El problemón de Obama

Time nos dice que Barack Obama tiene un auténtico problema que le impide hacer llegar su mensaje a los votantes de a pie. Atrae demasiado público a sus eventos de campaña. Tom Tancredo o Christopher Dodd deben estar deseosos de sufrir el mismo problema. Barack Obama's People Problem

(...) The Sunapee event, on July 19, was meant to be one of a more intimate series of gatherings that the Obama campaign has been trying to pull off in recent weeks. But the lure of Obama drew more than 500 people, many of whom drove for more than three hours from neighboring Massachusetts to this hamlet of 3,000. The candidate has proven he can draw rock-star-like crowds across the country. But he is having trouble limiting audiences so that he can focus on what is known as "retail" campaigning, in which candidates meet voters in calmer settings and spend more time answering their questions.

Obama's popularity has generated ample buzz, celebrity endorsements, and record numbers of donations — valuable assets for any campaign. His challenge now is to build relationships with voters in early primary states without tripping over his greatest strength: his own celebrity.

"It's frustrating to him — typically, the events are large," David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist, said the next day as Obama spent an hour shaking hands and working the rope line after a town hall meeting in Manchester. "When he was running for Senate, he thrived on that. We'd go down south and there'd be 12 people in a VFW hall. He really enjoyed that interaction." Now, Obama rarely gets the opportunity to meet people in such relaxed settings. "It's exhilarating to get crowds like this," continued Axelrod, gesturing to the Manchester crowd of more than 650, "but we are trying to mix it up a little and get smaller groups as well, so that the nature of the interaction is more personal." (...)