It’s undeniable at this point – the McCain campaign is freaking out. In the last week, John McCain revamped his website to look almost exactly like Barack Obama’s. McCain’s new slogan (“A leader we can believe in”) is an obvious retread of the slogan that Obama has been using for most of the campaign (“Change we can believe in”). McCain’s painfully bad Louisiana speech spent most of its brimstone angrily denying the criticism that he’s running for Bush’s third term. The McCain camp is so worried by that line of attack that they had the candidate repeat it verbatim, a major mistake in terms of messaging. When that didn’t work McCain sent out a senior advisor to make the rubber-glue argument that it’s Obama who is running for Bush’s third term. So there!
Now look at the first McCain campaign ad. The vid argues that just like a certain Democratic candidate, McCain really, really hates war. If that is true it’s only because McCain had one of those sudden policy reversals that defined the campaign ever since he bought a one-way ticket to crazy base world.
This is not a rickroll.
The upshot of all this is pretty easy to interpret. John McCain’s advisors know full well that the GOP brand is trash. They know that if they run on GOP values the campaign will be buried and forgotten by the third week of November. Consequently, instead of the two party race that everyone expected we’re going to get a Democrat and a guy pretending to be a Democrat in a desperate way that’s kind of pathetic. As someone once said back when the shoe was on the other foot, given a choice between a Democrat and a fake Democrat people will pick the real thing every time.
Just Some Fuckhead
It is my opinion that Mark Mckinnon left the McCain campaign when it became clear that Obama was going to be the nominee because he knows they can’t beat Obama. I don’t think it has anything to do with running against a person of color or the sorts of attacks he’d have to be a part of if he stayed. He never minded the egregious campaign tactics when he was with Bush. He just knows McCain can’t beat Obama and doesn’t want a loss on his record.
ThymeZone
Pretty good assessment, Tim.
McCain is in big, big trouble. It’s only June and already the number needles are swinging away from him. He has no core message, no imperative other than one grounded in a war and a set of policies despised by the American people.
He has no charisma. He has no style. He has nothing to counter the rockstar appeal of his opponent. He has no new ideas. He has nothing on the economy, on healthcare, on anything that matters to the middle class.
He is so far into the toilet that my bet with DougJ which requires Mister Magoo to get
ThymeZone
whoops fatfinger …
He is so far into the toilet that my bet with DougJ which requires Mister Magoo to get 35% or less than the popular vote is looking awfully good right now. I shoulda bet more.
El Cid
Democrats may be in a tough spot if McCain rolls out a single-payer health care plan, a withdrawal timetable for Iraq, a massive conversion to solar, wind, etc., and the public financing of elections.
TenguPhule
Proof reading is your friend, Tim.
sam t
He does have the old white guy thing.
TenguPhule
And if we had eggs, we could have eggs on toast. If we had toast.
NR
And I noticed something the other day. On McCain’s campaign calendar, he has thirteen fundraisers scheduled for June and three town halls. That’s it.
Now, I realize that June is before campaigns kick into high gear, and the time to get the fundraising done is now, since you’ll be spending more time campaigning later. But even so, I’m still a little incredulous that McCain only has three public appearances scheduled for the entire month of June. His surrogates are pretty active on news shows and whatnot, but it seems like McCain himself is barely campaigning at all.
Rome Again
When the GOP has to change direction mid campaign and start selling a different message, it can only be good for Democrats.
How many GOPpers are going to swallow the new meme? Man, I gotta spend some time over on FR tonight and watch the heads asplode.
ThymeZone
A blurb I stole over at DKos. Some GOP guy said this today on MSNBC. Which gives you an idea how completely fucked they are, they have to invent an “Obama went golfing” story to get attention.
I think we are going to see a political implosion of historic and grand scale this year. We are spectators to something very very special. It’s only June.
Any bets on whether the GOP powerful will mount a move to get McCain off the ticket? Or are they stuck?
TenguPhule
He does have the most immoral bunch of Assholes in America on his side. Scum that will do anything, legal or illegal, to avoid losing.
I will not celebrate until the election is over and a lot of Republicans are rotting in Prison. Or just rotting in the ground.
ThymeZone
My take is that we still win at least 60-40 even if he were to do those things, which he cannot.
