Questions about Obama's "electability" never fail to raise our hackles and we go beserk in his defense. We feel an intense connection to his person and his message and disagree viscerally with his critics. I want to blog this, however, from my head rather than my heart - despite being ahead in delegates, Obama is still not winning significantly more than half of the electorate, and that's just the Democratic primary. If we really want him to win the White House, we have to face up to his weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and Obama has a little time from now till November to address them. He has to be unblinkered, objective and brutally honest in assessing himself and his opponents, both strengths and weaknesses. It means he has to win over those who have not voted for him, and who do not plan to. Not us. The ones who are concerned that rightly or wrongly, he doesn't love his country enough, that he may be an elite out-of-touch snob, that he is an inexperienced empty suit. That's been Hillary's fatal flaw - instead of wooing the Obama voters, her campaign insults, dimisses and derides them. It's her Achilles heel since the days of "Screw 'em!" to Southern Democratic voters who turned Republican. This is a mistake we must learn from - although we won't win over all the ones voting for Hillary or McCain, many are blinded beyond redemption (about 29% from the looks of Bush's approval ratings), we must win *enough* of them over. How can Obama win them over without pandering like a phony cardboard butter fingered bowler or Royal Crown-in-the-ass duck hunter? All those millions spent on ad blitzes that saturate and blanket airtime prove limited in their opinion-changing effectiveness. He has to remain authentic and truthful but it is time he talks about all these other things that the other half of America are concerned about. He certainly has to change his message, and if we care enough about sending him to the White House, we have to accept that his campaign might change its tone or direction. He has to prove himself to all these other groups by articulating his vision in a way that includes them. Someone as empathetic as him would be able to reach out and speak to them without condescension, that I'm assured of. I first thought of this because of a Peggy Noonan column blogged by PaDem: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/04/obama-and-america-is-there-a-p.php Let's be open-minded to constructive criticism and good advice about what the other half of the electorate think and feel. Instead of getting mad at Hillary, let's learn our lessons well from her. The ABC debate was a horrible debacle, but it served the function of exposing all the potential vulnerabilities to be addressed.