing,” wrote one poster named ‘Elisabeth’.”The higher the hopes, the harder to fall and many of us have dared to hope higher than ever before in our lifetimes.”A sense that the inspiration might be waning, prompting liberal blogger Arianna Huffington to warn Obama not to follow a centrist shift she said helped doom Democrat John Kerry in 2004.”A political product geared to pleasing America’s vacillating swing voters – the ones who will be most susceptible to the fear-mongering avalanche that has already begun – would be a fatal blunder.”But could liberals have erred in making Obama a vehicle for unsated political hopes? For instance, his pledge to update President George W Bush’s faith-based social work programme sits easily with Obama’s vow to cross political lines and court evangelicals who often vote Republican.And in the past, Obama has faced claims his rousing rhetoric hides a paucity of policy “beef”.”That kind of thing needs to be used selectively, there are times when it might be brilliantly effective, a convention speech for example,” said Professor Bruce Buchanan, of the University of Texas.The old cliché that politics is the art of the possible may also apply.What use is beautiful rhetoric if Obama can’t get elected? In that light, positions palatable to conservative white Democrats in battleground states, on guns for instance, might be prudent.Obama may now be stressing those of his views more attractive to centrists, wavering Republicans and independents, just as he emphasised areas where he agreed with liberals in the primary.And he can probably rely on disgruntled liberals not to vote McCain.Nampa-AFPObama has turned down the crowd-swooning oratory since pocketing the Democratic nomination last month.The Illinois senator is making a beeline for the fabled political centre, with policy adjustments, tonal shifts and speeches extolling faith and patriotism.Obama’s advisors also seem to be manoeuvring for room on Iraq, after his anti-war stance and calls for immediate troop withdrawals underpinned his primary triumph.”This is typical in presidential campaigns, to run with more extreme positions in primaries, and then to slowly drift to the centre to appeal to the greatest number of voters in a general election,” said political scientist Costas Panagopoulos.”I think for Obama it is especially crucial, because to some extent he can’t run away from his record, which is one of the most liberal voting records in Congress,” said Panagopoulos, of Fordham University, New York.Obama worried liberals by blurring previous positions last week to back a Supreme Court rejection of a ban on handguns in the city of Washington.He also went back on an undertaking to accept public financing for his campaign – a move which courted criticism but kept his multi-million dollar fundraising juggernaut rolling.Obama also sided with conservative Supreme Court justices, who liberals revile, against a majority ruling that child rapists cannot be executed.But the finessing has not been pain free.BUSH MARK 3? The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page this week mockingly declared Obama wanted ‘Bush’s Third Term’.”Most presidential candidates adapt their message after they win their party nomination, but Mr Obama isn’t merely running to the centre,” the paper said.”Who would have thought that a Democrat would rehabilitate the much-maligned Bush agenda?” McCain backers accuse Obama of making craven calculations at odds with his reformist rhetoric.Some liberals are also dismayed.Fierce debate broke out on Obama’s own website, after he switched course and backed a new spying bill offering immunity to telecoms firms which co-operated in electronic eavesdropping.”Obama has made a few moves that are really disappointing,” wrote one poster named ‘Elisabeth’.”The higher the hopes, the harder to fall and many of us have dared to hope higher than ever before in our lifetimes.”A sense that the inspiration might be waning, prompting liberal blogger Arianna Huffington to warn Obama not to follow a centrist shift she said helped doom Democrat John Kerry in 2004.”A political product geared to pleasing America’s vacillating swing voters – the ones who will be most susceptible to the fear-mongering avalanche that has already begun – would be a fatal blunder.”But could liberals have erred in making Obama a vehicle for unsated political hopes? For instance, his pledge to update President George W Bush’s faith-based social work programme sits easily with Obama’s vow to cross political lines and court evangelicals who often vote Republican.And in the past, Obama has faced claims his rousing rhetoric hides a paucity of policy “beef”.”That kind of thing needs to be used selectively, there are times when it might be brilliantly effective, a convention speech for example,” said Professor Bruce Buchanan, of the University of Texas.The old cliché that politics is the art of the possible may also apply.What use is beautiful rhetoric if Obama can’t get elected? In that light, positions palatable to conservative white Democrats in battleground states, on guns for instance, might be prudent.Obama may now be stressing those of his views more attractive to centrists, wavering Republicans and independents, just as he emphasised areas where he agreed with liberals in the primary.And he can probably rely on disgruntled liberals not to vote McCain.Nampa-AFP