PaulB
From the Bloomberg link:
There’s only one problem; Bush, like McCain, only has one real “policy on the economy”: tax cuts. If they really aren’t working so good, so much for McCain’s strategy. On a related topic, I wonder how the party faithful are going to respond to this line from Holtz-Eakin:
or
Looks like someone at McCain headquarters isn’t liking what they see in the polls. Oh, and this has to rank up there with the all-time list of blatant lies:
NR
Digby has been floating the theory that the GOP elite may not want to win this election. They may just want to get out while the getting is good and spend the next four years counting all their ill-gotten gains while the Democrats try to clean up the huge mess they made of the country. They may be figuring that the Dems will have to do some pretty unpopular things to clean up said mess, and they can swoop back in in 2012 and capitalize on that.
I don’t know if I believe it, but I’m starting to think it’s at least a credible theory.
Zifnab
They knew that way back in January when McCain was giving stump speeches in New Hamphire and South Carolina. The party loyalists might want some wacko like Rudy or Romney or Huckabee leading the ticket. But the country – Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green, Libertarian, what have you – want sane and rational leadership. He won the primary with the sane GOP guys’ votes.
I almost feel bad for McCain. He’s really trapped between a rock and a hard place. I would feel bad for him, except he had a way out in 2000 and another road in 2004. And every time he went crawling back to the Bushies because he was too afraid to do anything else.
John Cole
You all are entirely too over-confident.
Rome Again
He was waiting to see which Democratic candidate’s supporters were going to become his loudest supporters. He was under the silly impression that if Hillary won, Obamamaniacs might slip over to his side. NOT!
I’d like to know how he is going to sell his new ideas without being stuck defending his old ideas during the debates with Obama! This is going to be sweet!
Rome Again
He needs to either become mentally incapacitated or be unable to perform due to another cancer scare or new health situation.
I think they may be stuck.
How do they remove him without acknowledging a reason?
Oh, and TZ, you do NOT have fat fingers.
Just Some Fuckhead
If I was Obama, I wouldn’t go anywhere near HRC’s 28%ers. They scare the fuck outta me and I ain’t even running.
El Cid
My earlier comment was simple silliness, but after John Cole’s response, I’d like to state that I feel that it will be a damned close election, one Obama will be fortunate to win given a very effective campaign combined with massive, massive voter mobilization, no matter how weakly McCain runs. Not to mention the fact that Mr. Ex Keating 5 has been enshrined by the worshipful major news media as some sort of demigod of bipartisan wisdom.
Rome Again
John, you sound afraid. Why?
Were you as afraid of Democrats when you supported Bush? Or was it because you knew Repubs were thugs that you didn’t feel that fear?
I know you don’t believe in thuggery, so why the fear now?
Chris Johnson
I would watch for the current guys to decide that they have to do something radical, declare martial law, and suspend elections for the good of the country. It depends on how well they can swallow that ‘years in the wilderness’ thing. Some of those guys don’t actually believe their situation is a world of hurt… if they have no faith in their guy winning, and no desire to go away for awhile, they may do something else.
Rome Again
There’s a diary up on Kos asking Alegre to come back (and some even consider the return of SusanHu). There seems to be quite a disagreement over whether it would be a good idea or not.
The Other Steve
I’m still amazed that McCain is running an ad calling President Bush a fool and a fraud.
Even more amazing, is I’ve seen nary a peep out of the right-wing noise machine displaying outrage over this. When George Bush senior called for a Kindler, Gentler conservatism they were pissed.
PaulW
According to Think Progress, McCain’s advisors are trying to paint *Obama* as the candidate most likely to continue Bush’s disastrous policies.
OMG WTF?
I swear to Dog, there needs to be an Arbiter of BS, a judge whose job is to weed out the dumbest stupidest muthafrakking things ever said by anybody and hold those morans responsible for the BS they spread. TEH STUPID, it can kill…
Just Some Fuckhead
I’ve got a pretty good record. When I cast my primary vote for Clark in 2004, I told the Kerry fangirls there that there is no way Kerry could win the general. I was right.
And I feel pretty confident about this November. There has been a sea change since then. My Republican neighborhood in Virginia, outside of a major naval base and populated by officers, SEALS and military retirees is festooned with Obama signs and not the first McCain sign.
There’s no reason not to imagine your own transition isn’t occurring to a whole lotta other folks, JC.
SamFromUtah
we’re going to get a Democrat and a guy pretending to be a Democrat in a desperate way that’s kind of pathetic.
I didn’t know there was a Republican equivalent of the DLC, and here they are running the McCain campaign!
ThymeZone
The media are running away from McCain. FoxNews laughed at his Tuesday night speech.
They know this is over. They are embarassed by the Bush-Iraq thing, by Scotty’s book. They don’t want to look like stooges when Obama wins a landslide victory despite their blatherings. McCain’s long honeymoon with the press is over, in my estimation.
