Via a circuitous route on my Internet surfing, I came across an article written by William Galston at the Democratic Strategist. In the article, he outlines a way for Barack Obama to set the tone for the remainder of his campaign.
An Open Letter From William Galston

The article is lengthy and I will not repeat it verbatim but outline the points he made as advice to Obama to win the campaign:

1. Offer a coherent account of what has gone wrong with the economy
2. Offer a focused, parsimonious list of remedies for the economic ills you cite
3. Draw crisp, punchy contrasts between your plans and McCain’s
4. Make the stump speech no more than 15 minutes long
5. Provide coordination between an economic message and the rest of your campaign

What Galston repeatedly says in the article is that even though McCain is no where near the intellectual that Obama is, by distilling his message, fraudulent it may be, by harping on a few themes in a simple fashion, he is getting his message across better than Obama is.

There may be some truth to that. Many of us undoubtedly hear or read the transcript thereof of the speech Obama gave today in Colorado outlining his take on the situation facing the economy. He showed his understanding of the situation and the challenges it poses but also prescribing the solutions needed to fix it.

In terms of governance, Obama demonstrates his unmatched qualifications as compared to McCain. But to govern, he first has to win the campaign.

There are times I wish that Obama stays on a theme for more than one day. It seems that whenever the campaign tries something out in terms of messaging it and it starts to register it is confronted with a change in the campaign environment making it move onto to the next message. Part of that is because of pressure from the media and supporters to respond as quickly as possible. There are some things I wish they could sustain for longer periods like the McCain “I do not how many houses I have” gaffe which reflects the disconnect McCain has for the real economy. For media coverage, it last for just two days which is the usual lifespan of such things but what irritates me about it is that it was just thrown away and never incorporated in the larger picture that needs to be revealed about McCain in terms of his character and what he stands for.

The Sarah Palin wave is starting to recede now and the national polls are tightening now and moving in Obama’s favor. This was not unexpected. Question is whether Obama can create enough momentum to open up a clear lead on McCain.

Looking at Galston’s prescription for success, there was little harping on the emotion part. On Hardball, this evening, Chris Matthews played a bit of the speech today for Governor Richardson and Matthews asked where is the passion? There has been a lot of discussion on that topic in the past few weeks but Galston does not go there but he emphasizes that there must be a clarity in Obama’s message. Not necessarily dumb it down but make it succinct enough that a few phrases or moments will resonate with those who hear it.

This approach requires relentless focusing on the economy as the issue to the exclusion of everything else including Sarah Palin. In essence it is the old “It’s the economy, stupid” phrase from the Clinton campaign of which Galston was a part of in 1992.

While political junkies and pundits can relish the details of an Obama speech, most people do not have the time to do so. The soundbite era is truly alive and well but Obama’s message does not need to be reduce to that extent. Rather, just stay on message, repeat it often, keep it short so that when people are in the voting booth on election day but with their thoughts focused on their own personal financial situation, it will be Obama’s message that they will remember as the one that gives them hope that things will turn out better.