1. He should have waited to run until 2016 when he had assembled a stronger record to back his charismatic appeal. (obviously can't be fixed now.)
2. He shouldn't have focused on the small caucus states. While it won him the nomination, he failed to have a plan for the larger swing states he will need in November. To date, I'm still not seeing enough of an effort -- or results -- in PA, Michigan, FL and Ohio.
3. He put too much emphasis on southern states with large AA populations that are unlikely to go Democratic in November.
4. Even in larger states, he focused on the metropolitan areas with greater percentages of non-whites. He needed to sell himself to rural voters across the country.
5. He should not have dropped out of the Michigan primary. Once he did, he should have quickly accepted Hillary's offer of an early and fair resolution of both MI and FL -- including a revote. His delaying tactics and refusal to commit made him appear to be playing unfairly and alienated millions of Hillary supporters, as well millions of FL voters.
6. He shouldn't have brought Oprah Winfrey in to make his case, which was the beginning of his rock star image and appearances in arenas instead of more traditional campaign venues.
7. He should have addressed and sharply criticized the press for its treatment of Hillary, thereby not alienating so many of her supporters when he won the nomination.
8. He shouldn't have played "guess who" and "it's a secret" so long with his vice presidential nominee and he shouldn't have picked Joe Biden, the definition of old style politics in Washington. He should have picked Hillary to maintain the buzz and the excitement. Aside from Hillary, he should have picked Gen. Wesley Clark.
9. He picked the wrong campaign themes -- hope and change-- targeting the young-- but leaving older voters with the perception he had no substantive policies to back them up. They were too amorphous. So amorphous, in fact, that now John McCain has effectively co-opted them. It will be tough for Obama to get them back.
10. He's been less visible since the primaries, except for a day and a half at the convention. He came in Wednesday night. Even though it's tradition for a candidate to arrive later in the week, he said he wasn't bound by traditions. He should have come in Monday and done meet and greets and used the expanded personal media coverage to make inroads with Colorado voters. His vacation in Hawaii should have been postponed.
11. He needed to fight back harder against the assertion by pundits and candidates that Palin was as experienced as him -- and against Republican attacks at their Convention this week that he is too inexperienced for the job. His campaign people should have prepared and passed out concrete examples of his legislative and other achievements.
Right now I still see him as winning, but I believe in order to do so, he has to win the big swing states rather than count on winning the little ones like Colorado and New Mexico.
John McCain has been to Colorado umpteen times in the past few months. He's working the state hard. McCain would have had an easier time if Romney was on the ticket, since Colorado Republicans favored Romney over him in the caucuses 65% to 35%. But now he's sewn up the evangelical base and Colorado has a very high percentage of evangelicals -- mostly, but not all in Colorado Springs.
McCain/Palin will be campaigning in Colorado Springs tomorrow. Since I'm now fascinated by the huge overnight support of the Palin-enthused evangelicals and radical right for McCain, and the impact it may or may not have nationally on the election in November, I'll be attending the event (as media for Salon.com) to see it for myself.
So, back to my list of Obama mistakes. Did I miss any? Do you disagree with any? Which can he fix? What else does he need to do?