Rome Again
It’s a shell game. They got overly cocky that they could always pick the right shell and then their luck turned and after taking some stabs to try to get back on top, they’re totally mystified now. They are standing at the table wide-eyed saying “where did we go wrong?”
Rick Taylor
I just keep reminding myself I was sure Bush couldn’t win after making a fool of himself in the first debate with Gore. And then I was certain Bush couldn’t win after he made an even bigger fool out of himself in the first debate with Kerry, after it had become apparent he’d started a war of choice under false pretenses, that we were caught in a quagmire as a result and wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, that the contempt of his administration for the geneva conventions and any sort of due process had lead to the use of grotesque forms of humiliation of prisoners, and that his administration had released the identity of an undercover CIA agent entirely for political purposes.
So it’s tempting to get carried away after seeing McCain’s speech opposite Obama’s, but by now I know I just can’t assume anything. That someone like bush could be re-elected no matter how narrowly proved to me our method for choosing our leaders in this country is completely broken.
flavortext
Whoosh!
ThymeZone
Exhibit One: Tuesday night, June 3.
El Cid
Let us not forget that there were a lot of people out there who thought Bush bested Kerry in those debates. Whereas I saw a screaming loon wander from his podium yelling “YOU TELL TONY BLAIR! YOU TELL TONY BLAIR!”, they saw some sort of man’s man who had the gumption to face down that fake veteran John Kerry.
DougJ
This is bad news for Democrats.
Copying Obama’s campaign is good way for McCain to win over all the Hillary supporters who hate the Obama campaign. That’s what Chuck Todd says.
ThymeZone
Once again, something you might have seen in The Onion comes true.
It’s a great year.
1jpb
McCain should be worried. Especially after the HRC speech. HRC didn’t put in any good dog whistle sound bites that the media could pull out to indicate some possible hesitation in her support of BHO.
This means that the media’s coverage and dissemination will necessarily involve some quote where HRC is strongly supporting BHO. Hopefully, this unity thing continues so that HRC folks have time to move to BHO without something pulling them back to the false hope of an HRC victory. Time and uninterrupted unity talk from the HRC folks should start to push some of her reasonable (i.e. those who don’t spend their lives spewing BHO hate online or off) holdout supporters closer to BHO. This will allow the BHO folks to poll where they truly stand without HRC hinting at disunity.
Then we’ll really start to know how worried McCain should be, or if BHO needs to start worrying a little.
By the way, I would recommend doing the HRC thank you thing at the BHO website. I have been extremely critical of her. But, I still was able to honestly thank her for 1) making history, and 2) looking out for the interests of our country by expressing her support of BHO now and until the end of the election.
Positive conditioning; it worked for Ivan P.
ThymeZone
Todd actually said that?
My god, he is dumber than I thought.
Just Some Fuckhead
It seems like it would have the opposite effect, like garlic and vampires.
vwcat
It’s been obvious for awhile that McCain is worried.
He claimed to want to run a respectful campaign and yet, spent the past month trashing Obama every day.
Then, his farce on Tuesday was to take away from Obama but, was so bad that he actually elevated Obama’s already amazing speech.
It’s obvious that instead of running a general campaign and going like usual, the man is obsessed with Obama.
He knows Obama has run this awesome campaign and will go about efficiently squashing him in Novemeber. Afterall the Clintons have not lost since 1980 and here comes this rookie who did what the republicans couldn’t do. Beat them.
DougJ
Todd actually said that?
No, I was kidding about that.
DougJ
According to Tom Friedman, vampires actually like garlic. That’s what his Transylvanian cab driver told him.
ThymeZone
Doh!
Chuck Butcher
John is exactly correct. Let’s just look at polling for a second, GWB has a 28% approval. Oh, that’s horrid. It is for GWB but what it means is 28% are automatically in the bag for McCain, no matter what. What he needs is 22% from there. Do you think Obama has 28% in the bag no matter what? That slims his work down considerably.
Sure it’s fun to pump each other up here on this nice friendly site (that may be a bit much) but this is not some walk in the park. On top of that 28% you have another near 64% that are Party loyalist that make up most of that 28%. If 64% of that party are loyal to GWB how many more are loyal to the brand? How many (D)s are going to defect – sacrilege, I know, but there will be. Independents aren’t trustworthy, can McCain make the Maverick appeal work? It’s still out there. Much has been made of (R) defections, annecdotally, registration for Primaries doesn’t quantifiably mean a lot – you don’t know why.
The slime machine hasn’t geared up yet. The RNC has nice clips of Hillary helping them out. Some decent portion of the electorate is still scared spitless of the bad guys. If national polls showed Obama leading McCain by 20 points I wouldn’t relax, though I’d feel better. They don’t.
