Obama's autumn road map

While Hillary Clinton runs around West Virginia, doing her best impersonation of a Japanese kamikaze pilot who is cognitively incapable of acknowledging defeat, there is a sense that the general election phase is about to begin.

Barack Obama signaled this on Tuesday, by delivering a primary night speech that was aimed squarely at swing voters. That speech is worth a closer look. It's premature, of course, to suggest that it constitutes a blueprint for autumn victory. But it does show how Obama hopes to frame his pursuit.

The third Bush term. This theme is no surprise. The aim is to suggest that John McCain and George W. Bush are joined at the hip. "We can't afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush's third term," said Obama, who then warned about "four more years of tax breaks for corporations...four more years of tax breaks for CEOs...four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and the wealthy...four more years of an energy policy written by the oil companies," and, of course, four more years of a ruinous war. The Bush-linkage theme polls very well; as I mentioned the other day, more Americans actually seem to view Bush as a heavier weight for McCain than Jeremiah Wright is for Obama.

Loving America. This is the big visceral issue that Obama has most needed to address. Fairly or not, he's viewed by many as perhaps insufficiently red, white, and blue. Maybe it's his name, his color, his exotic background; whatever it is, he has to wave the flag more, profess his love more. On Tuesday night, he did it by connecting patriotism to his personal story:

"This is the country that gave my grandfather a chance to go to college on the GI BIll when he came home from World War II...This is the country that made it possible for my mother - a single parent who had to go on food stamps at one point - to send my sister and me to the best schools in this country on scholarships...This is the country that allowed my father-in-law - a city worker at a South Side water filtration plant - to provide for his wife and two children on a single salary...It is the light of opportunity that led my father across an ocean. It is the founding ideals that the flag draped over my grandfather's coffin stands for - it is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Reintroducing himself. See above. A lot of potential swing voters still have no idea of who he is, notwithstanding his bestseller memoir. By filling in more biographical details, he intends to present himself as a typical product of the American dream.

Feeling people's pain. Arguably the best way to defeat the "elitist" tag is to show empathy for the everyday American. These passages sound like they were lifted from the Hillary playbook, but nobody ever said this guy was not a fast learner: "The woman I met in Indiana who just lost her job...The college student I met in Iowa who works the night shift...The mother in Wisconsin who gave me a bracelet...The man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job...The people I met in small towns..." Even the gun-clingers made the cut this time.

Deep-sixing the liberal label. McCain will try to hang it around Obama's neck, but his response (as previewed Tuesday night) will be that while government is not the answer, it is nonetheless essential as a backstop: " We believe in hard work. We  believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance...while we don't need big government, we do need a government that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators; a government that stands up for the middle class by giving them a tax break..." Then came the attempted patriotic tie-in: "Security and opportunity, compassion and prosperity aren't liberal values or conservative values - they're American values."

Fighting back. This theme was aimed at those Democrats who worry that he'll fold when the Republicans come after him: "Yes, we know what's coming...The same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn't agree with all their ideas."  But he made it clear that he won't simply counterpunch in the Clinton fashion ("that will just lead us down the same path of polarization and gridlock"). No, he wants to defeat attack politics by elevating the dialogue: "We will end it by telling the truth - forcefully, repeatedly, confidently - and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change." And then, again the patriotic tie-in: "I love this country too much to see it divided and distracted at this moment in history."

And that, ultimately, is his greatest dare - his intention to defeat low-road politics by walking the high road and inviting the voters to join him. Can he really win the White House with a successful appeal to the better angels of our nature? Even if he ends every speech as he did Tuesday night, by asking God to "bless the United States of America?" I'd suggest that this is the grist for a great novel, if not for the fact that it's happening live, in real time.

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If you work in Center City Philadelphia and have a lunch break tomorrow, stop by the Free Library's main branch at 1901 Vine St. - where I am scheduled to interview Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a public forum. The show starts at noon, and I'm leaving time for audience questions. Anything you're dying to ask this guy? For logistics, start linking here.