What Happened?

Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States. One must extend congratulations while at the same time step back and ask how did a person with so thin a resume and with so many questionable associates get elected to the preeminent position in the world. President-elect Obama’s path to White House has been one of systematically eliminating roadblocks while benefiting from a remarkable set of circumstances. These comments will focus on the incredible rise of our next President.

1994: Obama runs for the Illinois State Senate--His incumbent opponent plans to step down but changes her mind. Obama challenges the names of the people signing her petition and has her removed from the ballot for lack of valid signatures. He then has all his other Democratic opponents removed from the ballot for the same reason.

2004: Obama runs for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate—A month before the primary a wealthy businessman holds a big lead over Obama and the other contenders. The press, however, uncovers that the businessman has ethical and moral issues. His campaign crashes and Obama wins the nomination.

2004: Obama’s potentially strong Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, is forced to quit the race because of revelations regarding his messy divorce. Republicans nominate a very weak candidate and Obama wins in a landslide. This makes him look very good since the GOP retains the White House and makes gains in other parts of the country.

2008 Democratic Primary: A year ago all the smart people agreed that Hillary Clinton was a cinch to win the Democratic nomination. Remember those days? The Democrats, however, had created a system of proportional representation with a heavy emphasis on caucuses in smaller states that limited Hillary’s strength in the big states. Meanwhile, the liberal press switches its allegiance from Hillary to Obama. There was no reporting on Obama’s associations until its too late to make a difference. So even though Hillary spent $250 million, gets the majority of the popular vote and wins almost all of the big states, Obama wins the nomination.

2008 General Election: Obama makes his Denver convention with a speech in front of 80,000 complete with Greek columns He has a huge money advantage facing a dispirited GOP tied to an unpopular President. With hours, however, everything changes as John McCain shocks everyone by selecting Sarin Palin as his running mate. Suddenly the GOP base is inspired, money starts pouring into McCain’s campaign and Palin does the impossible by knocking Obama off the front pages. Her spectacular convention speech make her an instant star. By mid-September McCain is ahead in the national and key state polls. Obama is off his game saying things like “putting lipstick on a pig” and Joe Biden is making a gaffe everyday. Then came the great economic downturn of 2008. Overnight giant banks and insurance companies are insolvent requiring an unpopular government bailout, the stock market plunges, and the wrath of millions falls on the incumbent administration and by inference on McCain-Palin. The press is relentless in stoking up the crisis while downplaying Obama's questionable associations and trashing Palin daily in order to drive down her approval numbers. In the end Obama wins by six points, has a significant electoral college margin and the Democrats make major gains in the Congress.

At every turn Barack Obama has benefitted from events and timing. His rhetorical skills have covered up for a thin record, and he has tapped into a nation's desire for "Change." What next? That will be the subject of our next blog.