You’d be surprised how fast a candidate hits his ceiling of enthusiasm and how difficult it is from there on out. By 04 Kerry should have been in the best position despite his shortcomings as a candidate – we know how that worked. Kerry was a white middle aged male whose voting record didn’t look all that radical next to GWB and Iraq. whoops
This isn’t Kerry v Bush, but there’s a cautionary tale there.
Just Some Fuckhead
You scamp.
Thepanzer
The difference between 2000, 2004 and now is a pissed electorate with an economy in the trash, foreverwar grinding along for another year, and gas prices nearing 5 bucks or more with the promise of 6 or 7 or…higher…by the end of the summer. There was no price to pay in the last two elections, nothing really riding on the line for John Q. public that couldn’t be solved with a trip to the mall and a yellow support the troops magnet. Fast forward to 2008 and Joe and Mary six-pack are getting foreclosed on, the SUV is out of gas, and the idea of a social safety net doesn’t seem like quite so bad an idea anymore. Mcsames only hope is that the low-information mouth breathing dopes will buy into the “this all happened since the democrats took over in ’06!” meme and that Bush was a stealth democrat all along. Could they pull it off? Who knows. The American public never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity but someone posted here recently that Gore and Kerry both had negative charisma. I laughed my ass off at how true it was, Obama is an entirely different creature though. This time Mcsame is the negative charisma candidate and I’ll bet the public will go with the MUP.
Jack H.
Great. Another six months of listening to yet another politician and surrogates completely divorced from reality. Do they really think we’re going to buy McCain as an antiwar green candidate? That’s stupidity you can believe in.
TenguPhule
We chersih those moments as they come.
Today we party, for tomorrow we may die.
Fear is hope, turned inside out.
DougJ
I actually like Chuck Todd. He answered my emails when he worked at Hotline.
But I also think he’s an idiot. This proves it:
I don’t think anyone out here in flyover country thought Bush’s approval rating would go anywhere but down. That was just dumb.
DougJ
Yes. I think he has 40% in the bag no matter what. About 45% of voters consistently register strong disapproval of Bush in polls. At least 90% of the those voters will go for the Democrat.
Just Some Fuckhead
First, those 28%ers are among McCain’s biggest haters. I’ve no doubt some will vote for McCain, esp. if he picks Huckabeegood as his running mate, however if he picks someone like Romney he’s going to scare off the Christian conservative vote. The Constitution party will pick up a few of them, some will stay home and most will write in Jesus or GeorgeWBush4Evah.
Secondly, depending on how successful the Barr campaign goes, it might be enough to suck off some Republiterians who would otherwise cause us problems. It will be interestign to see where the Paul voters wind up but I don’t think they are automatic for McCain. If Paul can launch Barr it might turn into a ’92 Perot thing, requiring only a plurality to win the general, not a majority
We’re in a change election so I think we can throw out most of the common wisdom. Obama just defeated Elvis and the best brand in Democratic politics. I’ve gotta trust he can win over a toxic Republican brand a fractured Republican party that appears to actually want to lose.
montysano
I live in Alabama. Well, Huntsville, which is really not Alabama. Huntsville (aka “Rocket City USA”) is one of the headquarters of the military-industrial complex. It’s much more progressive than the rest of the state, with good schools, and a highly educated populace from all over the world. Drive 20 miles in any direction and you are indeed back in Alabama.
That being said, among the people I work with, not one person who voted twice for Dubya is jumping ship and voting Dem. Not one. Doesn’t even enter their mind. The MUP is a socialist, or a Muslim, or his wife did indeed, why yes she did (Sean said so), say “whitey”. And several who voted Dem in ’00 or ’04 are wavering.
This week has been great. It’s been wonderful to have some positive energy, even as J. H. Kunstler’s “Long Emergency” may have begun in earnest. But for every one of us who believe in rational critical thought, there are many sheep whose idea of the news is whatever spew is issuing from Fox News.
McCain will stumble and dodder about, the MUP will soar, and at the end of the day McCain will still own 40% of the vote. That’s our world.
DougJ
Not sure that’s true. The real McCain haters are the Malkinites who have nothing in common with those who support Huck. Remember, Huck’s not an immigrant basher.
The really hard core ones want Tancredo.
crw
I suspect the GOP elite has truly bought the Obambi myth they’ve been trying to peddle. They think Obama is going to be another Carter, weak and ineffective in the White House and incapable of really communicating with the public. Frankly, I think we have more of an FDR on our hands, but we’ll see if Obama really gets things done or just continues fiddling at the margins.
