John McCain is using some of the same arguments against Barack Obama that Hillary Clinton tried, but will he be any more successful? Jennifer Rubin of the New York Observer argues that McCain has some things going for him than Clinton did not.
— The public’s fleeting attention span. “What was new and stunning in January — a mass rally of screaming young people — now seems ho-hum.”
— Continued world instability. “Unlike Clinton, he (McCain) really does have years of foreign policy experience and actually was under enemy fire. His support of the surge has been largely validated by events. In the wake of the Russian invasion of Georgia, McCain seems ready (indeed tailor-made) for the role of commander in chief if we are headed for a redux of the Cold War.”
— Different audience. “A broader-base general electorate may be a harder sell for Obama. Less starry-eyed working-class voters and those in McCain’s age bracket (who turn out in huge number on Election Day) may be the very skeptics to whom McCain can appeal.”
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51 Comments
Let’s face it,no matter who gets elected,we the people,are going to get screwed. The question is who do you want to do the screwing?
Don’t forget those who were helping Obama for less than noble means.
Oh come on! Point of order.
Senator Clinton did not fail.
SHE won where a Democrat can win in November. Barack Obama did not.
If McCain becomes President, it will be because too many people believed in a candidate that could game a win in the primaries with a strategy to LOSE the general election.
“McCain seems ready (indeed tailor-made) for the role of commander in chief if we are headed for a redux of the Cold War.”
—
I disagree strongly! McCain seems to be a warmonger itching for his very own war or two or three. He speaks of very little else. We need diplomacy, we need respect and tolerance much more than we need war.
The big difference is that the battlegrounds have changed. In the primaries BOTH candidates must play to the true believers. In many ways that is why McCain’s success was surprising since he at least used to be a maverick within the GOP. Howeverm in November the battle is for the middle. IF McCain can re-cast himself as the independent maverick he once was he might be successful there. On the other hand, if Obama can do likewise from the other side he could win there.
The battle is for the middle. Very few on either the left or the right are likely to go “Nader” this year.
linda – I think you hit the nail on the head. As voters realize that we need to be able to act in concert with our allies instead of singing “bomb bomb bomb everyone” McCain will slip. Especially with his self-serving lies about 21st century nations NOT doing what he advocates (bombing and invading other countries)
We certainly don’t need Casper Milquetoast aka Obama, who has zero experience in foreign policy or military matters.
I want Obama as President, and McCain as his VP, a it would provide a nice balance.
Obama would bring more starry eyed, libs together across the world, and McCain would keep us grounded in reality. I think we need both.
I think a good ad about McLame would be the one with Slim Pickens riding the bomb down. Could do it to the sounds of ‘Strangelove’ McCain singing …
“…but will he be any more successful?”
I agree with BJ. Obama barely won. TThough that is successful, I suppose. Hillary beating the crap out of Barack Hussein Obama was one reason the right thinkers loved it so much. She was writing our commercials for us. Her and her advisors bringing up past drug use, Obama maybe is less American, etc..
It looks better and better all the time.
I hope he chooses the walking gaffe machine, Biden. Biden of the “Obama is clean and well spoken”.
“A broader-base general electorate may be a harder sell for Obama. Less starry-eyed working-class voters . . . ”
It should read fewer voters. “Voters” is a count noun, not a mass noun.
Sheesh, this person doesn’t write for a living or anything, does she?
“Obama, who has zero experience in foreign policy or military matters.”
Right. We need someone with the experience and wisdom to get us bogged down in a never-ending war in Iraq in which we spend 2 billion dollars a week to protect ourselves from a non-existent threat.
Boy, how will we ever find “experience” like that again?
McSame.
As Afghanistan heats up, the folly of sending the brunt of our forces on a diversionary war will become more glaringly obvious, for the mistake it was and continues to be.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080819/wl_nm/afghan_violence_dc_14
Who was the last president that spent five yrs. in a cage getting foreign policy experience? Mccain is one of a kind!
Things that could cause obama to lose?
1. The youth “vote” is largely overrated. Gore counted on the youth vote also. Youth are notorious for not showing up at the polls. Old people show up like clockwork. Democrats love that they have the youth on their side. They better make sure youth actually get their asses to the polls. Somehow, they dont love voting as much as they like rock star rallies.
