How the Establishment Candidate Got Outflanked

Unless you live in Boston, you may still remember the Super Bowl. On Super Sunday, just a few weeks back, just days before Super Tuesday, the proud and to that point unbeaten New England Patriots, met the lowly wild card Giants on the field of battle. One team was led by the time tested and beloved quarterback, the other by a superstars younger brother, a QB who had yet to establish himself with any consistency. But on that day, it was the underdog who went away the victor.
Last Fall, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of the former President, put together a team of established Democratic vets, culled numerous super-delegates, and laid out her plans for the future. Only one problem, there was this young "untested" upstart who turned everything upside down.
But, as E.J. Dionne notes, there have been chinks in the armor from the beginning. Clinton has detailed policiy plans, but no central message. Indeed, as Dionne notes, she keeps changing her slogans, while he has stayed with a broad basic theme:

Clinton has offered experience and some well-thought-out policies. That might be enough in a different year. But when it comes to a larger theme, her campaign has been all over the lot.

You can tell a campaign has difficulty establishing a message when its slogans keep changing. In recent weeks, the Clinton campaign has featured one banner after another: "Big Challenges, Real Solutions," "Working for Change, Working for You," "Ready for Change, Ready to Lead" and "Solutions for America."

Obama has stuck confidently with the slogan "Change We Can Believe In." Clinton must either get voters to stop believing in the change Obama promises, or make them an alternative Big Offer that they can believe in more.

But its not just a theme, it's a way of campaigning as well. Dionne points out that Clinton campaigns have always been top down affairs. But Obama, with his community organizing experience has excelled in the grass roots movement -- as seen both in his online giving receipts and his huge wins in the caucuses -- wins that have allowed him to take a sizable lead in the "pledged delegates as opposed to the less fixed Supers.
Will he win in the end, we don't know. But he seems to have a strong game plan. If things continue as they have, then his methods might just work.

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