BARACK OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS HAVE NO STRATAGY - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

The Barack Obama, Democrat no substance campaign has become the campaign desperately searching for a winning strategy but finding nothing but brick walls. At a time when strategy and a plan which has a singular direction for the final weeks before the election is necessary Barack Obama and the Democrats are scrambling to find something that works against a McCain/Palin ticket that has thrown them for a political loop.

The strategy failure began to an extent with Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the and of the DNC Convention. Prior to the Convention Obama's , "message," of hope and change, though lacking substance, played well to the public because it was exciting to some and it was so full of generalities in its lack of substance that other than those who were ideologically opposites of his liberal generalities, had nothing to actually point to as something to disagree with.

After all unless one is specifically on the opposite side of the political spectrum how to you argue against hope and change ? Then came the Greek temple acceptance speech where Obama moved from a broad based hope and change lack of substance message to the typical laundry list of liberal Democrat proposals that have been used by the left for more than four decades. Tax the rich, huge social spending entitlements which require massive government spending with the only real answer to find the money by large tax increases.

Then came the GOP Convention and the addition of Governor Sarah Palin to the ticket. Her addition added an aspects to this election that Obama and the Democrats not only did not expect but never dreamed they would have to develop a strategy for. First they never expected that the GOP running mate would be a women. Most expected McCain to pick Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty or a similar safe pick. Choosing Sarah Palin threw the Democrats into panic mode and that panic is still evident more than two weeks after the announcement of Palin.

Second the Obama campaign and Democrats were planning for and even counting on a general lack of unity in the GOP. While support for McCain was growing many in the GOP viewed his nomination as one they would vote for because they could not vote for the alternative but they was a general lack of enthusiasm. The addition of Palin energized the GOP especially the base.

Obama and the Democrats had expected that going into the final weeks of the election McCain would still have to shore up the base while trying to court the Independents and moderates and disgruntled Democrats. By having to spend time shoring up the base in the final push for November McCain, so the Obama campaign thought, would not have the political strength to win the Independent and moderate vote because of having to court the base.

By the end of the Republican Convention Democrats found themselves facing an energized GOP, an extremely popular woman as the VP on the ticket, and a John McCain with a message that changed the dynamics of the election as he was able to steer that message toward Independents and moderates as well as disgruntled Democrats because the GOP is completely behind the ticket.

So the Dems began attacking Sarah Palin finding every effort failing as they see the attacks stirring anger from all sides even their own party. For instance even the Democrat Governor of Obama's home state of Illinois has gone on the record as stating that the attacks against Palin are uncalled for.

The Democrats including the Obama campaign have fallen back to the old liberal scandal machine that claims the seriousness of the charge to be more important than actual evidence. As such they have attacked every aspect of Palin's life from her children to lies about her record in Alaska. Even to the point that the Obama campaign had the Alaskan Democrat party remove a web page from the Internet that praised Palin for her rejection of the bridge to nowhere proving that she NEVER backed it as the left accuses.

In trying to create a Sarah Palin scandal Obama and the Democrats have stopped campaigning against the top of the ticket, and concentrated on trying to defeat the number two on the ticket. Of course the media wing of the Democrat party have been all to willing participants in this scandal watch.

In their attempt to try and demonize Palin they have stooped to name calling and scandal driven lies that have angered and energized people against the Democrat ticket and toward the GOP. Additionally the Democrats have chosen to continue to stand on the wrong side of the singular issue that is affecting every American, the rising cost of gas and drilling for American sources of crude!

The decline of Democrats on this issue began before the conventions and escalated when Republicans spent five weeks staying in a protest session in the House during the August Congressional recess demanding that Pelosi return to Washington and vote on an energy bill. Now that Congress has returned energy and drilling have become front and center on the agenda and placed the Democrats on the defensive with a position they cannot defend to the American people who favor drilling by over 70%

The offshore drilling ban ends at the end of this month so Pelosi cannot table this issue any longer as she has in the past facing a loose, loose situation. If she forces a vote to extend the ban she angers the 70% who favor offshore drilling. If she allows the ban to just end allowing drilling she angers the enviro whacos who have been controlling the energy agenda through the Democrats for more than thirty years.

This combined with the rise and popularity of the McCain ticket has placed the Congressional races in contention for the November election. A situation that most had conceded to the Democrats. Before the conventions, Democrats had an eleven point lead with registered voters in polling that asked whether one would vote for a Republican or Democrat. Dems also had a seven point lead with likely voters.

In polling that was revealed in Friday a dramatic shift has taken place. With registered voters Democrats now only have a two point lead well within the margin of error or a statistical tie. With likely voters Republicans lead in the generic Congressional polling 50 - 45 percent. A full 12 point shift from before the conventions.

Facing the energized GOP fully behind their candidate, a formidable Vice Presidential candidate in Sarah Palin who stands the scrutiny test and in whom the left find a hard time in successfully attacking because she is a woman. And one who they have chosen to attack as inexperienced which has the adverse effect of reminding the electorate that the number one on the Democrat ticket is less experienced than the number two on the GOP.

Combining this with a leadership in Congress who refuse to get on board with the energy issue sinking the majority stronghold in Congress, the Dems are not only running scared but scrambling to find a working strategy with only seven weeks left before the election. All of this is spelling disaster for Barack Obama and the Democrats and victory for John McCain and Republicans.

Ken Taylor