The Note: Rocky Roads in Denver for Obama-Biden

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The Note: Rocky Roads in Denver for Obama-Biden

August 24, 2008 11:08 AM

ABC News' Rick Klein reports in a special Sunday edition of The Note: So now that we've seen what a real-life 3 a.m. moment looks like (what do you think Hillary Clinton did when she got that text message?) ...

. . . now that Sen. Barack Obama claimed the first Obama-Biden slip for himself (but just barely) . . .

. . . now that Sen. Joe Biden has proven that this attack dog remembers how to bite (and brings along clips that bite back) . . .

. . . what confronts the newly minted Obama-Biden ticket hasn't really changed that much.

Democrats are arriving in a gorgeous and welcoming (except for the police-state atmosphere) Denver with Obama's challenges fairly well defined, if not particularly easier to navigate.

Among the many measuring tools: Obama will be sized up against himself (with four days of themes to be shoe-horned into a unique resume). He'll be compared to (and contrasted with) with his new running mate. He'll be contrasting himself with Sen. John McCain (defined, for Democrats' purposes this week, as Bush the Third.) And always, always, there are the Clintons.

It's Obama 49, McCain 43 among registered voters in the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, and just four points -- 49-45 -- among likelies. (By now, Obamaland knows the drill.)

"Nearly half of registered voters, 47 percent, continue to think Obama lacks the experience it takes to serve effectively as president, a lot to lose on this basic qualification," ABC polling director Gary Langer writes. "McCain leads him by 2-1 margins as more knowledgeable on world affairs and as better suited to be commander in chief, and has moved ahead in trust to handle international relations."

And the factoid that may matter most in the Mile High City: 30 percent of former Clinton supporters aren't on board yet for Obama. On the other side: "McCain faces his own challenges: Fifty-seven percent think he'd lead in the same direction as the heavily unpopular George W. Bush," Langer writes.

What will Denver mean when we've been locked in the same race all summer? "The results show little movement from the last Post-ABC survey, conducted in mid-July, before Obama embarked on a highly publicized trip overseas, and prior to a series of fierce exchanges between the campaigns," Dan Balz and John Cohen write in The Washington Post.

Obama's "two overriding priorities," per National Journal's Ron Brownstein: "One is to resolve doubts about his qualifications and agenda that McCain has seeded this summer with ads portraying the Democrat as a vapid celebrity and a soft-on-defense, tax-and-spend liberal. Even more important, many argue, Obama must reframe the fundamental choice in the election from whether he is ready to be president to whether the country wants to continue in the direction set by Bush, particularly on economic policy."

The choice of Biden may heighten the import of national security in this race -- but listen carefully and you'll hear pocketbooks picking up the pace. "My main goal at this convention and through my speech is to convey a sense of urgency that so many families are feeling across the country," Obama, D-Ill., tells The Denver Post's Karen Crummy. "And to present a clear choice between continuing the same economic policies that have caused record foreclosures, rising unemployment, rising inflation, flat and declining incomes and wages, and a new approach to economic policies that I believe will create prosperity, growth and fairness."

Writes Crummy: "Going on the attack when running a campaign for change is risky, Obama acknowledges." Said Obama: "It's something I worry about and wrestle with all the time. I really prefer having a debate about issues."

Friendly advice: "While Obama can continue to try to reassure resistant Clinton loyalists in Appalachia that he's not a bogeyman from Madrassaland, he must also move on to the bigger picture for everyone else," Frank Rich writes in his New York Times column. "He must rekindle the 'fierce urgency of now' -- but not, as he did in the primaries, merely to evoke uplifting echoes of the civil-rights struggle or the need for withdrawal from Iraq."

Rich continues: "R.I.P., 'Change We Can Believe In.' The fierce urgency of the 21st century demands Change Before It's Too Late." What Denver will mean is a week to answer the critics -- those who say he can't/shouldn't/won't win.

And could any of those critics matter more than those associated with an ex-candidate named Clinton?

Read the rest of

The Note -- and get all the latest on the 2008 election, Congress, the White House and

the wide world of politics every day -- from Rick Klein by bookmarking this link.

August 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (32)

User Comments

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i guess the biden selection suggest that obama needed somebody on his team that is more like mccain, seasoned, experienced, old timer, insider? is that the logic some of you are employing for bidens selection? if that is the case then just vote for the real mccain instead of this contorted imitation knock-off version that includes a revival of cheny-what is that?