Just Some Fuckhead
Before there was even a Malkin there was a mature Christian convervative movement that detested McCain. They still do.
montysano
Much depends on whether the sociopaths in the White House decide to attack Iran (which could send oil north of $250.00 in short order). Also, whether Dubya is able to pull off his stay-in-Iraq-forever gambit.
Under those conditions, BO will inherit a clusterfuck of historic proportions.
Wilfred
I reckon McCain’s only hope lies with Bush. McCain’s campaign will exploit residual Vietnam guilt to the utmost while he wanks on with the usual turgidity on God and Homeland and Fighting for Peace. Enter Bush. I expect an October attack on Iran, thus making us a Nation At WAR and requiring the firm hand of an experienced Vietnam POW to protect Homeland from what will be a lot of pissed-off Iranians.
You can imagine images of the streets of Tehran filled with Death to America chanters. Then they can run the Hillary comments about experience…
DougJ
Speaking of Malkin, doesn’t Da’ Tara sound like a Muslim terrorist name to you? Is it time to boycott the Triple Crown and all its sponsors?
Rosali
When gas hits $5, Bush’s approval ratings will be in the teens. Watch the Republicans in Congress who are running for re-election attempt to distance themselves from Bush.
This was in the Miami Herald on Wed: Ros-Lehtinen: I’m no Bush `rubber stamp’ Facing a reelection challenge, veteran Rep. Ileana Ros–Lehtinen distanced herself from the president on domestic and foreign-policy issues.
If they’re running away from Bush, I don’t see how they can embrace and campaign side-by-side with McCain who represents Bush’s 3rd term. McCain can’t even help them with fundraising.
PaulB
It doesn’t really matter if he does. If the deal isn’t ratified by the U.S. Senate, then it’s just another presidential order that can be easily overturned by the next president.
w vincentz
Wilfred,
You nailed it. Might be late Sept. or early Oct. The Israeli’s will make the first move, and of course, we’ll come to their defense.
Might even suspend the Nov elections due to the “crisis”
We’ll see.
ThymeZone
Alas, not only do the pundits have no idea what is happening this year, neither do most in blogoville.
You guys are discussion percentages from vote totals that will not apply this year.
America has a reservoir of around 70 million voters who haven’t been voting.
If ten percent of those people turn out this year and vote mostly for one candidate, that candidate wins handily.
Don’t waste your time trying to stake out votes from the turnouts of past elections. It’s a new ballgame.
The dynamics are all different this year.
w vincentz
TZ,
Yes, the dynamics are different this year,
I think Bushco has a surprise for us. What are your thoughts about the Cheney ordered (accidental) B-52 flight aremed with nukes from Minot to LA?
Do you think this is part of the “dres rehearsal”?
Your thoughts are appreciated.
ThymeZone
My basic thought is that approval for Bushco is so low, discontent so high, that these guys better not try anything.
The natives are restless. If I were them, I’d be keeping a low profile, they are staring a GOP tranwreck as it stands right now. Any shenanigans will only make their situation worse.
Adam
I own a lumber company? Wanna buy some wood?
ZINNNNGGGGG
w vincentz
TZ,
I hope you’re right.
I wouldn’t put anything past these ratfucks.
DougJ
That may be true. But even if they did apply, Obama would have 40-45% of that in the bag.
DougJ
I think Cheney does have something planned but that it is unlikely to come to fruition. The Condiites have the upper hand right now is what I’ve heard.
Not that I love Condi. But she’s just incompetent, not batshit insane.
ThymeZone
You got that right, my friend. They are corrupt to the core.
Martin
BTW, rickroll disclaimers are worthless. Nobody believes them.
What you’re seeing in the McCain campaign is part fear but mostly ineptness and lack of focus. Nobody in the GOP is excited about McCain. He’s shed a ton of staff over the last 6 months. I think they’re just going through the motions and with no winning ideas, they can’t help but steal other people’s or just make random shit up.
I expect by November to simply feel sorry for McCain. This is gonna be a historic ass kicking.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Some more anecodotal evidence regarding the balance of sentiment going into this election:
My elementary school aged kids go to a Catholic parochial school (yes, I know – how very elitist. Well tough – I work my ass off at a median income job to pay for it and we don’t have much else in the way of luxuries).
The families at this school are mostly very wealthy and very conservative. Lots of “Viva Bush” and “Bush/Cheney 04” bumper stickers on the back of monster SUVs in the school parking lot; strangely almost all of which have mysteriously disappeared over the last 12-18 months (The stickers that is. The SUVs will be gone when gas hits 6 dollars a gallon).
