Thursday, July 17, 2008

Barack Obama Should Do The Howard Stern Show



Granted, the one in five Hillary Clinton holdouts identified by the latest Quinnipiac poll probably won't cotton to the idea of Senator Barack Obama pitching woo to Howard Stern (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). That having been said, Stern's estimated 12 million listeners are exactly the type of "Hillary Democrats" that Obama has a problem in closing the deal. How better to address them than on the program? Obama, a former University of Chicago law professor, probably has views on free speech and the XM-Sirius merger that would warm the cockles of Howard's twisted heart. In 2004 the Stern show was pro-Kerry, and, it could be argued (and it should) that the Democrat party is a better fit for the Stern audience.

Stern, who strongly identifies with effectiveness, was ab initio pro-Hillary in the primaries. Senator Clinton is a known quantity to Stern, a native New Yorker, and she has a history of "getting things done," and, as we learned in the later primaries, is one hell of a come-from-behind (no pun intended) fighter. "Fighting," and "getting things done," are virtues to the Blue-collar working crowd; Obama, a bit of a political newbie, has yet to nail down either of these qualities down in the popular consciousness. This is why speaking directly to Stern -- with some humor but with more dignity -- would go a long way in making the working class white vote comfortable with pulling the lever for Senator Obama in November.

Earlier this week, Stern -- and his co-host Artie Lang -- both expressed the cold, hard fact that they were leaning in the McCain direction. Lange just returned from a USO comedy trip to Afghanistan and the national security issue -- the political instability in the country and the fragility of the West's position there -- strengthened McCain's position as the fallback. The extreme honesty expressed on The Howard Stern Show makes that revelation, to those willing to do the math, a key insight into the mind of the working-class white vote and how it might break. And that doesn't augur well for Senator Obama, who isn't making nearly enough headway with that demographic. From Marksfriggin:

"
Howard asked Artie who he's going to back in the election now that he's been over there. Artie said that's interesting. He said that he spoke to this kid over there about the oil companies backing the Taliban. He said that he also told him that the Military are going to the farmers that the Taliban are going to and trying to convince them not to deal with them. Artie said that the kid was telling them that when a politician says that they're going to pull the troops out as soon as they can, they assume that it's the troops in Afghanistan that are going to be pulled out. They don't know that it's Iraq that they're talking about.

"Artie said that if the military is pulled out, the Taliban will come in and slaughter them. The Taliban goes over and tells the farmers that they're going to be pulling out and they have no future. Artie said that he's leaning toward McCain right now ..

"Artie said that he was for Obama for a while but now he's leaning toward McCain. Howard said that he's thinking about voting for McCain now too. He's pissed about the merger situation for XM and SIRIUS and it's driving him nuts."


Barack Obama going into the belly of the beast -- The Howard Stern Show -- would be magnificent radio theater, and, quite possibly a tipping point with regards to how the white working class vote breaks come this November. The Corsair cannot recommend this more strongly.

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