The AP:
Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House. To pull that off, John McCain has attracted disgruntled GOP voters, independents and even some moderate Democrats who shunned his party last fall.
Partly thanks to an increasingly likable image, the Republican presidential candidate has pulled even with the two Democrats still brawling for their party’s nomination, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo news poll released Thursday. Just five months ago — before either party had winnowed its field — the survey showed people preferred sending an unnamed Democrat over a Republican to the White House by 13 percentage points.
Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples’ opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain’s.
The funniest thing about this election will be watching the idiots who tried to savage McCain all through the primaries drop everything and rush to embrace him, but as I have said a number of times, McCain is probably the only Republican who stood a chance in the general this year. The rest of the piece is well, just what you would expect when the opposition party is intent on destroying itself. I wouldn’t worry too much about this, though, because Hillary supporters have told me she is the only one who can win so she has to destroy the party in order to save it.
Joe Klein's conscience
Isn’t this funny in the sense that McCain is only up because Hillary and Barack are still duking it out? This doesn’t portend well at all for McCain. With all the fluffing by the TradMed and this is the best he can do at this point?
D-Chance.
Which is exactly what the MUPpets will do if Hillary gets the Ass nod, and vice versa with the Hilbots if Obama is the choice.
Reverend Spooner
This angers me immensely. 4 more years of Bush, coming right up!
Reverend Spooner
I hope to Christ you’re right. I know, I know, a McCain Presidency won’t end the world. It won’t stop the Sun from shining, flowers from blooming, or pretty girls from smiling. But it will keep us in Iraq for a damn long time, and fuck our economy something awful.
Walker
November is a long way away. The economy is going to continue to get much, much worse. November is after the (soon to be disastrous) summer selling season for homes. By that time, the commercial real estate will start taking out the regional banks. Quite a few people are going to have to rely on FDIC to recover their savings.
McCain is not going to survive that.
ntr Fausto Carmona
Its cute to see Hillbots chuckling over last night’s debate as if Gibson and Stephanopolous won’t be cribbing from Hannity’s notes during the general election.
4tehlulz
>>Which is exactly what the MUPpets will do if Hillary gets the Ass nod
No.
Linda in Oregon
Not surprising when comparing his AP reception (Want a donut, Johnny?) to Obama’s (in which his name was used in referring to “Obama bin Ladin”). The MSM’s love affair with McCain is downright embarassing – We need to keep hollering about this!
calipygian
It would behoove all of us right now to start combing the National Review Online archives, Malkin’s House of Insanity, etc. for all the times that they called McCain an unpatriotic traitor who ratted out his fellow POWs while he was in that camp in North Vietnam among other things so it can be thrown in their faces when they say that McCain is the best thing since Jamon Bellota.
I pity the fool who has to wade into Townhall.com
Wilfred
Minus the hyperbole, I think this post gets nearer the matter. As Clinton revealed herself to be exactly what her husband was, it became clear that the nominal ‘left’ issues are just a smokescreen for preserving that most precious of conservative ideals – Free Trade. The economic forces that drive conservative politics are not committed in the least to the blather they use to motivate and instigate the hooples – drivel about abortion, flag pins and wetbacks. But they must somehow convince the very same blue-collar workers who they fucked by Nafta and other free trade deals that something is more important than their futures.
It’s Gramsci 101: Somehow convince people to vote for and participate in actions that are against their own interests. Clinton has proven time and again that she won’t mess with free trade, which is all that matters, the rest is filler.
The Democratic party, or at least its Clinton wing, has no connection to the long history of the American Left, which in any case no longer exists. There is no opposition party.
cleek
i get it now! Clinton attracts people who suffer from a chronic tendency toward personality projection. this is the reason every criticism of Obama and his supporters seems 10x more applicable to Clinton and her supporters; they recognize her shortcomings and are attacking them. but, due to some psychological failure, they are misdirecting the attacks towards Obama.
jenniebee
LOL, that’s what Derbyshire said about McCain.
Pundit, heed thyself. You’ve said repeatedly both that the contest between Hillary and Obama is “McCain vs. Not McCain” and that you will not vote for Hillary if she is the candidate. Well which is it – is the important thing here to defeat McCain*, or to punish the querulous bitch?
*I agree with the assessment that Obama is the more electable candidate; I still find it amusing when MUPpets (or, conversely, Hillbots) announce their determination to prove that the alternative Democrat is less electable by withholding their support in the general.
4tehlulz
>>LOL, that’s what Derbyshire said about McCain.
I like how you equate “will hold my breath and vote for HRC because McCain will get us all killed” with “rush and embrace”.
In the real world, it’s not quite the same.
cleek
A != B. multiple polls show that Hillary supporters are far more likely than Obama supporters to say they will vote for McCain, and not just “withhold support”, if Hillary isn’t the nominee. that’s not amusing; that’s pathological.