2. Obama cant connect with the majority of voters. He is still appearing aloof and speaks over the heads of the majority of voters. And no, I’m not calling him uppity or saying he doesnt look like the old dead white guys on the currency. He just doesnt connect with the masses. Mcsame doesnt either, but it’s all obama has. Begala had it right when he said “we cant win with just eggheads and minorities”.
3. You know mcsame isnt moderate. I know mcsame isnt moderate. But he has that label firmly sewn up. Obama wants to fight him for the middle? Knock yerself out, but you better bring a lunch and a jug of water because it’s gonna be a long day. And obama only has 70 days or so left to change something really entrenched.
4. Women are still pissed off at the treatment of Hillary, even if they werent too crazy about voting for her. Gays are still pissed off at obama even if he is SLIGHTLY less homophobic than mcsame. Democrats are taking these two voting blocks for granted because they think “what, they’re gonna vote for a republican? hahahahah!” you could see a huge stay at home block this year.
5. Pelosi and Reid give little hope for any real change. ‘Nuff said.
6. The heavy burden of high expectations. Or as I call it, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Obama maniacs and koolaide drinkers built him up to be the savior. Yeah, I know you dont like to hear that, but it is true. And it’s damn hard to be perfect and savior like all the time, 24 seven. By hailing him as SO much better than perfect, you gave the Hillary folks a good reason to sit back and say “prove it”. He hasnt.
7. Obama does not have his base locked down. He’s flip flopped on so many issues, like FISA and off shore drilling and ending the war, that he’s soft and squishy on what he really will do. And it contributes to him not being able to connect to the majority of voters. Gives people a real reason to stay home and sing “meet the new boss same as the old boss”. Mcsame has problems with his base too, so obama could really gain some votes from his own base. But he’s pissed off everyone but the hard core DLCers and the obama maniacs.
8. We predicted, given his performance in “debates” and forums against Hillary, that he would do poorly in them against mcsame. He did. See saddleback.
9. All this kumbaya crap from obama is not taking advantage of the anti-incumbent, anti-gop, anti-bush mood of the country. It might be gentlemanly, but it aint working. The polls are tightening.
10. And on the “polls are tightening” subject… Obama is going to get only a short lived bounce from the convention. Look for mcsame to announce his vp pick during or on the heels of the convention, drawing attention away from the democrats. Then the GOP convention follows within days. Not good given the short media and news cycles. Democrats traditionally need that convention bounce. Obama’s not gonna get it.
Ok, so those ten points are longer and not as brilliant as Micheal Moore’s five ways obama can lose. That’s why he’s a millionaire and I’m not.
But mark my words during the election post post game analysis. And obama can ignore these points at his own risk. If so, he better be bleating “hope and change” harder and faster.
…and where TF is Donald Betts? Why isnt my man stomping toddly into the ground and rubbing his nose in the bush mess all day and all night?
He could win, but if he doesnt get off his ass, he wont. Ya dont unseat a republican incumbent in kansas by doing nothing.
Obama won with the starry-eyed left. Barely.
But the electorate in the general election is not the starry-eyed left. And the general public knows a wet-behind-the-ears college boy when they see one. He reminds us of the kid who seeks to be foreman who’s gone to lots of school but never actually swung a hammer; or the butterbar lieutenant who’s attempting to lead a platoon after a few weeks of officer’s training, when the 20 year sergeant, who’s been there and done that, looks at him askance and thinks “who the hell do you think you are?”
Obama, when it comes down to it, has no there there. No accomplishment behind the pretty words. No substance in the suit.
I’ve always said before – the potential was there. Call me when he’s accomplished something. But right now? He’s not ready. Sometimes I think this run for president by Obama was begun not to win, but to get his name in contention for the future. Instead, because so many were looking for an alternative to Hillary, it took off, surprising even him. Perhaps; who knows.
But now we have the most unprepared candidate in the modern era. It’s not surprising he has difficulty “closing the deal.”
Could it be that sebelius and her obama dreams are sucking all the oxygen out of the air among democrats in kansas? Again? Does she give a rat’s ass if Betts wins or loses? I gotta wonder….
Dammit, when yer right GMC, yer right, much as I hate to admit it.
“or the butterbar lieutenant who’s attempting to lead a platoon after a few weeks of officer’s training, when the 20 year sergeant, who’s been there and done that, looks at him askance and thinks “who the hell do you think you are?”
My Dad used to call those guys “90 day louies”. He was a master sergeant.
“As Afghanistan heats up, the folly of sending the brunt of our forces on a diversionary war will become more glaringly obvious, for the mistake it was and continues to be.”
