Obama, The Man Without a Message

It was late February 2008. A young African American upstart from Illinois had taken the political world by storm. He had won 13 straight primaries by an average of 28 points. His message of hope and change had lit a fire under people who had never entered the political process before. These new voters and the enthusiasm behind his campaign were driving him to one of the biggest upsets in American political history, defeating the "Clinton Machine." However, from that time in February to the Pennsylvania primary 8 weeks later, everything changed. Lets take a look back at the events that occurred,

1. In the days leading up to the Ohio/Texas primaries Hillary Clinton threw the kitchen sink mat Obama, during that same period, Nafta-gate exploded and the ensuing negative press coverage caused Obama to lose both and thus the primary season went on.

2. Jeremiah Right and "God damn America" burst on the seen with a week of wall to wall negative press coverage.

3. Obama's bitter comments slowed his momentum before the Pennsylvania primary allowing Hillary to win big.

Those three events along with the three primaries Obama lost during that time, changed his campaign and he has not yet recovered. The reason he has not recovered is simple, he lost his message. Hope and change were no longer talked about, all it was now was policy, policy, policy. The charges of "Wheres the beef" along with the political problems that arose in those weeks changed Obama's campaign from one built on hope and change to one built on policy prescriptions and change.

It was not the change that got people involved in his candidacy, it was the hope. When the hopeful, "Bring the country together" rhetoric was gone, so was the excitement. Now, Obama is tied up in a tit for tat campaign based on policy prescriptions and personal attacks. One that the Obama campaign is not good at and thus he is losing. He may be ahead in the polls but he is completely reactive in the campaign, on defense every day, and losing.

What Obama needs is a message. Right now he has none. Policies are not a message. Hope is a message. If Obama continues to push only alternative energy and tax cuts, he will lose. These are good policies but not a reason to get up in the morning and vote for you. Barack Obama needs to tell people why they should vote for him, not his policies, but him. If he does this he will be the next President of the United States.. If he does not, he will not.