Tired of Obama
Here, via Frank Rich (who once again deserves praise not only for a good column, but also for putting links in the online versions of his columns so we can look up the data he references) an interesting result from the Pew Center which reveals that people are sick and tired of hearing about Barack Obama. Many fewer people feel that way about John McCain. The sense that Obama is over-covered and McCain under-covered seems to be correlated reasonably strongly with a proclivity to support McCain — Democrats don’t find Obama to be nearly as over-exposed as Republicans do.
This is interesting because it basically runs counter to the campaigns’ strategy. The McCain camp has mostly pushed the idea that the selection should be seen as a referandum on Obama in which the press and the public are supposed to scrutinize Obama intently and just take McCain at face value as an acceptable alternative. Conversely, liberals have been trying to draw attention to McCain’s actual views — his desire to ban abortions, solve all problems by launching wars, raises taxes on middle class health insurance while cutting them for heiresses and wealthy investors, etc.
29 Responses to “Tired of Obama”
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August 18th, 2008 at 8:38 am
This is interesting because it basically runs counter to the campaigns’ strategy.
I don’t see this, especially on the idea that McCain supporters are tired of Obama. Couldn’t we just as easily say that the McCain campaign wants to keep talking about Obama all the time because it thinks that this will drive more people into their camp? After all you’d expect people who buy McCain’s moronic “celebrity” attack to think they’ve heard too much about Obama, and McCain would want to keep shoving Obama down their throats.
(I mean that it’s moronic on the merits, not that it isn’t shrewd.)
August 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Never mind the actual positions—character, not policy, wins elections. Let’s hear some more about McCain’s abandonment of his first wife, his serial adultery, his plagarism of the cross story, his general vacuity.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:41 am
To suggest that the Obama campaign has not focused enough attention on the actual record of John McCain is to question his record of service, his time as a POW, and his integritude.
John McCain may only be spoken about in terms of his awesome, stupendous, amazing, heroic service, which Democrats should make sure to leap over each other and even condemn pro-Obama surrogates for failing to praise enough with sufficient awe; and in terms of his heroic, Maverick, solitary support of the single-most transformative event in all of human history, The Surge (TM), which completely fixed the situation in Iraq and if given a chance can fix every other foreign problem too.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:56 am
El Cid:
I know it’s supposed to be snark, but you nailed it!!
August 18th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Calvin Jones: Thx.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:13 am
At first glance, I read “a proclivity to support McCain” as “pro-civility to support McCain.”
August 18th, 2008 at 9:36 am
I find it odd that people are tired of hearing about Obama, yet blatant inaccuracies about him continue to circulate widely (He is muslim, for example). Maybe it something in the polls?
August 18th, 2008 at 9:42 am
i’m a little tired of hearing about Obama, too.
i’d rather hear more from him.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I think Rich’s column was excellent. The numbers support that McCain has been undercovered and not fully scrutinized. I mean, despite McCain’s years trying to act like a Maverick — there still is the Keating 5 ordeal. Does anyone really know what McCain’s role was or what happened? What did John McCain do in this 26 years in Congress? Has anyone checked? I’m pro-Obama, and I’m tired of hearing about him all the time. Every time I go to the Politico website, nearly five of the six headline stories are in some way centering around Obama. The fact is that the media has become lazy. They don’t investigate, they don’t look into backgrounds, they don’t ask questions — they merely react to whatever is thrown out there. (The Corsi book being a great example.)
August 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am
No Matt it isn’t counter to the McCain campaign at all, but it does run counter to the Obama campaign. McCain is counting on people becoming sick of Obama and ignoring his positions. The fact that the Obama campaign seems to have pretty much taken an 8 week vacation since the end of his European trip hasn’t helped. Obama is now being defined by McCain ads running all the time.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I think the timing and content (or lack thereof) of the recent coverage of Obama have a lot to do with this. After the conventions and through the debates up to the election, however, I think people will be fine with extensive coverage of Obama’s policy positions.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:42 am
How does 52% saying they’ve heard too little, the right amount, or don’t know about Obama equate to “people are sick and tired of hearing about Barack Obama”? Also I’d like to see follow ups to the people who say they’ve heard too much about Obama to see who they blame for that: Obama himself, McCain’s negative attacks, and/or the media.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:56 am
what Ron E said
plus…
it could be people are sick of hearing Rush or Glenn Beck talk about Obama. and if that’s true, maybe they wouldn’t mind hearing some truth about Obama for a change.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
“The sense that Obama is over-covered and McCain under-covered seems to be correlated reasonably strongly with a proclivity to support McCain — Democrats don’t find Obama to be nearly as over-exposed as Republicans do.”
Sure, but among Democrats, “too much” is still beating “too little” 34-8, and as a Republican, I can’t help but hope that some of this Obama fatigue will hurt him at the polls. I doubt it though.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Naturally, both Rich and Matt miss the entire point.
Here’s what I said to an email acquaintance who sent me the Rich piece:
August 18th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
There is one person to thank for Obama’s over-exposure:
Hillary Clinton
There is a whole cast of dwarves that McCain can thank for his underexposure.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Boring then, boring now. They need to shut up, he has a ton of work to do and better do the crap right.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 am
Im getting so sick of hear and seeing about obama they act like he was christ returned to save the world i dont want anything to do with him or his cabnet of hoods
December 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Im getting sick and tired about hearing about OBAMA they are acting like he is some kind of god i mean its a wonder their not groveling at his feet and kissing his hand i mean its OBAMA OVERLOAD and i say ENOUGH ALL READY
January 9th, 2009 at 12:15 am
IAM SOOOOOO SICK HEARING ABOUT BARACK MILLHOUSE NOBAMA!!!!! HE IS NOT JESUS CHRIST!!! he may think he is , but let us all see wat happings when he cant deliver all the goodies he promised…. i say he is a 1 term president, if he is lucky and some facts dont come up that will cause him to resign .. or better yet IMPEACH THE FRAUD!!!!!!and i wonder where all the people groveling at his feet will do when the fools that voted for him will call for him to be CRUCIFIED( since he and all his followers think he is christ)
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