Let Obama be Obama & McCain be McCain

I’m getting a sense that both candidates – but Barack Obama, much more so – are being overmanaged and overhandled. Barack Obama seems to spend a part of every day either distancing himself from seals and supporters (it seems this week Wesley Clark is not the Wesley Clark Obama knew and Obama’s done a another staggering backflip on an issue) while McCain is so busy playing everything down he seems almost moribund.

The press is not helping of course – the promise (or threat) of 24/7 coverage of Obama (who is hardly undercovered, as he gets 3 news features to every 1 for McCain) means the Democrat nominee’s every flub and misstep and triple-decker flip-flop (Obama is all over the place!) will be recorded. Free publicity is a double-edged sword. McCain, less interesting to the press, benefits from flying under their radar, but of course he also loses out on all the exposure which, having less money than Obama, he does need.

Happily for McCain, the Obama team and their supporters keep popping up (daily, it seems) talking about John McCain and telling him to stop talking about his military service. They seem not to realize that doing this serves to remind voters that McCain is a real war hero with command experience and 21 years in the senate, and that Barack Obama…is not.

Since most voters still harbor all-too-fresh memories of Sen. John Kerry snapping to attention and striking a salute before inserting his 4 month tour in Vietnam into his every pronouncement, the Democrats telling John McCain to “calm down” on his military service is setting off the hypocrisy gongs. They should maybe “calm down” with their advice.

Better yet – how about handlers, supporters and mouthpieces back off, altogether? Let Obama be Obama and McCain be McCain, and let them sink or swim on the basis of their policies and the management of their own campaigns, not on their magazine covers. Is it too much to ask?

A fun look back:

James Kechick Who’s smearing who?
Which candidate pays his female staffers better?