A Strategy for Obama to Wrap Up the Democratic Nomination - By Ron Walters

With the Obama campaign so close to winning the Democratic nomination, strategy means everything when the course is peppered with thorny problems that must be handled correctly. So, let me throw out a few ideas that might smooth the way.

First, I want to acknowledge the fact that Barack Obama’s campaign played a masterful hand in confronting the problem of the re-vote in Florida and Michigan by doing absolutely nothing. My fear was that it would yield to the proposal in Florida for an election re-vote or a mail-in balloting scenario just to appear to be fair to the delegates.

Similarly, in Michigan, the proposal to re-schedule a vote found Hillary Clinton in the state criticizing the Obama campaign for duplicity in not joining with them, in effect, to cut its own throat.

In the end, the Obama campaign did not come to the table and both proposals crashed and burned, leaving only the option of seating both delegations, but dividing them equally so as not to affect the existing distribution of delegates.

Second, assume that the video showing Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaching will continue and that it will not be eliminated by the marvelous speech that Obama made in his defense, because the media obsession will remain and it will be regurgitated by either Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

Just check the snide reference of Bill Clinton that it would be wonderful to have “two people who love the country” like Hillary and John McCain running, as an example. So, there must be an offensive move to take the venom from Rev. Wright by elevating his life in a manner that exposes a positive parallel narrative that competes with it. This cannot be done, however, by the Obama campaign, in my judgment, but by those in the religious community who understand Rev. Wright’s contribution better than others.

Third, the Obama campaign desperately needs to craft a powerful populist message to accompany the speech on race, showing that poor Blacks and poor Whites have more in common in practical terms than they do differences. That would enrich the substance of the challenge to move beyond race (racism) that was contained in his speech to achieve higher economic common ground.

So, Obama should go into the Pennsylvania blue-collar ghettos, but also into North Carolina and beyond with a theory and a program to challenge age-old cross-racial resentments, part of which is founded on economic disadvantage.

Fourth, the campaign should refer repeatedly to the double standard in the media that does not repeatedly air the fact that Sen. John Mc Cain sought the endorsement of Rev. John Hagee of Texas who has called the Catholic Church “the great whore” and “a false cult system.” Video clips of his sermons exist at (http://www.jhm.org/ME2/Default.asp) but none of these statements have been shown. Neither has the major media shown the video of Rev. Rod Parsely of Ohio, who McCain once referred to as a “spiritual guide” and who referred to Islam as an “anti-Christ religion” and Europe as a “Godless pit” on video clips distributed on YouTube.

McCain has not been dogged by the media to separate himself from or to repudiate these individuals or to explain his relationships.

Fifth, the campaign should project to the super delegates the notion that moving forward into the general election campaign, one of the most salient facts in their selection of a nominee should be the viability of each campaign’s capacity to raise and utilize money.

As of the last quarter, the Clinton campaign has raised $30 million, but has only $3 million on hand and $8 million in debts. By comparison, the Obama campaign raised $50 million and has $31 million on hand and virtually no debt. This means that Obama is in a better position to compete the rest of the way and to raise funds rather easily for a general election contest, while the difficulty the Clinton campaign has had with both raising money and spending it wisely should be alarming. Which one would you choose?

The recent news that Obama’s passport file has been breached by contract workers tells us that someone is using every means at their disposal to craft an opposition strategy against him, so his must be top notch. More about that later.

Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Center and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park.