368 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographyhas hovered over Senator Barack Obama even as he has passed milestone after milestone in his race
for the White House: Why is he not doing better? ...”They’ve known John McCain for years,” Bill
McInturff, a pollster for Mr. McCain, said of survey participants. “But people say in focus groups,
‘Who the heck is Barack Obama? Had you heard of him before six months ago?’ And he’s 46 years
old. He’s somebody nobody knows about.” ... Mr. McCain is “running ahead of where he should be
based on the environment,” Mr. McInturff said. ... Even Mr. Obama’s advisers say they are uneasy
about his difficulty so far in breaking the 50 percent barrier — a reminder, in poll after poll, that
there many Americans who are not yet ready to cast their lot with him, and may never be.’^191
Nagourney was widely vituperated by Obama’s nutroots Myrmidons. Taylor Marsh, by now firmly
in the Obama camp, commented: ‘See, for those who haven’t been paying attention, American
voters don’t cheer for the champ or the smarty pants who seems full of himself, no matter how right,
no matter how good the policies he’s pushing. The do-gooder who can do no wrong. See Gore
2000, or Kerry.’^192 There was still time for Democrats to dump Obama.