NPR: Obama Called His Shot--But Was it a Home Run?

Obama Called His Shot--But Was it a Home Run?

Filed under: Election 2008

Barack Obama at an agriculture summit in Iowa

David Lienemann, Getty Images

Seventy-five years ago this month, as legend (and some grainy video) has it, Babe Ruth called his shot. He gestured to the outfield bleachers just before a pitch to let the fans and opposition know he was about to hit a home run, then he hit a home run. Babe Ruth was a badass.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called his shot on Sunday, when he told the New York Times he was about to start going after the front-runner Hillary Clinton more aggressively. But I don't know if he was as successful as the Babe.

I'm interested in the strategy of announcing your strategy before executing it. It seems that announcing a strategy shift like this one days before starting it might take away some of the spark that the shift might generate. Conversely, you might argue that announcing the strategy before executing it prepares the media and the voters to accept a difference in tone.

I just wonder if it helped Obama that, all day Monday and Tuesday, at events like that MTV town hall, he ended up in this annoyingly meta situation where he was talking about the strategy instead of actually executing it, which he finally started doing last night.

I'm not sure whether Obama's approach was effective. I don't have an opinion yet. Please give me one.

Dan Pashman

12:55 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink

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