Yep. But… as much as I hate to say it, I think the voters are “over” the war, even if the war isnt over. Even if we will be paying the price for decades.
It’s the economy stupid. But that sounds, so, ya know, Clinton like, and we all know obama is above the Clintons. So.. he’ll just keep pointing to the war. A war he wasnt even in the Senate to vote on.
Throw out some meat on the economy. Yeah, the war was one of the biggest mistakes in our nation’s history. But voters were caught voting stupid for bush twice. They dont like to be reminded of it.
The economy? Voters can claim to be wise again and sweep their bush mistakes under the rug. It’s the economy stupid, except for the uber-rich and the eighteen percenters.
Obama just cant master the soundbite. Yes, he’s smarter than soundbites and the real answers dont fit neatly into a short phrase. But that’s the way the voters go. Obama needs to deal with it.
GMC–
Hope springs eternal, even when you’re pinning those hopes on a broken down shell.
McSame’s experience is exactly what we don’t want in Washington. We don’t need the same-old, same-old.
We need vision. You don’t get that from a geriatic cold warrior.
If Obama does lose, I think we all agree that means McCain wins, right? If we’re honest none of us are real excited about McCain and maybe a bit nervous at minimum. Add that Americans aren’t patient people and the problems we face may take not only patience but sacrifice and it seems a recipe for a one-term presidency. A one-term failure perhaps. IF that failure is on a Republican watch, does that cement the anti-Republican sentiment? Or are we all so partisan we really do only look at the “R” or the “D,” to the exclusion of noting neither is what we want it to be?
Year over year inflation is highest in 27 yrs.; start home building rate at lowest in 17 yrs.; It really is the bush/repubonomy stupid, again.
Everytime Repubs are given the keys to the economy, they wreck it!
McCain’s experience in dealing with foreign countries is that of going to war with them. He seems too confident and quick to answer questions. Obama is more of a thinker. It has been a long time since we had a real thinker in the White House.
Movie about John McCain:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
I agree, Obama is more of a pandering type, and McCain is more of a reactionary type. That would mean Obama is good at telling people what they want to hear, and McCain is good at serving up bitter medicine. Two totally opposite people. Obama would trump his own beliefs and ideals to pander to the people, and McCain might be a little stodgy. I don’t know, I think we’ll be fine with either. I think McCain would be a nice transition from Bush, jumping to Obama would be like going from one extreme to the other, it might throw this country further out of whack trying to flip this house during one term. McCain wouldn’t tear down the house and rebuild it like Obama, he might put down some new floors, repaint the walls, and spurce up the outside a little bit. Obama would gut the whole house, and leave the next president with a huge unfinished project.
“he might put down some new floors, repaint the walls, and spurce up the outside a little bit”
Yea, and leave the dry rot and termites undisturbed.
This is a refreshing thread for a change!
McClame has the virtues which Hillary proclaimed, but couldn’t back up. Unfortunately, he is old in age as well as style, gray in projecting a more-of-the-same old politic’s, and feeble in projecting his beliefs in the oratary. I believe he means what he says and does have the experience.
But he also has something ELSE which some might not so readily see – he represents the “safer” alternative. By that I mean he is not radical, far right, nor far left. He has alienated some of the far right, and has not always followed his parties line. But he is a horse that voters have seen on the track before.
Someone mentioned middle-of-the-roaders will decide this horse race. I agree with that. And they will not be looking for a radical. They will not want someone far LEFT because that scares them. There are many that don’t want “change”. They like life as it is because it comfortable to them. They fear the unknown. Obama is the unknown. And despite the cry about the economy and how Bush has stuck-it-to us with the deficit, there are those living on comfortable incomes, or retirement investments, who will go with a known horse who will not upset their applecart.
And yes, he has everything Clinton claimed in character – without the socialist agenda.
AmWay – that at least is what he will try to sell. In 2000 he could have done it easily. I’m not so sure in 2008.
bth-
I think a good ad about McLame would be the one with Slim Pickens riding the bomb down.
“The bomb?” Oh yeah, the one that was dropped by a democrat? Yeah, that might be a good one. Show “The Ones” manicured finger on “the button”
Just might work….
I don’t think McCain can win; his arms are too short. Remember Randy Newman’s song “Short People”? Aren’t short arms a subset of short people? There ‘ya go!
