" But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."
George Bush August 13, on why he did not meet with Cindy Sheehan, reported by Ken Herman of Cox Enterprises
The erosion of your image, your support and your popularity often doesn’t begin with some big crisis or a cataclysmic rockslide in popularity. It begins with a small pebble bouncing down the hillside - a pebble that held a larger boulder in the balance. Bush’s image of callous incompetence did not begin in late August of 2005, with the image of people sleeping on overpasses in a flooded New Orleans. It began earlier in the month when he refused to meet with Cindy Sheehan, a Gold Star mom who wanted to speak to him about Iraq. When Bush went bike riding with Lance Armstrong rather than taking the time to shake the hand of a woman who had lost her son in Iraq, the President changed his narrative from being a compassionate conservative to being selfish and unconnected.
This change set the framework for the narrative of Katrina and made it easier for the American people to believe their President was callus and self absorbed. Had he shaken Sheehan’s hand and listened to her, Americans would have more likely seen him as compassionate and caring. That view would have helped him get through the Katrina debacle with much less damage.
Why bring this up now? Because this story holds a lesson for President-elect Obama. Somewhere out there is a pebble that will start bouncing down the hillside. It will be a missed detail, an opportunity stepped past – or the insensitivity of a choice.
Is Rick Warren his pebble?
For Obama, the choice of Warren presents several dangers. First, it could end the narrative of Obama as change. Selecting Warren for the invocation gives a nod to a man with unpopular and bigoted ideas. Obama looks like any other politician pandering to the hard right. Second, Warren will remind people of the controversy around Rev Wright. People will start wondering about Obama’s true beliefs. Is he the progressive who fought fiercely for gay rights or is he the candidate who kept quiet about Prop 8 and regularly came out against marriage equality? Obama’s “Mr Cool”, remote demeanor, gives so little away that people will come up with the answers based on the clues they find.
During the campaign people looked at Rev. Wright as a clue of Obama’s true beliefs. The conclusion people drew nearly killed Obama’s candidacy. He was able to change that narrative with a brilliant speech.
It is hard to change your own narrative once it sticks. Romney tried and failed. So did McCain. Bush is trying it now. It is not easy to do once, nearly impossible to do twice. Obama was able to change the narrative after the Rev. Wright controversy. Will he be able to do it again after Rev Warren pronounces his blessing on the inauguration?
1 comment:
President-election Obama is looking for ways to bridge the red-blue divide so we can start to address important issues crucial to our nation's survival.
Obtaining energy independence, expanding access to health care and fixing our economy is a lot more critical to our nation's future than a few social issues.
Obama is reaching out to Warren (one of the more moderate evangelical leaders) to help build the kind of broad national concensus needed to govern effectively.
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