Hawaii Obama-O!

It was the dog days of August that did in John Kerry. While he was out sailing, the GOP opposition was able to do him in. First, the act of sailing by himself fed in to the attack line that Kerry was aloof and "not one of us". Second, his summer vacation robbed Kerry of precious days to dig in in a key swing state such as Ohio, and eventually helped him to lose there. Finally, while he was drifting off, the Swiftboat ads were being unleashed, and Kerry was not in top campaign shape and did not realize how he needed to immediately fight back the over-the-top accusations.

Could the Obama campaign be such poor students of history and repeat Kerry's mistakes? Perhaps, they will be. Obama just recently returned from the Middle East and Europe. That trip was designed to prop up his somewhat lightweight foreign policy credentials. All in all the trip went well. However, the timing of the overseas expedition could not have come at a worse time. Just as he was leaving, the gas crunch and mortgage crisis had combined to make the national economy the number one concern among voters. So while Obama was basking in the applause of 200,000 Germans, most Americans had turned away from looking across the Atlantic and were focusing on their checkbooks. There can be no doubt that as the long week went on, many Obama advisors could only wish that their candidate would get home quickly to talk about monetary issues.

After Obama finally came back to the States, he faced the energy and economic crises head-on and has now begun to turn these issues into more favorable ones for his campaign. Still, his trip to Europe seemed to have frozen his lead over McCain to somewhere around a four or five national point lead in most polls.

There is something to be said about Republican strategists. They seem to have no trouble boldly going after their opponent and making outlandish claims and tearing down the character of the Democrat nominee. Turning the success that Obama had over in Europe, they have hit upon the weird idea that Obama is a celebrity that has a pretty face but has empty solutions. Whether these arguments are true or not, they do seem to have found some sticking power. Now would be the time for Obama to shed his above the fray aloofness, dispel these ridiculous ideas, and hit Senator McCain with as much stuff as possible to put the Republican on the defensive.

You would think all of this would make sense for the Obama campaign. So just as he is getting back in stride and hitting mid size and rural America, where will Obama be next week? That's right, thousands of miles across the Pacific in his home state of Hawaii. Time for vacation!

As we stated above, have the Dems not learned anything? There will be plenty of vacation time when and if Obama loses in November. He could go to the moon for all anyone will care at that point. There are less than three months to the election and Obama is going on vacation.

Oh you say, the Olympics will be going on. So, what about that? Except for NBC, the rest of the news outlets will have plenty of time to cover political stories. If McCain continues forging ahead with his town hall meetings across the American heartland, what will they show about Obama? Stretching out across some beautiful Hawaiian beach? Doing a hula dance? Trust me, the GOP can take a benign picture (i.e. Kerry's sailing) and turn it around to their advantage..

Most likely, Obama's handlers are still trying to paint his biography and want to fill in the blanks with this trip. But realistically, the time for all that has passed. People know more about him than you would think. He has been running for president for about a year and a half and has had more publicity that just about anyone else during that time (except of course - Paris and Britney!).

Cut the Hawaii trip down to a serviceable three days and get the hell back out on the campaign trail. When things get tough you have to fight hard for what you want. Remember, as Tom Hanks reminded us in "A League Of Their Own", there is no crying in baseball. And there damn shouldn't be any vacations in presidential politics.