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Barack-Seat DriversBarack Obama does not need your two cents.

By Christopher BeamPosted Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, at 5:31 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

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Stop That Time Machine!
Second-guessing is normal. But buyer's remorse doesn't mean you return the puppy. As usual, Gail Collins talks the hysterics down off the ledge: "If [Hillary] had not been in the race, the Democrats would probably be bemoaning the fact that they hadn't stuck with John Edwards and nailed down the critical swing-state philanderer vote." Moreover, Palin was a last-minute decision made in response to Obama's choice of Biden—McCain may not have picked her if Obama had chosen Hillary. Then again, maybe that's the point.

Fewer Big Rallies!
By packing stadiums, Obama just plays into the Republican's "celebrity" caricature. "I would recommend any possible stagecraft to minimize the event's scale," Michael Crowley of the New Republic suggested prior to Obama's acceptance speech in front of 80,000-plus people in Denver. Replace the giant love-ins with small gatherings, says Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee: "[G]ive straight-up 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives."

More Big Rallies!
Are you crazy? Obama is made for big rallies. Since when was popularity such a bad thing? Strategy '08 called Crowley's advice "the worst I have ever seen this entire campaign cycle. Change Obama's strength because the Republicans will attack it?" The solution is more, bigger events since they emphasize Obama's "inspirational" appeal. "And, by the way," he writes, "there's no reason you can't give concise policy specifics in that forum."

Screw the 50-State Strategy
Sorry, Howard Dean. "Their 50-state strategy is insanity," said former Clinton pollster Doug Schoen. Best to focus resources on the swing states that need them most—Ohio, New Mexico, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan. There are signs the Obama camp is heeding this advice, dialing back advertising and pulling staff out of Georgia.

Screw the Swing States
Why settle for 50-plus-one? Arianna Huffington calls it the "tried-and-untrue swing voter strategy" and blames it for the party's "prolonged identity crisis." "[G]o after everything remotely in play," recommends Nerve blogger Brian Fairbanks. Obama's record-shattering $66 million August haul makes this strategy slightly less dubious—but only slightly.

Get Specific!
Change schmange, hope schmope. Let's get dirty. How would you provide relief for middle-income families? When would we be out of Iraq? Who would be your deputy secretary of transportation? Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland calls for "concrete, pragmatic ideas that bring hope and change to life." Others want even more details. "It wouldn't be bad if he came out early and said who his secretary of defense and secretary of state would be—that would address and stabilize the concerns about his experience," said former Louisiana Sen. John B. Breaux. Our FOIA request for the complete 2009 schedule of the White House screening room is still pending.

… But Not Too Specific
Numbers scare people. Give them examples of change, but nothing too boring or fact-laden. A recent speech on education "started out with lots of numbers," writes George Lakoff. "True, but dull. And he is promising more of the same policy wonk speeches. … [T]he old inspiring Obama just isn't there."

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The point here, of course, is that Obama can't possibly heed all this advice without occupying several parallel universes at once. It's a good thing, too. Had he accepted past unsolicited advice, he would have picked Tom Daschle as his running mate, accepted McCain's invitation to town-hall meetings, gone on the attack in January, and opted into public financing. Terrible ideas, all.

Which brings us to the second point about all this advice: Ignoring advice is an essential skill for any president. (And it's one they can learn a little too well, as the last seven years have made all too clear.) During the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy eventually rejected the advice of respected statesman Dean Acheson, who recommended an airstrike instead of a blockade. Obama is known for seeking dissenting opinion and calling on the quiet guy in the room. But there's a fine line between soliciting dissent and being buffeted by contradictory advice, à la Al Gore in 2000.

The trick, says one decision-making expert, is to get the advisers to talk to one another. Michael Roberto, a professor of management at Bryant University, calls this the "point-to-point" model, as opposed to the "hub-and-spoke" model, in which the leader confers separately with each adviser. By having advisers debate, the decision-maker is more likely to spot counterarguments he might have missed. Plus, he won't be biased toward more recent arguments.

Of course, Barack Obama is unlikely to gather all the advice-lending pundits, journalists, bloggers, party bigwigs, elected officials, and campaign staffers into the same room for a powwow. Not that anyone's advising him to do that.