Off His Game

Ever since Sarah Palin was introduced a week ago, Barack Obama and his campaign have been on their heels. It didn't get any better today.

First, you had Obama deciding to go after Palin personally. It's not a smart move for a number of reasons, but I'll get to that in a moment. Here is what Obama said:

"I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change. And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. That is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can't just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up. We have a choice to make and the choice is clear."

Unforced error. Obama has no standing to criticize anyone about earmarks, of course, because he's been involved in it for $740 million, including an especially egregious $1 million for the hospital that employs his wife, Michelle. And of course the McCain campaign took that hanging curveball and promptly swatted it out of the park:

Barack Obama has requested the equivalent of one million dollars in new pork barrel spending for every working day he’s been in the U.S Senate, while John McCain has never once asked for an earmark, and Governor Palin has vetoed hundreds of millions in government spending including killing the infamous “bridge to nowhere”. Just like so many other issues Barack Obama is all talk, has no record to back it up and isn’t ready to make change. — Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

Here's the other part of the problem. Obama isn't running against Sarah Palin. Obama is running against John McCain. Every time he takes a swipe at Palin he does two things: he reminds people that he's even less experienced than his opponent's running-mate, and he also reinforces the notion that he's not especially, shall we say, chivalrous. His campaign threw a lot of elbows at Hillary Clinton and there were plenty of women who noticed. Now he feels compelled to do it to Sarah Palin and every time he does it, it works against him.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign continues to find ways to exploit the ridiculous spectacle that was his performance in Denver. His campaign made another unforced error after the convention was over: they apparently threw away over 10,000 American flags that had been left over after the circus left town. And the Republicans found out. David Harsanyi of the Denver Post tells the rest of the story:

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

Harsanyi says that he is certain that Barack Obama didn't order that 12,000 American flags be thrown away. I am certain of that, too. But they were in garbage bags on a dock, near a dumpster, and no one had come for them in the 10 days since the DNC ended. Further, I don't think it says anything about Obama's patriotism or the campaign's. But I do think it tells us something important about Obama and his campaign -- they are awfully sloppy and they aren't especially careful about husbanding their resources. 12,000 American flags must have some resale value; at a minimum, they could have been scooped up and passed out at future rallies.

Obama's campaign put out a statement about this:

In a statement, Damon Jones with the Democratic National Convention Committee said, "Stories circulating about flags from the Democratic National Convention are false. More than 125,000 American-made flags were distributed at the Convention - any flags removed from the Convention after the event were taken without authorization."

Jones continued by saying, "It's disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe their intended purpose. We have the utmost respect for the American flag and it's sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt."

Okay, but think about it: does that explanation make any sense? It sure didn't to Ed Morrissey:

They claim that the flags were “bundled” for return to their manufacturer. If so, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone bundling returned merchandise in Hefty bags and storing them “in and around dumpsters” while awaiting the RMA. . . . I sincerely doubt that these flags got sold to Team Obama in Hefty bags. And let’s try to parse this story down with some common sense:

Why would a manufacturer provide a refund on open product? They certainly couldn’t resell them, especially not after being left like this at Invesco.

12,000 flags must have cost at least $2,000 or so, and probably more. Once Democrats discovered the “theft”, why didn’t they report it to the police? It’s been more than a week apparently since they were “stolen”, and Team Obama just discovered it?

Leaving material in and around dumpsters, especially in Hefty bags, makes it look like trash. That’s hardly a way to store American flags, and it’s certainly not a way to keep janitors and waste management people from taking them to landfills.

Instead of just saying that their people made a really stupid error and apologizing, though, Team Obama decided to tell a ridiculous lie to get themselves off the hook.

That's sure what it looks like to me. Maybe one of my portsider friends can disabuse me of this notion. But in the end, what it looks like is that Obama and his campaign are really off their game right now. And they'd better figure start figuring things out soon, because right now they look pretty dumb.