Confidence in Strategy Keeps Obama Cool

The polls may go up and down for Barack Obama, but his campaign stays as cool as if he were ahead by 10 points, writes John Dickerson in Slate. Why hasn’t Obama panicked?

• Maybe the campaign has panicked, but staffers don’t "dare let on because voters won’t want to elect a candidate who can’t take the heat."

• Last year, Obama supporters worried that he wasn’t making the right moves against Hillary Clinton: "In the summer of 2007, there were lots of Obama supporters who thought he should panic a little more."
• It’s been a good week for Obama anyway, between the economic news and Sarah Palin’s novelty wearing off. The Democrat can get attention without doing “anything flamboyantly out of character.”
• The campaign’s trying some new moves: tougher ads, more specifics on the economy. “The overall strategy and theme are the same—change vs. more of the same—but the campaign has adjusted some tactics.”