Soylent Green
It comes down to what Hillary does next. If she bows out gracefully by June and supports Obama, the party will close ranks and regain its clear advantage. If she hangs in until the convention and wrecks the party, which will depress turnout, McCain wins in a walk.
ThymeZone
Unless they find Obama wearing an Al Qaeda lapel pin while playing polo with his Weather Underground friends right after having sex with Michael Jackson ….
John McCain is not going to win. Three months of listening to that dottering old fool whistle his way through a rehash of Bush policies and watching Barack Obama take him to school in the debates, will end up with him getting, as I have said all year, somewhere south of 40% of the popular vote.
Declaring McCain “ahead” now is about as useful as declaring Hillary Clinton the “sure Dem nominee” last fall. I know, because I did, and here we are.
scarshapedstar
Gosh, I love it when the media speaks of “images” as if they fall from the heavens like cosmic rays. I’m sure the AP’s break-out-the-kneepads coverage of McBush’s backyard barbecues didn’t have anything to do with it, no sir.
John Cole
Yes, because swallowing a handful of Vicodin, washing it down with a quart of scotch, and stumbling into the election booth with a clothespin on my nose to vote “Not McCain” is the same damned thing as rushing to embrace Hillary.
Zifnab
There are a number of independent voters who have their favorite Democratic Candidate and – baring that candidate winning the nomination – will return to being “undecided” or simply pull out their GOP default rubber stamps.
There are a handful of die-hard partisans who will vote for McCain out of spite.
I don’t think these two groups – by any lengthy stretch of the imagination – compose the majority of the electorate. At the beginning of the primary season, more than one voter gushed about how picking a candidate was like picking a favorite ice cream flavor. Sure, chocolate may taste better than vanilla to some, but in the end it was all good.
On the flip side, even if Hillary and Obama were in a serious deadlock and the primary was seriously contested, I suspect Hillary’s performance up till now would have drained her of a great deal of popular and superdelegate support. Everything after Super Tuesday has been a campaign disaster for her. From talking about states that “don’t count” to echoing GOP talking points to fobble after fobble by Mark Penn to those absolutely atrocious debates last night, she’s shot herself in the foot an incredible number of times since Texas and Ohio.
Obama has been smeared, but Hillary has done an incredible job of embarrassing herself. June – and an end to this nonsense – can’t come soon enough.
scarshapedstar
Hillary and Barack could get caught in bed tomorrow and the media narrative would still be “Democrats in disarray; lovable maverick carrier pilot catapulted to victory”. As it will be until November.
mark k
This is the AP which has Rupert M. on the board. Its a frickin’ lie.
It is hard to believe more than 15 people would ever vote Republican again. As long as the TV networks continue to take economic issues off the table during debates (capital gains taxes do NOT count as an economic issue for the public) the Republicans have a huge advantage.
ThymeZone
Not as off topic as it seems … ABC News’ website is now at over 13,000 comments on the debate last night, almost all of them saying one or another version of “Shame on you” for the farce they put on. The editorial reviews of the debacle are all over the web, and almost unanimously unfavorable to ABC news. People are mad.
This is relevant here because the people are at the gates with their pitchforks this year, and John McCain represents the guards in the palace. He is not going to win the election.
Soylent Green
Maybe you’ll be proven right, TZ, but I think you are whistling past the graveyard.
Most of the people still undecided during debates in October aren’t going to be influenced by or even comprehend the reasoned, practical solutions Obama will be expounding. They will be deciding who they like more.
Four years ago Randi Rhodes and company didn’t stop crowing, right up to the election, about how much Kerry had it in the bag.
ThymeZone
Thank you for comparing me to a drunken failed talk radio host from a bankrupt network.
Your lapel pin is being shipped before close of business today.
I would remind all others that Soylent Green was people.
That’s right, people. People.
Timb
Seriously, this is McCain’s highpoint. The gy is tied to disaster in Iraq, he’s tied to tax cuts for rich people as a way of saving us all from mortgage failures, and he’s a terrible public speaker. Much like Dukakis with the 18 point lead, McCain will fall like a stone as soon as the super delegates make their decision known.
The Moar You Know
Soylent Green: Who is Randi Rhodes?
D0n Camillo
Have there been any polls of conservatives who will either not vote at all or vote for a third party candidate or, shudder, a Democrat in November? I’d be willing to bet it will balance any Obama or Clinton supporters voting for McCain.
Soylent Green
Uh, what?
I just used Randi as an example of every pundit who earnestly believed that idiot Bush couldn’t possibly be re-elected. I’m not a fan of hers, find her to be a tiresome windbag.
Democrats need to swarm the polls this fall like fire ants no matter what the projected outcome is.
Incertus
Or give him a standing ovation after providing him with his favorite donuts. I fucking hate our news media.
D0n Camillo
Amen, brother. Thank God for the Intertubes. I’ve been enjoying reading the comments at ABC News. It is nice to be able to do more than just shout at the TV for a change, even if it is unlikely to make any difference.