Obviously at this age whatever the kids have to say is a proxy for what their parents are thinking and saying. At the same age I remember kids having fistfights during recess over whether their parents were Dems or Reps in the 1968 election.
In 2004 at this school they had mock elections using secret ballots and when the votes were counted my eldest was the only kid in one entire grade level to be for Kerry. Some of the other kids were openly calling Kerry a “baby killer” so that wasn’t much of a surprise. The atmosphere was really ugly (in a pro-Bush way). Good German levels of ugly.
Fast forward to early May this year. My youngest child was in the same position at the same school – the class was having a mock election, only this time as an open ballot caucus with a three way contest featuring Obama, Hillary and McCain.
The results:
More than half of the class went for Obama (in a 3 way contest). It was so lopsided that the teacher decided to reassign some of the kids (by lottery) to be “for McCain” and “for Hillary” arbitrarily just so they could have enough kids in each group to pretend to caucus.
IMHO this election is Obama’s to lose, not McCain’s to win.
OriGuy
Even if they start (another) illegal war just before the election, I don’t see how they can cancel the elections. The constitution gives control over that to the states. They’d have to put every Secretary of State and county Board of Elections under arrest. This country held presidential elections in 1812 when US mainland territory (Fort Detroit) was in enemy hands, in 1864 when half the country was in rebellion, and in 1944 when a global war was going on. The military might go into combat in Iran on the President’s say so, but I don’t see them going into combat in every precinct in the USA.
blueintheface
Reading through the comments, I can’t believe I’m the first one to comment on the fact that John McCain blew/picked/wiped his nose for the first 30 seconds of that video clip. My kindergartener is more discreet that.
What’s next, he starts cleaning out his ear wax with a pen cap like my great-grandfather?
GSD
The GOP is going to have to mount a campaign to KEEP McCain on the ticket, because no one wants to hop onto a bus with no breaks heading towards the cliff.
Damn that Obama for golfing when he should be out planning a jihad or trying to kill whitey.
-GSD
Rome Again
I used to live in Huntsville myself, I know what sort of city it is. I know Redstone Arsenal (my ex was stationed there for OCS – hence why I went to live there) and the space museum.
I still say there is nothing to fear. The GOP is in a shambles and I am not afraid. Yes, they will use dirty tricks, they always do, that is assured, and I’m not stating they won’t… but I think the electorate is sick of that crap, personally.
McCain stands in front of a camera and looks like a dead man. He can’t even differentiate between two factions of Iraqis. He is an embarrassment to the GOP and they know it. Fox News ridiculed him for Christ’s sake. I think we’ve got the best opportunity to turn this country blue that we’ve had in years.
Hillary has endorsed Obama, the publications are saying she suceeded in bringing the party back together. Yes, there are factions of crazed Clintonites, but, I really think they are not as large as they would have us believe.
GOP policy polls very low these days. $4.00+ a gallon gas, food costs are soaring, unemployment is on the rise, foreclosures are on the rise and we now have an electorate that may be adding a whole bunch of AA’s who felt disenfrancised and uninterested in previous elections. Personally, I think if we tap the AA and younger voters, we’ve got a landslide on our hands.
I’m not afraid.
Chuck Butcher
what seemed to miss some of you was I wrote “anything” in regard to in the bag. These aren’t Hilloons, they know the difference between winning and throwing a tantrum. Sure, there are loons over there and they may go Barr, but probabaly not. Barr does not equate to BushCo in any way. It isn’t in that 28% to do that. Barr will cut into that disaffected group, the ones that might have a hard time doing Dem. I don’t discount him as an effect.
I’ll be pretty clear, guns are going to cause him problems. I have to bite my tongue over this, I have to be willing to put it into the courts because he stinks on a Constitutional guarantee and I don’t take it any differently than I do the 1st or etc.
Race is going to cause him problems – before you jump “racist”, I’m talking about that soft uncomfortable with the idea sort. The “a lot of change in one swallow” types. There are a whole lot of people that don’t like “historic moments” of any sort.
TUCC is going to cause difficulties, it just is whether I think it is assinine or not. It goes flat in the face of the bland Christianity most practice. Maybe somebody has ideas about defusing that, I sure don’t.
In a straight D/R fight Obama wins, the problem is those Indies and they’re such a political mishmash that figuring them out is a real problem as far as getting enough votes to cancel McCain.
Since I’m a DPO/DNC activist I have my work cut out for me and I’ll be kicking ass. I’ve got a Senate battle and Obama and at least a pass to be made at a US Rep. that Obama really can’t help with. We’re always short of money at the State level and DNC got pounded this Primary.
