Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Obama: Madison Love, Old Magic, Broken Promises

UPDATE: Russ Feingold and Obama didn't appear together. Feingold spoke for a few minutes and left the stage. Then, Tom Barrett was up next to introduce Obama. Feingold never was on stage standing with Obama.
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UPDATE: Feingold to join Obama in Madison

In a Tweet to his supporters, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold said Tuesday that he had finished voting in the U.S. Senate in Washington and would join President Barack Obama today in Madison.

Here is what Feingold wrote: "@russfeingold Great day to be in Wisconsin! I made it! Finished voting and am proud to join President Obama at my alma mater.

Feingold had taken some heat for not being in Madison, though he had said weeks ago that he wouldn't be there because he hasn't missed a vote in the Senate.

Well, well, well.

Feingold will stand with Obama.

I'm sure Ron Johnson is very pleased.

Feingold and Obama together -- That will be a very rare sight indeed, almost as rare as Obama being seen going to church.

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UPDATE, September 28, 2010: Russ Feingold a No-Show AGAIN
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that when Obama holds his rally in Madison today, he'll be among friends.

File this story under "No kidding."

When it comes to picking favorable venues, a struggling President Barack Obama could hardly do better than the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, where he'll hold a campaign rally Tuesday aimed at mobilizing young voters.

How favorable?

Consider Obama's massive margins in Madison two years ago over both Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin presidential primary and Republican John McCain in the general election.

In one voting ward next to the Library Mall where the president speaks Tuesday, Obama defeated fellow Democrat Clinton 88% to 12%. (Obama received 1,122 votes in Ward 45, Clinton only 160.)

...Obama's lopsided ward-by-ward majorities are a reminder of the rare energy propelling his campaign at that time and in that place, epitomized by a roof-rattling rally at a packed 17,000-seat Kohl Center days before the February 2008 primary.

Given Obama's performance as president, that "rare energy" of 2008 proved to be undeserved. The dream didn't come close to materializing.
If there's any political downside for the president in picking this location, it's in inviting comparisons to that moment.

"Madison is certainly still friendly territory for President Obama, (but) I would say that his supporters are battle-worn and disappointed in a way they were not in 2008," said John Coleman, chairman of the political science department at UW-Madison. "As we learn for the thousandth time, governing is not the same as campaigning."

But the numbers also suggest that even for a politically diminished Obama, this is one of the most favorable battleground-state venues he could have chosen for a get-out-the-base rally.

Coleman nails Obama's problem. He doesn't know how to govern. He can campaign and fire up a crowd but his rhetoric doesn't match the reality he delivers.

I'm sure the masses will turn out for Obama this afternoon. They may briefly relive their 2008 euphoria; but for those with even the slightest grasp of reality, it will be short-lived.

It was wise for Obama to choose Madison for this "oldies nostalgia tour" since it probably is one of the few places left in the country still harboring a bastion of Obama supporters - a heavy concentration of the clueless, blind, and brainlessly Leftist.

This rally is almost an embarrassment, a sort of pathetic attempt to recreate the glory days of Obamamania.

Remember when?

An empty and rather sad nostalgia is clearly all Obama has to offer, false hope.

An event that can't help but highlight promises broken is rather weird.

Can Obama thrill the crowd and wow them with his same old magic tricks?

If he can do it anywhere, it's Madison. Almost anywhere else, it's a tough sell.


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