Cooling a Hyper-Sensitivity

Yesterday morning, it goes without saying, I was pretty depressed - a knee-jerk reaction, really, to a currently unfavorable trend for the Obama campaign. I feel I have regained a certain degree of composure and feel once again confident in Obama's (and in my opinion the American people's) future prospects. Here is where a little perspective is useful. When I think about the state of the primary race leading up to its last couple of months it was equally hand-wringing. But one thing Obama never did was listen to all the unsolicited advice calling for drastic actions. These actions betray desperation. Obama's actions on the contrary have always thus far been measured and appropriate to the task at hand - a quality that seems remarkably demonstrative of how he would approach crises as president and which reflects a temperament that has been conspicuously absent in the oval office over the last eight years. He avoids the knee-jerk reactions that seem all too inherently natural and necessary to the rest of us.  The following quote from the New York Times' Adam Nagourney is relevant here...

... Mr. Obama’s aides said they were confident with the course of the campaign. They said that, other than making some shifts around the edges, particularly in response to Mr. McCain’s effort to seize the change issue from Mr. Obama, they were not planning any major deviation from a strategy that called for a steady escalation of attacks on Mr. McCain as the race heads toward the debates.

[...]

“We’re sensitive to the fluid dynamics of the campaign, but we have a game plan and a strategy,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. “We’re familiar with this. And I’m sure between now and Nov. 4 there will be another period of hand-wringing and bed-wetting. It comes with the territory.”

This may sound typical of the rhetoric one would expect from a campaign that seems to have lost a bit of steam as of late. I would believe so as well had I not already been through this during the primaries when Obama was faced with a far more formidable candidate in Clinton.

At this point, instead of screaming, yelling, ranting and raving about what Obama should do, what opportunities he is missing, what line of attack he should be taking, I think we could all do ourselves a favor and realize that thus far Obama has proven not only to be a talented speaker, and someone whose stances on the issues jive better with the broader trends of the American populace, but also a talented and redoubtable politician.