The Many Flaws in Ryan Lizza's "Can Obama Catch Hillary"

One of the political correspondents for the New Yorker, Ryan Lizza, published an article
November 26, 2007 on the Obama candidacy. Many of the residents of New York I know read the article and quickly made a decision to endorse Barack's candidacy. The very fact that the New Yorker was the magazine that helped shift votes is telling. Many exit polls have shown that Obama has very strong support among college graduates, but Hillary has stronger support among Democratic voters that ended their education after high school. All of my friends are college graduates and many of them have advanced degrees. That being said many of them point towards the idea of "change" that Obama has espoused. It is so strange to me that Obama has been able to garner so much of the college educated vote through he has not taken a strong stance on any issue and as Hillary pointed out at several debates he has abstained from voting on some important legislation.

At one point in the article, Obama tells Lizza, "Hillary is running, in many ways, a textbook campaign. But it’s a textbook that I think is inadequate to the moment. It’s a textbook that says you don’t answer tough questions directly because it may make you a bigger target in the general election—that you tell people what they want to hear but avoid telling some hard truths.” I find this quote troubling, as should anyone that has seen any of the debates. In fact, Obama has refused to debate Hillary anymore. Hillary has answered tough questions and has completed 7 years as Senator of New York and has had to vote on many important and difficult bills. In comparison, Obama announced that he was running for President after barely serving two years in our Senate (the only national position he has held).

I think, and I have been saying this since the campaign season began over a year ago, Obama has been running a "textbook" campaign. Focus groups have shown time and time again that "change" is the key political term to gain votes. Obama is running a "campaign of change," but every campaign is seeking to change from President Bush. Not even any of the Republicans want to be seen as the successor to the Bush Presidency.

What bothers me most about this change theme is what Obama supporters argue that he wants "change," but they cannot tell me what change he is going to bring that Hillary or any of the other former Democratic candidates would not bring. Obama keeps focusing on "change," as advised by his focus groups and if any campaign can be seen as being run by advisers and not being organic it is Obama's campaign for "change."