The "Blurry" President

The senatorial victory of Scott Brown , a Republican in the largely Democratic Massachusetts, should not have been a big surprise to the Democratic Party.

They had to know that they have been doing a sloppy job of packaging their candidates and their health reform bill…and yet have continued nonchalantly on their way. Has the Party so quickly forgotten how effectively Obama was packaged: the engaging smile, the audience outreach, the simple to remember “yes, we can” slogan. Americans like slogans and memorable phrases with a message. They take to candidates who engage them.

Scott Brown had those qualities. Martha Coakley was snippy. Why run a chancy, audience-insensitive candidate in an election where your life depends on it? And you need to build upon the legacy of the man who “founded,” “pioneered” and fought hard to get health care reform before he died.

Where is Obama’s leadership? Who can really define the health reform bill in a few sentences, if not a few words? No one. The Republicans used one word that everyone can remember: “expensive.” What happened to the so-called best communicator among Presidents since Ronald Reagan? As Frank Rich of The New York Times said in a telephone interview with Don Imus on FOX Business Network the other day, he’s gone “blurry.”


Technorati Tags: Scott Brown,
Martha Coakley,Frank Rich, Obama,
communications, public relations, Makovsky