Bird’s-Eye View

One thing many Republicans love is decisive leadership. They want that leader who can make choices using his or her gut instincts, which is one thing that helped sink Democrat John Kerry’s campaign in 2004 and could significant damage Barack Obama’s in 2008.

Hillary Clinton tried to use this tactic in the Democratic primary, but I think the GOP will be more effective - taking Obama to task for voting “present” 129 times in the Illinois state Senate. What voting “present” means is avoiding a “yes” or “no” vote for whatever reason. Now, according to the Associated Press, Obama did this 129 times out of more than 4,000 votes, which boils down to 1 in every 31, but the GOP’s gonna throw this out there as a way to paint Obama as indecisive.

I asked U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. about this issue, which the GOP used several times last night. Here’s what he said:

One of the benefit of a real tough primary is a lot of these issues have already (been talked about). It’s fear and smear, divide and conquer. They’re going to try the scorch-the-earth tactics, adn that’s not going to work.

I think Senator Casey missed the point, and Obama had better find an appropriate answer.