Image Obama

From the IHT comes this report:

At a rally for Senator Barack Obama in Detroit on Monday, two Muslim women said they were prohibited from sitting behind the candidate because they were wearing head scarves and campaign volunteers did not want them to appear with him in news photographs or live television coverage.

The Obama campaign said it quickly called the women to apologize after learning of the incident. "It doesn't reflect the orientation of the campaign," said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Obama. "I do not believe that mistake will be made again."

But the incident, first reported Wednesday by Politico.com, pointed to pitfalls the campaign faces as it moves into the general election and seeks to maintain control of Obama's image by tightly managing his public appearances.

With all of the talk of BHO being secretly raised as Muslim, it's understandable why this happened. But when you make the claim that you want to unite the country and be the leader for all of the people, you cannot make such decisions without inviting harsh criticism and blowback.

But this not the only area of image polishing. Let's read on:

The campaign on Monday barred cameras from a large gathering of African-American civic leaders Obama attended. It recently refused to provide names of religious figures with whom Obama met in Chicago and directed some of them to avoid reporters by using a special exit. And on Wednesday, the campaign orchestrated Michelle Obama's appearance on the friendly set of "The View" and a flattering spread in the pages of Us Weekly.

The goal here is two-fold. It's imperative to prevent another "clinging to God and guns" moment. And then, they want to paint an erroneous picture of a mainstream candidate, whose wife will sit down with the lovely ladies from the View and have a little chat.

The problems with this little game is also two-fold. One, it will eventually irritate the press, who has been so enthralled with him. Remember Chris Matthews' tingling down the leg comment? Much of the media has been very favorable to him and this can turn on him quickly, especially if there are more incidents like the fake out plane ride from DC to Chicago, earlier this month.

The second problem is the distance Obama creates between him and the people. "Don't look at me when I am addressing these radicals in private, there are things I need to say to them." Or, "this is off limits to the American people". This within itself isn't a big deal, except he's spent the biggest part of the primary campaign building a grass roots movement of the people for the people, one country for everyone kind of demagoguery.

Personally I think it makes him look like the arrogant candidate, in the mold of John Kerry. And in the end that may be his downfall, as it was Kerry's. People do not want a patrician, they want someone like them. They do not want a lord, they want a leader.