Obama’s Attack Works Because He Hits Republicans Where They Think They’re Strong
In tapping a righteous anger over the economic insecurity Republicans will impose on the American people, 44 shows the way.
This piece was originally published in The Nation. You can read the full piece on their website.
Over the weekend, Barack Obama made headlines for a barnburner of a campaign speech he gave on behalf of Democrats in Wisconsin.
Speaking about incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson, the former president railed, “If he understands giving tax breaks for private planes more than he understands making sure that seniors who’ve worked all their lives are able to retire with dignity and respect, he’s not the person who’s thinking about you and knows you and sees you, and he should not be your senator from Wisconsin.”
The clip has earned more than 14 million views. The words were important—but it was the delivery that sent it to the moon. This was not an observation delivered in the halting professorial cadence that came to characterize the Obama we knew as president. It was more “truth from the pulpit” than “talking points from the lectern.”
Obama is bringing two qualities to the table that most Democrats aren’t this campaign season. First, he offers Democrats a sort of catharsis for the pent-up frustration that I hear often out on the trail—that Democrats don’t hit back enough. But second, and perhaps more importantly, he demonstrated how Democrats can send a withering message about the economy without apology.
On the first point, Obama’s peroration draws a parallel to the speech from state Senator Mallory McMorrow from the well of Michigan’s Senate chamber, back in April, in response to a Republican opponent calling her a “groomer.” …