KEY POINTS:
Back in 1995 it would have seemed like meeting just another group of left-wing academics in liberal Chicago.
Barack Obama, then about to be an Illinois state senator, was taken to an activists' gathering at the house of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. So far, so innocuous. Except
now Obama is running for president and Ayers and Dohrn - both Illinois professors - were once members of the Weather Underground, a radical 1960s group that planted bombs across America.
Thus the long-forgotten meeting resurfaced late last week in a story on the respected politics website Politico under the blaring words: "Obama once visited '60s terrorists."
For a candidate long used to an overwhelmingly positive press, it was a jarring headline. But with Obama's new status as the Democrats' frontrunner, a media backlash is gathering pace.
In the New York Times last week, two influential columnists weighed in with brutal attacks against Obama. David Brooks called him a "trophy messiah" and Paul Krugman claimed Obama's campaign was " ... dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality".
In Newsweek, under a headline "The Obama Delusion", Robert J. Samuelson wrote about a gap between Obama's rhetoric and his views.
And in the Boston Globe, Obama supporter Margery Eagan expressed her own doubts about her pick. "I'm nervous because John McCain says Obama is an 'eloquent but empty call for change' and in the wee, wee hours a nagging voice whispers: 'Suppose McCain's right'."
Across the pond, the Times' United States editor Gerard Baker wrote an article entitled: "Is America ready for this dangerous leftwinger?" And the Sunday Telegraph yesterday questioned his "cult-like" rallies (see B3).
ABC's respected Nightline show ran a segment on Obama's often wildly enthusiastic supporters and compared "Obamamania" to the Beatlemania of the 1960s. Anchor Terry Moran asked: "Is this a political movement or a personality cult?"
On cable channel MSNBC, a hapless Obama backer, Texan state senator Kirk Watson, was harangued by host Chris Matthews to "name any" of Obama's legislative achievements. When Watson failed, the clip became a huge YouTube hit.
Many observers say that a backlash against Obama was inevitable after 11 straight wins against his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, had sent her campaign into a desperate tailspin.
"We are going to see this backlash. The press has been enthralled by Obama, but I have no doubt that is going to change," said Professor Jack Lule, a communications expert at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.
Obama's relationship with the press has been almost entirely positive so far. Paradoxically, this is despite his campaign team's adopting a distant approach to many reporters assigned to cover him. Clinton, in contrast, now makes a point of personally chatting to the media following her.
"He is a unique candidate. He is a path-breaker. That makes it harder for reporters to treat him like a normal candidate," said Professor Cary Covington, a political scientist at the University of Iowa.
That phenomenon has undoubtedly exasperated the Clinton camp, who frequently complain that Obama's record has not been examined in the same detail as her own by the press pack.
Though Obama holds only a narrow lead in the number of delegates needed to win the nomination, all the political momentum is with him. For the first time Clinton's key staff are using the F-word - frontrunner - to describe their opponent. But they are hoping that will finally lead to intense media pressure on Obama that could yet unseat him.
"Mr Obama is the frontrunner. There will be increased scrutiny on him and his qualifications to be president," said top Clinton strategist Howard Ickes.
That scrutiny will lead to more stories like that of Obama's meeting with the former Weather Underground militants. It will also lead to a willingness to pounce on any perceived mistakes.
Thus last week Obama's wife, Michelle, faced off criticism after she appeared less than patriotic at a campaign rally in Wisconsin. "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country," she said. The remark was seized on as anti-American by many commentators, forcing the campaign to stare down a rare surge of criticism and clarify the remarks.
At another rally, in Dallas, Obama paused to blow his nose and received a round of cheers. That prompted withering headlines, too. "Even blowing his nose, Obama gets applause," snickered the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper from Obama's adopted hometown.
"Right now, there are people digging all over [Obama's record]. I have no doubt about it," Lule said. The key question is whether there is anything to find. So far, little that is dramatically new and damaging has emerged.
The New York Times researched an article on Obama's self-confessed drug use while he was at college, but the story, when published, actually appeared to find less evidence of drug use than the candidate had already admitted to in his autobiography.
The second vital area is that time is growing short for the dynamic of the campaign to shift. Attention is now firmly focused on March 5, when Texas and Ohio vote. Clinton's campaign admits that she needs to win both. She is narrowly ahead in both races, but Obama's support tends to surge as election day nears. In short, Clinton needs an Obama gaffe or a hitherto unknown scandal.
"The real thing here is whether the press can get at Obama in time to change things. Will that dynamic shift before he gets the nomination or afterwards, when it will be too late for Clinton?" said Covington.
Certainly Clinton's camp is preparing for a last-ditch fight. Yesterday she slammed him for campaign leaflets on her healthcare plan that she called "blatantly false" and accused him of using Republican tactics. Obama defended the leaflet as accurate and campaign spokesman Bill Burton decried Clinton's "negative campaign".
A group of Clinton supporters is seeking to bypass campaign finance laws and set up a group called the American Leadership Project. Because it is not officially linked to the campaign, it can take in large donations. It is aiming to raise US$10 million ($12.4 million) and its adverts will start to air in Ohio and Texas tomorrow. Obama campaign officials have compared it to the Swift Boat group that campaigned against John Kerry in 2004's presidential race.
Such tactics cannot hide the fact that the Clinton camp is in deep trouble. Much of the top leadership still remains deeply split over the right tactics. Some favour continuing to emphasise her experience and others want a new aggressive campaign.
But many experts believe Clinton should not be written off. "She is behind. There is no question of that. But she can still win it," said Covington.
- OBSERVER