Obama Suddenly Riled

SFGate reported Sen. Barack Obama ditched his normal languid cool today, punching back at Gov. Sarah Palin as he spoke with reporters in York, Pa, hotly defending his work as a community organizer. He said he assumes Palin "wants to be treated same way guys want to be treated, which means their records are under scrutinty. I've been through this for 19 months. She's been through it, what four days?"

And already she's got you riled up.

Obama's hackles were clearly raised by Palin's dismissal of his community organizing --a response to his earlier dismissal of her record as a small-town mayor. "Why would that kind of work be ridiculed?" Obama said.

Why would he dismiss the work of a small-town mayor. At least she had a budget to meet, a town council to interact with, city employees to deal with, etc.

"Who are they fighting for?" The idea that community organizing is not relevant to the presidency, he said, just shows why Republicans "are out of touch and don't get it."

And Obama thinking that working as a community organizer somehow qualifies him to be president?????

The Obama campaign was clearly on the defensive today, acknowledging how appealing Palin came across, and sending out surrogates hitting their talking points that Republicans have spent their time on attacks rather than substance.

So rather than provide substance to show he is qualified to be president, his surrogates are just going to attack.

Palin nearly hit Obama's record 38.4 million viewers for his Denver acceptance speech. The Nielsen ratings show she drew 37.2 million viewers, despite being shown on six networks to Obama's 10.

Now I understand why he is ticked off. She almost got better ratings than he did. And did it with fewer networks carrying the speech. And maybe he also heard Presidential candidate John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention drew more television viewers than his rival Barack Obama attracted at the Democratic party's event last week, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

Obama said the "essential question" of the campaign is "who's got a better plan and agenda to move this country forward and fundamentally change it from the economic and foreign policy failures we've seen for the last eight years."

And I suspect they will go with a team of two maverick, both with proven histories of going after waste, abuse, and fraud even by members of their own party, combined with examples of working across the aisle to improve things for their constituenties, rather than just themselves or their party.