If you want this you’d better get your war face on and hit the ground. Money is something but the ground troops are the key – as always. No money, no fame, just being a part of making something happen.
ThymeZone
It’s going to cost him some votes, I addressed the other day in a post. The demographic that just does not want a black president is out there, and it’s real, and it votes, that is a reality.
But … there is another demographic, the demo of young and energized people who normally don’t vote at all but are motivated by this guy because of who he is.
We are, quite literally, banking on the idea that this latter demo will greatly outnumber the former. I personally think that it will, and that he will win rather easily.
It’s a chance I want to take, he wants to take, and the country needs to take. So let’s get behind it.
NoFear. And with all due respect, seriously, I am not sure that Alabama is where this issue can be objectively judged.
The US is not Alabama, and while there are states we probably cannot win, there are plenty that we can. Let’s win them.
Micheline
When the McCain campaign says that Obama is another Bush. He’s talking in code to HRC supporters who feel like Bush Obama got an easy ride from the media. Or in another words, Obama is to Bush, as Clinton is to Gore.
Chuck Butcher
Here’s a post about tool from DPO/DNC that I’m sure other State Parties are close to rolling out to motivate voting.
Rome Again
Gosh Darn, Jeralyn ceases using TL as a place to discuss law so that she can turn it into a Hillary Lovefest, but now that Hillary is out:
Hillary was good enough to cease TL’s original purpose; but now that Jeralyn is supporing the Democratic Nominee, she can’t do that same?
She was either a tool to turn it into a Lovefest for Hillary (my personal belief) or she’s being a tool now.
I demand fair and equal treatment of both candidates, dammit!!!!
;)
Chuck Butcher
I’ve kept a bit of an eye on Taylor Marsh and TalkLeft for awhile, to see where they were going. Today there are a lot of goodbyes, I can’t take this BHO stuff, and assorted wails of ohnoes. They rode the Clinton horse hard now they’ve put it away wet and the hard core divisions they sponsored are coming back to bite them. They seem somewhat surprised that their mobs aren’t playing nice…
I have to wonder how it would’ve been over here if it had played out the other way??? Don’t even take that as a comparison.
Person of Choler
Hello ThymeZone,
You say,”McCain’s long honeymoon with the press is over, in my estimation.”
Your estimation is exactly correct. The press doesn’t mind a Republican being nominated for president; what they hate is a Republican getting elected. The press liked McCain because he constantly gave the finger to the conservative side of his party. But now he stands between Our Savior and the White House and the shredding of his reputation will begin.
You are correct to mention Keating. The press will soon remember that the “Keating Five” was not a jazz quintet and we will be hearing more about McCain’s involvement with this bunch.
Wilfred
That’s how it should be, and I’m praying it turns out that way. I got involved this election cycle because for the first time ever I felt a politics commensurate with my sense of wonder (lit reference).
I’m certain Obama will win.
Sleeper
It depends. If Clinton had won Iowa, or turned New Hampshire into a winning streak, or swept Tsunami Tuesday, or had any kind of a battle plan for the month of hell that followed…if she had outmaneuvered Obama and comeback fairly (for a politician), then I assume there would be some grumbling, lots of disappointment, but a general consensus that McCain needs to be stopped and let’s help her do it.
If Clinton had won by cajoling/blackmailing the remaining superdelegates, or ramming her all for me/none for you Michigan plan through the RBC, or staging a revolt on the convention floor, then this site and pretty much all of Left Blogistan would go berserk. Rightfully so. Because here and out in the real world, her candidacy would be so tainted from such a win that she’d have given McCain the election.
Balakirev
She didn’t get what she wanted. We may be witnessing a very sacred thing, the birth of a concern troll.
But you know what? I’m glad McSame is running this year. If the Republicans had a truly good candidate for the Presidency all the divisive campaigning we’ve seen would leave us looking like a bad vaudeville act. We’re just fortunate that everybody’s laughing instead at the ineptitude Pillsbury doughboy sock puppet. Me? I’m going to continue praying at pagan altars that McCain doesn’t change a thing.
Sleeper
Honestly, I think her reaction is equal parts disgust and disappointment with Clinton’s loss, and burnout on the endless primary, with just a dash (okay, maybe a dollop) of puzzlement and embarrassment that her regs can’t set vomit up months and months of poison spoonfed to them by herself and BTD (the “pro-Obama” voice at TL, he insists, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary) and just “get behind the party.” Because, of course, it’s not about Democratic values over there. It was at one time, but along the way, Democratic values became infused with and inextricable from Hillary Clinton the person. To TLers it is literally unimaginable that anyone else could win this fall, or should.
