We understand why a Republican like David Brooks would try to paint Obama like this, but why the heck is David Gregory saying it's a very interesting point? It's back to the "who would you drink a beer with" routine from rich, Republican elites that have nothing in common with the average, working class of this country. Does John McCain's 100 million dollar wife and their life style make him more like a Burger King guy or a Country Clubber? And let's ask Brooks when was the last time he ate at an Applebee's or TGIF? I'm just asking.
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Download DAVID BROOKS, "NEW YORK TIMES": Obama‘s problem is he doesn‘t seem like a guy who can go into an Applebee‘s salad bar and people think he fits in naturally there. He has to change to be more like that Applebee‘s guy and as he‘s done that he‘s become much more transactional. Much more, I‘m going to deliver this and this and this to you on policy.
Scarce says: "John Sidney McCain III is the son of a four star admiral and was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater His uncle was U.S. Army Brigadier General William Alexander McCain. John McCain? He graduated 894/899 of his graduating class at Annapolis. Without his father/pedigree he likely would not have graduated.
I‘ve been speaking to Obama campaign people in the last few days. I think they are a little too complacent about the fall election. I think they don‘t quite realize they‘re going to have to do a few big changes to get his identity more in tune with independent voters who right now see Barack Obama as Jeremiah Wright‘s guy and sort of a question mark. An attractive question mark.
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GREGORY: I think it‘s a very interesting point, Todd. And something that the Obama campaign needs to start contending with soon, what do you say?
PURDUM: I think it‘s an excellent point but I think Barack Obama‘s biggest strengths when he ran for the Senate in Illinois was how well he was able to campaign downstate. Let‘s not forget, his grandparents are as corny as Kansas in August. They are his mother‘s parents from Kansas. He talks ability growing up eating not only sashimi in Hawaii but Jello salad with grape halves which I can tell as a son of the Midwest is a quintessentially kind of Midwestern dish.
So if he could let that side of himself out and loosen up a little bit, eat a few donuts and hot dogs and not worry about his diet, it may sound trivial. I think that kind of stuff is stylistically important and I think he has the ability to do it and he certainly has the potential to do it, if he just pays attention.
GREGORY: I knew we‘d get an allusion to Broadway before long.
Thanks, Todd. Gene, your take on that?
ROBINSON: He‘s not an Applebee‘s guy? Is he an Olive Garden guy? I tend to take it more seriously when it‘s delivered by people who actually eat at Applebee‘s more than once in a decade.
GREGORY: You don‘t?
