Obama Losing Ground With Palin`s Entry Into Race

U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has espoused the themes of change and hope, is losing his campaign momentum.

Since Republican rival John McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate last week, both McCain and Obama are in a close heat in the polls.

Many experts say that by stressing their differences from incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush, McCain and Palin seized on Obama’s ubiquitous message of change and this spreads the perception that change is not the exclusive theme of Obama.

Another key element bringing Obama down is that the McCain-Palin team has enjoyed strong support from undecided white female voters, especially those who backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll Tuesday, white women have gone from 50-42 percent in Obama`s favor before the conventions to 53-41 percent for McCain.

A Gallup poll conducted the same day showed McCain was leading Obama 52-37 percent. Undecided voters’ support for McCain jumped 12 percent from 40 percent in a week.

Realizing the looming danger, Obama took the offensive against Palin by directly criticizing her. The war of words appears to be setting the course for the final two months of the presidential campaign.

In a rally in Virginia, Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.” This was in reference to Palin’s sarcastic comment on Obama’s aggressiveness in her acceptance speech last week when she said, "What`s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick!”

In this sense, Obama’s Palin bashing apparently stemmed from his sense of urgency to cut her influence early to remove a potential threat to his presidential bid.

U.S. media have covered the war of words between Obama and Palin, though McCain is the one running for president.

Democratic campaign strategists say Obama`s running mate Joe Biden should be more aggressive toward the Republican candidates, but he has drawn little media attention to the worry of Obama.

triplets@donga.com