I refer to TL as The Big Chill because the mood there lately captures the essence of the movie perfectly: seven old friends gather for their friend’s funeral and spend the whole time talking about themselves and their disappointments and what their friend’s death says about them . It’s not that they hate Obama for anything he’s said or done so much as he’s hijacked the mental movie they’d been running of the next four years of their lives, tweaked the script and recast the central players.
Yesterday they were in high dudgeon because Obama was apparently relaxing after having won the nomination of a major political party in an historic upset or something, and he watched her speech on a computer rather than a television. Appalling . They were trembling with rage over this unpardonable slight. Again the angry cries of disrespect, again the vows to vote McCain/write in Clinton/stay home, again the demands for personal attention from Obama to win their vote (translation: Obama bloggers need to kiss their ass). My prediction is that TL is going to be nothing but legal posts (from the embarrassed proprietors) and echo chamber support group posts for a month or two, and then wither away as regs drop out from the injustice of it all. There were already signs of that just in yesterday’s comment threads.
Dennis - SGMM
Inspiring pictures of the Obama campaign by Scout Tufankjian. Be sure to check out the “Obama Supporters” section.
h/t TBogg
DougJ
I thought it was an cappella group.
Dennis - SGMM
For those who persist in saying that they will vote for McCain if they can’t vote for Clinton:
Adviser Says McCain Backs Bush Wiretaps
Any statement that manages to invoke 9/11, the ACLU and trial lawyers in the same sentence can only be coming from the campaign of someone who is for “the right” change. Far right.
Rome Again
Funny, my favorite character in that film was Chloe (Meg Tilly – the outsider who is younger and didn’t know the deceased or understand any of the connections the deceased’s death had to those lamenting him).
I’m fully aware all you say is true, I just think it’s embarassing that Jeralyn not only allowed her blog to become a Hillary Lovefest and stopped concentrating on criminal law because of it, but that she’s stupid enough to admit it.
She has no control over there (neither does Taylor Marsh) and she’s created a monster that is going to bite her in the ass. Quite honestly though, I think the only reason Jeralyn and TM are backing Obama is because they want to continue earning a paycheck and couldn’t have done so without conceding the point.
I hope they are both proud of themselves (Jeralyn is, she told me so in email – I wrote her back and told her she was going to have a hard time controlling the message of those people on her site, to which she never responded back).
Jeralyn will forever (at least in my eyes) be known as the smart law expert who turned zealot and lost all credibility.
Davis X. Machina
But that’s nothing, nothing, compared to the threat posed by Islamofacism. Or a Democrat in the White House. Or something. Not that there’s that much difference.
Dennis - SGMM
Do we really want some bleeding-heart Democrat to undo all of the wonderful work that’s been done with secret prisons, floating prisons, kidnapping, torture and the shredding of the Constitution?
Sleeper
Maybe that’s the Obama/Clinton gap in a nutshell. The difference between Meg Tilly and William Hurt. Although Hillary Clinton at her craziest was still saner than William Hurt on a good day, I think.
I dunno. I wouldn’t be surprised if they really had convinced themselves that everything they said was in the service of spirited debate and that they did nothing to sabotage or undercut the eventual winner.
To be honest the one I really dislike is “Big Tent Democrat.” Jeralyn at least was upfront in supporting Clinton even in the face of a contradicting reality, but BTD would insist that every complaint and criticism he made about Obama was actually proof of his support of Obama. or something.
Rome Again
Sleeper, Armando (let’s call him by his original name, shall we?) lost any semblance of personhood in my world a long time ago. I am convinced he is a plant. He sowed a lot of dischord on Kos and frankly, I never understood the once seemingly symbiotic relationship he and Markos used to have.
Rome Again
After doing a bit of reading this morning, I’ve come to the conclusion these Hillary supporters are grieving a co-dependent relationship and this is going to be a long walk back. Thank goodness most of her supporters seem to be embracing her message, it’s just the crazy fringe now, I hope. They are going to need a lot of therapy (or a note from the doctor before they can be around sharp objects).
Sleeper
I was going to say “Don’t be silly” but then I saw he’s posted yet another comment about how if Obama doesn’t give Clinton the VP slot then he’ll lose in a landslide because no woman will vote for him because he’s an unelectable sexist.
Maybe you’re on to something.
Tim F.
Huh. I detested him back when he first got big in the Kos diaries. The only person whose intolerant, belligerent narcissism even came close was Maryscott O’Connor.
Sasha
John, as a recent convert, you have no fucking idea what a refreshing change it is to *not* have the Democratic candidate run as a Republican-lite.