Obama takes recent
U.S. crises in stride
The keys to Barack Obama's
decisive victory — and clues for how he will conduct himself as the
44th president — emerged amid his unexpected defeat in the New
Hampshire Democratic primary.
Obama was in Nashua, N.H., on Jan. 8, awaiting returns that he
thought would put him on a clear path to his party's nomination. The
Illinois senator already had won the Iowa caucuses, and pre-election
polls showed him with a 10-point lead over rival Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
If he won, the New York senator would be weakened. Instead,
political adviser David Axelrod had to tell Obama: "We're going to
fall a few points short."
In his speech that night, Obama made the case for change and gave
what had been written as his victory address. He took the crowd from
downcast to electrified with the chant that became his campaign
signature: "Yes, we can."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Internet | Congress | Texas | White House |
United States Senate | Barack Obama | Illinois | Ohio | Hillary
Rodham Clinton | New York City | Indiana | Iowa | John McCain |
Montana | Sarah Palin | Rudy Giuliani | Hispanics | Oxford | David
Plouffe | David Axelrod | Nashua | Bob Casey | James Thurber |
Obama. | D-Pa | Holding | Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts | New
Hampshire Democratic | When Obama
On his 21-month roller-coaster ride to the White House, Obama
repeatedly turned setbacks into triumphs and crises into learning
opportunities. Disappointment was never his enemy. "Everytime we've
been knocked down, he's been the one who picked us up," Axelrod
said. "That's a great quality to have in a president."
VOTER SURVEY: Who did groups vote for in '08?
Obama's religion and patriotism were questioned repeatedly, and the
explosive issues of race and gender simmered just below the surface.
He "never took the bait," American University political scientist
James Thurber said.
Along the way, Obama transformed the use of the Internet as a
fundraising tool, helping him tap more than 3 million donors and
bring in $640 million as of Oct. 15. The money advantage over
Republican nominee John McCain, who was limited by the $84.1 million
he accepted in taxpayer funds, allowed Obama to mount effective
ground operations in "red" states such as Montana and Indiana and
flood the airwaves with his message.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said "machinery doesn't mean
anything if it isn't backed up by a great candidate."
In the end, what most set Obama apart from McCain and his Democratic
competitors was his discipline. Some ways Obama displayed that and
other keys to victory:
Holding course
McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate
surprised the Obama camp.
The governor with only 20 months in office was criticized in an
Obama campaign statement as unqualified. Obama himself had been
elected to the Senate from Illinois in 2004.
Obama, however, remembered how his own criticisms of Clinton during
the primaries sometimes backfired, and he took a much more positive
tone about Palin.
Patrick Oxford, a business partner and political adviser to former
New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, sees Obama's refusal to overreact
as a crucial decision. By avoiding an argument about Palin's gender
and qualifications, Oxford said, Obama was able to focus voters on
the fall presidential debates and the sagging economy.
"Before Palin, he was riding high and, candidly, acting like it,"
Oxford said. "Palin 'unhorsed' him for 10 days and seemed to get him
to focus on what he really needed to do — settle down, listen, act
presidential, be positive. And to his credit, he did so with
incredible discipline."
Taking the chance
When Obama began mulling a bid for the presidency two years ago,
there were plenty of reasons for him to say no. Now 47, he was young
and known as a gifted orator, for his 2004 keynote to the Democratic
convention. Most of all, he was not white in a country where race
relations are still fractious and minorities have not risen to many
high elected offices.
"My life was really good," Obama told USA TODAY last week.
Obama, however, was a hot commodity. The Democratic candidates he
helped elect to Congress in 2006 were struck by what Sen. Robert
Casey, D-Pa., called "the intensity and electricity" of the crowds
Obama drew to their rallies. Obama and his advisers sensed it, too,
and first met the day after the 2006 elections to discuss mounting a
presidential campaign.
Obama sought the advice of Democratic elders such as Sen. Edward
Kennedy of Massachusetts — a move that would pay off later when
Kennedy endorsed him in January.That move provided the first big
break among the party establishment lined up behind former first
lady Clinton.
Still, no African-American candidate had ever won a major party's
presidential nomination. Unlike politicians who "thought white
voters would reject them," Obama took a chance, said former
Massachusetts senator and Republican Ed Brooke, the first African
American elected to the Senate in 1968. "You can't win unless you
run."
Keeping the faith
The primaries dragged on longer than many Democrats expected,
exposing Obama's vulnerabilities with white working-class voters and
Hispanics who preferred Clinton. (He won both groups Tuesday over
McCain.) After tough losses to Clinton in the Ohio and Texas
primaries in March, Obama met with his campaign advisers for more
than two hours to discuss what had gone wrong and how to fix it.
Axelrod recalls how Obama never raised his voice, not even about
spending $20 million on the losing effort. Also key, Axelrod said,
was that Obama offered encouragement to his staff. "He went from
desk to desk and talked to everyone," he said.
Obama's durability paid off, said Thurber of American University,
and reinforced one of the Democrat's campaign messages. "At many
points in the campaign, he was a steady hand at the tiller," he
said.
Bending to reality
After months in which he had avoided the issue of race, Obama
decided he wanted to talk about it after incendiary sermons by his
former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, dominated cable news.
Obama penned the impassioned address he delivered March 18 in
Philadelphia, trying to explain Wright's anger to all races. The
speech drew raves, but Wright made a blistering appearance at the
National Press Club in Washington in which, among other things, he
blamed the government for the spread of AIDS among blacks. Obama
eventually denounced Wright.
A few weeks after Obama's public break with Wright, Obama made
another politically pragmatic move aimed at squelching the idea he
did not share mainstream American values. In April, Obama met a
veteran during a Pennsylvania rally who gave him a flag pin. The
senator never took it off.
Earlier, Obama had defended his decision not to wear such a pin. "My
attitude was my patriotism is what's in my heart," he told USA TODAY
in a June interview.
As rumors persisted on the Internet about his patriotism, Obama said
he decided his scruples were costing him.
"I just wanted to make sure that nobody was confused," he said of
his change of heart.
SOURCE: USA TODAY
|