Obama has many great qualities...honesty, steadiness & calm, excellent judgement, intellectual brilliance, masterful speaking, great negotiating skills, etc. But getting through the McCain/Palin/Rove-media alliance to the public mind is proving daunting.
During the primary season Obama's greatest moment was his speech on race. The "big speech" format allowed him to use and display all his talents. The result was spectacular.
Why not use this "big speech" format to take back the initiative from the un-real McCain?
If Obama were to give, say, two or three speeches on unusual, riveting, traditionally taboo topics, demonstrating the depth of his abilities to reframe and heal difficult subjects, to bring people together, and to offer real change, this could reclaim the excitement and sense of surprising leadership that's been obscured by McCain's shameless lying.
Do you agree? If so, what topics do you think might work? Here are a few possibilities that occur to me.....
-- Truth, Lies, and Propaganda
-- Mythology vs. Substance in Politics
-- Leadership vs. Fronting for Big Backers
-- Affirmative Action
-- The Common Good
What do you think?
UPDATE: Another way to get across might be to use the Perot method, infomercials, basically. He used these to great effect on the subject of the deficit, which the media was covering only superficially. The result was that Bill Clinton got elected with only 42% of the vote, after Perot stole votes from Bush #1.