No biased, the one dropped by “An insane general”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
“The story concerns a mentally unstable US Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union,”
I wonder if the guy was singing “bomb bomb bomb … ” when he did it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove_or:_How_I_Learned_to_Stop_Worrying_and_Love_the_Bomb
bth
“The Bomb” was dropped by the libtard demorat Harry S.
btw
Dr. Strangelove was NOT a documentary!
Jeesh! What is it with you liberals………
My sense is that this is going to be a close election, just like 2000 and 2004. Possibly close enough to be stolen. Like 2000 and 2004.
John Kerry’s 10,000 lawyers didn’t stop the dirty tricks in Ohio from handing the election to Bush. I think the Dems had better hire 10,000 more.
It also appears, for now, that the third-party candidates aren’t gaining much traction:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/109435/Support-ThirdParty-Candidates-Appears-Limited-Thus-Far.aspx
OMG, I am SO laughing…
“McCain wouldn’t tear down the house and rebuild it like Obama, he might put down some new floors, repaint the walls, and spurce up the outside a little bit. Obama would gut the whole house, and leave the next president with a huge unfinished project.”
Uh, I dont really expect to see much, if any change, no matter who is elected. Anyone who thinks obama will REALLY change things must have been in a cone of silence for the last two years. Remember how the democrats were going to change things if they took over Congress?
hehehehehehehehehehheehhehehehheh. Good one. Pelosi and reid have just been more of the same. So will obama. So will mcsame.
They are ALL owned by the same people.
And we are afraid of Cynthia McKinney and Ron Paul? Heheheheheheheheheh!
…and is there ANY issue in the last two years where obama has not followed whatever pelosi and reid wanted? FISA? Off shore drilling? Ending the war?
Change. HEHEHEHEHEHEH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
We’ll either get more pelosi and reid with obama or more bushco with mcsame.
And the difference would be…??????
http://www.cindyforcongress.org/
Yeah Rage. Wouldnt THAT be nice!
“We’ll either get more pelosi and reid with obama or more bushco with mcsame.”
So libs and cons are killing each other nightly on the weblog – for what?
;-)
Looks like power consolidation, Iraq will soon have another strong arm man, and we can leave.
Son of leading Iraq Sunni politician arrested 34 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces arrested a son of the leader of the country’s main Sunni Arab political bloc at his house in Baghdad on Tuesday evening, accusing him of terrorism, the politician said.
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Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Accordance Front which rejoined the Shi’ite-led government of Nuri al-Maliki last month after a nearly year-long boycott, said his son Muthana had been arrested by Iraqi troops while talking to guards near the house.
“I asked them why they are taking him. They said they are preparing charges of terrorism, sectarian killings and displacing people,” he told Reuters by telephone.
“My son is a humble man. He does not deal with political things. He only owns a shop of spare car parts.”
Iraqi security officials were not immediately available for comment.
Another son of Dulaimi has been held since last year along with many of his bodyguards, accused of links to car bombs. Dulaimi has always denied those charges.
Dulaimi said he had spoken with Iraq’s two vice presidents, Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, as well as the U.S. embassy and U.S. military forces in the hope of securing his son’s release.
“I wish American forces had captured him, rather than the Iraqi army. Once the Iraqi army has him, he will not be released.”
Dulaimi has been guarded by Kurdish Peshmerga guards since his Sunni Arab guards were rounded up last year.
“When we returned to the government, we expected our guards would be released,” Dulaimi said.
“I don’t think McCain can win; his arms are too short. Remember Randy Newman’s song “Short People”? Aren’t short arms a subset of short people? There ‘ya go!” — gster
Yeah, who’s gonna throw out the first ball of the major league season. McCain can’t lift his arms above his shoulders.
Mccain must have broken both his arms so he’d never raise them in surrender, what a guy!
You guys should write a book about McCain’s physical defects, so Phillip Brownlee create a thread telling libs they should denounce it!
In hindsight I am well suited to be President! Back before the success of the surge I said it was a no brainier since part of the problem was not enough troops on the ground they should be increased. Since I was so wise and insightful it is a sure sign I should be elected President! For extra credit I even know the difference between Shiites and Sunnis. I do not believe that throwing money at a problem is the solution to every problem. I have been tortured by paying attention to the political race and never told any state secrets in spite of it.
Hehehehe. I’d vote for ya Dawg!
“So libs and cons are killing each other nightly on the weblog – for what?”
Ummmm, I’ll take “bloodlust and sport” for five hundred, Alex.
You would win.
i simply related. L8R