One reason why Barack Obama's campaign may be having trouble taking flight was illustrated over the past several days. Obama used what could have been an opportunity to engage General Petraeus to instead, in one observer's words, "speechify." And he gave a reasoned point-by-point speech as to how he would end the Iraq conflict that may have impressed the folks at Brookings and Harvard but didn't go much beyond that.
In contrast, John Edwards
stole the spotlight and the audience by purchasing several minutes of TV time after the Bush Iraq speech to deliver his eloquent rebuttal.
The problem is that presidential campaigns aren't won by the candidate who can make the best intellectual policy prescriptions in an almost professorial fashion. They're won by the candidate who can control the broad agenda and thus appear presidential. Over the past few months, it's clear that Hillary has been doing this far better than Obama. As the events of the past week show, so, too, has Edwards.
The truth is that Obama should stop giving nuanced policy addresses and start talking in broad terms about where he plans to lead the country. Otherwise, he's going to be in huge trouble.
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