Obama campaign optimistic of making a dent in the Republican South; Obama for expansion in the delivery of social services through religious organisations; Lake: Iran crisis the biggest American foreign policy challenge; McCain revamps his campaign team
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    • Reports noted that the Obama campaign was optimistic of making a significant dent in the conservative pro-Republican South where no Democratic presidential candidate had been able to perform creditably since the 1960s, with the exception of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Sen. Obama’s strategy was based on the fact that Democrats generally garnered 9 out of 10 African-American votes, despite the low levels of support among American Southerners. Obama also planned to target the ‘progressive’ younger sections of the Southern demography. A necessary first step in convincing these sections to vote for the Democrats is to drastically increase the number of registered Democratic voters, and thus decrease the share of white Republicans out of the total Southern voters. While some analysts have complimented the Democrats for taking the plunge and have argued that over the last few years, the American south has moved beyond its traditional conservative stand, others remained skeptical. They assert that the pro-Republican conservative tendencies were too deep rooted to be displaced in the current elections, especially when an African-American candidate was contesting on the Democratic ticket. They also point out that both Carter and Clinton had carried some of the South by appealing to the voters as centrist Democrats, while Barack Obama stood left of centre1.

    Having chalked out this strategy, it seems that the Obama camp immediately began its efforts to chip away at the margins of the moderate evangelicals and gain a foot-hold in this particular Republican support base. Senator Obama announced in Ohio - where President Bush had launched a major voter registration drive - that if elected, he would expand the delivery of social services through churches and other religious organizations. Though this appeared to be the same policy position taken by President Bush - which he however fell short of fulfilling, there was one radical point of departure. Sen. Obama opposed the possibility of federal-aided faith-based institutions practicing discrimination in jobs and in educational opportunities against non-members of the community. Reports pointed out that Obama was helped by several former Bush administration officials in shaping his current stance on the issue, including John J. DiIulio Jr., who was director of Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001. Obama’s proposal seems to be paying off as it has been met with praise from leaders like the Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent spokesman for liberal evangelicals2.

    Meanwhile, elaborating on Sen. Obama’s proposals for dealing with Iran, in an interview with the Financial Times, Anthony Lake, the former US national security adviser who is assisting the Obama campaign, stated that the current crisis was the biggest American foreign policy challenge. Lake added that Obama on his part would push Europe to agree on tougher sanctions against Tehran. On the issue of troop withdrawals from Iraq, he urged the administration to learn from the traumatic withdrawal from Vietnam3.

    While the Obama camp was gearing to court the moderate Republicans, the traditional support base of the campaign took a strong objection to Sen. Obama’s support to the legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants. Over the last few days, over 7000 of Obama supporters registered their protest on his campaign website and were urging him to reverse this decision. Mr. Obama’s support to the version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which he had opposed during the primary campaign and vowed to get it overturned, has disillusioned his most loyal support base, including liberal bloggers and commentators and young supporters. The bill was expected to come to a vote on the Senate floor on July 15. This decision, reports noted, was one among a number of similar decisions made by Mr. Obama in recent weeks aimed at pushing him towards the political centre as the general elections loomed4.

    On the republican side, Sen. McCain unveiled a set of proposals for fighting the rising crime rate in America - including tougher laws, among a host of other measures5. Sen. McCain was also set to revamp his campaign team for the second time over the past year after concerns being expressed by the Republican party that his candidacy was faltering. McCain shelved the plan of having 11 regional managers to run the campaign and has instead appointed a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 campaign, Steve Schmidt, who had worked closely with Karl Rove, to be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the campaign. Reports noted that the move would imply a sharp diminishment of the responsibilities of Rick Davis, who has been McCain’s campaign manager since the last shake-up nearly a year ago, as well as lead to an increase in the influence of the Karl Rove camp6.

    In other developments, Sen. McCain visited Mexico and reiterated his proposal for immigration reform and the need to build a wall on the Mexico-US border. Though the Senators’ Republican colleagues have criticized his trips to Mexico and Columbia, analysts pointed out that these may actually benefit his campaign as they would help promote his support for issues like free trade and immigration reform7.

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