I’m trying to stay in tune with the presidential campaigns but, like many, I find myself dozing off. The things I’ve been waiting to see — some “sizzle” from McCain and some “steak” from Obama — should have become more evident by now, yet remain obscured behind the media’s love affair with Obama.
As John Dickerson wrote in an article more than a year ago, the perception that Obama was “all sizzle and no steak” remained despite efforts by his handlers to change it.
“The huge crowds and stirring but vague reform rhetoric don’t give voters anything they can take home in their pocket. This has lead to some high-profile failures—at a health-care forum in Nevada and with firefighters in Washington—in venues where audiences wanted to hear specifics about ideas that will change their lives. Obama’s rhetoric makes this task more difficult. He presents himself as a paradigm-shifting candidate, which means people are expecting to be floored not just by his charisma but by his ideas.”
Dickerson pointed out that, in the polls, Clinton did far better than Obama on questions of experience, leadership, and capacity to handle a crisis, trouncing him by more than 30 points among Democrats looking more for strength and experience. Worse for Obama, when voters were asked the question in the abstract whether he had enough experience for the job, only 30 percent of respondents said yes in a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. On the same question, Clinton scored in the 70s. Yet Obama received his highest marks in polls from people who thought he was new, fresh, and inspiring. In the end, Democrats chose the latter.
And not much has changed. Obama’s skill at eloquently “reframing the question” to convince Democrats that charisma trumps experience seems to be keeping his ball in the air. But an empty suit—albeit a charismatic one—is still just sizzle and no steak.
Which leads me to my latest bumper sticker, sent to me by James. It pairs well with my McCain sticker, don’t you think? Maybe I’ll stick them both in my side bar. Hmmmm…Reminds me of the 80s Wendy’s television commercial. “Where’s the beef?”