Posted by: sonia trevino | Aug 24, 2008 1:16:18 PM

mkoch- Obama always says "I want to have a debate on that" and hmm...how many debates had he dodged from McCain and also Hillary. This guy is a total wimp. He looks less than of a man than his wife, Clinton & an old man McCain. And you want him to be the commander of the strongest military in the world?? Imagine Obama with Putin. I see Putin can grind Obama into pieces with his barehand.

Posted by: hannah | Aug 24, 2008 1:19:41 PM

Hey everyone im going to vote for Obama so i can pay the gorverment more of my hard earned money.

Posted by: jasonObama's half-brother a slum dweller in Nairobi | Aug 24, 2008 1:51:48 PM

oh im sorry i cant vote i live in africa and only make one dollar a month, dame brother can you send me some change?????????

Posted by: jasonObama's half-brother a slum dweller in Nairobi | Aug 24, 2008 1:53:03 PM

I'm a democrat, but my party has developed a split personality without realizing it. A faction of the party sees the Iraq war as a heinous crime. This faction holds Hillary at fault for voting for use of force in Iraq and then not saying it was wrong. It has lead to extreme vitriol thrown at her from the far left. Obama gets a free pass on it by having no responsibility for that decision. However, nearly all senators from that time in 2002 are in the position of Hillary, including for example John Edwards. On Meet the Press Feb 2007, he said the mistake in the vote was trusting GWB to execute the war well. He said it was not a mistake to use force in Iraq, this is in 2007. The future course of acton in Iraq should not be dependent on past events, except if you think the war was started with venial intent, then fast withdrawal is the only option. There is a real disconnect of the leadership of the Democrats in the senate and the view of this large faction of the party. Obama is their champion since he is clean on the Iraq war. This split in the party will not heal easy and may not heal by November. We do not know where Obama sits on the view of Iraq as heinous crime or as poor judgment and it is clearly an issue he would rather avoid since he can only inflame one side or the other. However, the Iraq vote is a cause for that faction to dislike Hillary and all her supporters. That split in the party already forced Joe Leiberman out of the party and that was just a shameful display by Democrats. Leiberman won a large majority in that election, so a lesson is there.

Posted by: Mark Riggle | Aug 24, 2008 2:01:26 PM

Obama? Hillary? Biden?
Is this the best that you Dems can come up with? In this volatile world do you really want to trust our future to them?
What are you people smokin'???

Posted by: Sam Allen | Aug 24, 2008 2:01:38 PM

Trivia question in the XXII century:

What was the largest event of any type in the history of humans on planet Earth, whose outcome was defined by racism?

This is not a joke, it is indeed the case, however embarrassing. Even if you go back to Roman times, you will not find in any event with the number of racists that will be involved in November insuring McCain's victory. We are talking tens of millions. Unprecedented in human history.

Posted by: Domingo Tavella | Aug 24, 2008 2:32:11 PM

I am so sick of stupid people who lkeep trying to bring Rev. Wright out as something bad. FAUX noise said so, so it must be truth? Like Shrub told you Iraq had WMDS? Nothing wrong w/wright, just a lot of hateful people painting him that way, like the juveniles here talking about people they don't know.

PUMAs are Op. Chaos rush voters, plain and simple. Not Dems.

Posted by: MaeScott | Aug 24, 2008 7:31:07 PM

caught off guard and without a telepromper, Bucky stutters like Porky Pig on cocaine. And Michelle comes across as an angry militant racist gorilla.
don't let these freaks anywhere near the white house

Posted by: MaeScott | Aug 24, 2008 10:29:26 PM

Domingo Tavella: What a driveling coward you are, my friend. If Obama goes down in defeat, as you seem to believe, it will be because his strongest support comes from sociopaths like you.

Posted by: RandalH | Aug 25, 2008 3:00:34 AM

You Hillary supporters are a cult! What is it with you people?? We are DEMOCRATS...not hillarycrats, obamacrats, etc...We are running against a political ideology that over the past 8 years has damaged our country badly! and you idiots are willing to continue the same republican policies??? You Hillary wackjobs are insane and are not true democrats...you are all selfish, pathetic children.

Posted by: Brandon | Aug 25, 2008 11:10:45 AM

Why are they spoiled Brandon? What ever happeded to your belief in choice? You sound desperate Sir. Get ready for at least 4 more years of a Republican President. If that spoiled brat Obama Boy had chosen Hillary you may have won. I think you dillusional Obama loons would vote for him even if he had his uncle Osama Bin Laden on the ticket. I'm right aren't I? HMMMMMM. :)

Posted by: bombem | Aug 25, 2008 3:25:02 PM

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