Obama Senses Gravity

After floating freely above the rest of the Democratic contenders for most of the year, Sen. Barack Obama has clearly begun to feel the downward pull of the string of missteps chronicled here over the past few weeks--pandering to the anti-American left on Iraq, subverting longstanding bipartisan positions on negotiating with foreign governments, threatening to invade Pakistan, kissing up to the Castro regime, and most recently, threatening to sabotage any ticket that doesn't have a black candidate. Obama seems to have begun to sense that he's running for second place, and there's not that much to be done about it.

Obama: A 'stretch' to see me as president

Here's a communications hint for the junior senator from Illinois: when addressing a concern in order to bridge to a selling point, don't repeat the charge against you--it merely reinforces the charge in the minds of listeners, and creates the impression that on some level you believe the charge has merit.