Rick Taylor
I saw the hardball college tour event with McCain. A few nights before the Democratic nominees were bashing each other and being bashed by the press, he got an hour to address issues and make a good impression, so I can see how he’s doing well now.
The first question helped him quite a bit I think, when he was asked to distinguish himself from Bush. That’s when he came out unequivocally against torture (no senior moment about not torturing Americans, he said to cheers he’d close Guantanamo and there’d be no torturing by American personnel during his watch), and he also declared Global warming was real and we had to do something about it. Now he didn’t say just what we ought to do about global warming, and we all know he’s cast votes that aren’t consistent with his anti-torture stand, but he wasn’t challenged on either of these points, and he came across well. The right wing may hate him for stands like that, but it will surely help moderates who would worry about him being conservative.
He defended his hundred year remark about as well as he could. Boiling it down, his position is that while the beginning of the war was mismanaged and he opposed it at the time (Of course he didn’t but no one contradicted him), the United States is succeeding, and casualties will be reduced (he didn’t outright say that but that’s the only way his remarks make sense); when the Iraqis step up, we will step down, but until then it would be a disaster for us to accept defeat. I still think that won’t be a wining message after five years of being told the same thing, but then I was nearly certain the Democrat would win handily in 2004, because of course the country wouldn’t re-elect a President who had just lead us into a quagmire of a war under false pretenses, and just after we’d discovered the outrages of Abu Ghraib. (I could certainly understand how someone might not have made up their minds between Hillary and Obama in this primary; their policies are similar, and not everyone is following the internecine party battle the way we are, but how so many people voted for Bush in 2004 is still a complete mystery to me; intercine party battles are one thing, a mismanaged war of occupation with a discredited causus belli is another)
Anyway, back to McCain, he was challenged on his one hundred year remark, but of course the treatment he got was nothing like the Democratic candidates. One questioner said he’d seen Hillary tossing back a few whiskey sauce, and wondered if he thought she was hitting the sauce because of unfavorable polling, and would McCain care to join the questioner for a drink afterwards, to great and laughter applause.
One thing is McCain definitely came across as non-elitist. Being elitist has nothing to do with how many mansions you have or how much money you make. I’m not sure I can explain it, but it’s more a matter of being jovial, amiable, not to serious, certainly not to wonkish or too smart. The sort of fellow you’d like to have a beer with. Me, I’d prefer the big-headded alien from the end of the Daily Show clip, but this is the sort of candidate the punditocracy likes.
Rick Taylor
I forgot to add this link to youtube videos of the hardball college tour.
crw
Better slip Barrack Obama some modafinil before the debate, though. When he’s on his game, I have no doubt he can school McCain. But if he’s as obviously tired and worn down as he was last night…well, ugh.
flyerhawk
Honestly, why anyone is worried about John McCain I have no idea.
Of COURSE people like him right now. He’s doing puff piece press tours while the other party is clawing and scratching at each other.
Heck I suspect that a lot of voters have forgotten what he looks like at this point.
The Dems will pick a candidate sometime between Mid-May and Mid-June. Then the McCain love-in will come to a crashing halt. Obama won’t be required to split his resources between Hildog and McCain. He will open up the war chest and start the demystification of the McCain legend.
liberal
Soylent Green wrote, Maybe you’ll be proven right, TZ, but I think you are whistling past the graveyard.
Agreed.
I don’t see how anyone can look at the past 15 years or so of American politics and think that defeating Rethuglicans is something predictable.
Since as long as I can remember, positions to the left of what in Europe would be considered at best center-right have to be defended against slander with stacks of documentation. Meanwhile, thuggish rightwing positions of all sorts never must be defended.
Not to mention that Rethuglicans appeal to people’s base instincts—bigotry and warmongering. It’s a lot easier to make such appeals than to work against them.
Finally, the press is and obviously will continue to be in the tank for McCain.
Paul
Assuming, of course, Senator Obama gets the nomination. While I wouldn’t want to lay money on Senator Clinton getting the nomination without being given very generous odds, she may still pull this out.
That said, assuming Senator Clinton wins, then her job is to do unto Senator McCain even more than she has been doing unto Senator Obama. At least by an additional order of magnitude or two. She’d better.
Rick Taylor
That’s exactly how I felt about Bush in 2004. Actually, it’s how I felt about Bush in 2000 after I saw the first debate between him and Gore.
Rick Taylor
Paul wrote:
Actually, in the unlikely event Hillary becomes the nominee, she’d better do hell of a lot better job against McCain than she’s doing against Obama. I originally assumed she’d be the better candidate for fighting back against the Republicans, but I haven’t been impressed; it seems to me she’s just punch wildly with no overall plan. Obama on the other hand has shown both with Wright and bitter-gate he can come back quickly and strong when he’s attacked.
jenniebee
Do you seriously object to her because of the proportion of her supporters who don’t like your guy? And whatever the relative proportion of supporters taking the stance that their candidate is more electable and that if their candidate isn’t nominated, they’ll vote for the opposition, does that really diminish the absurdity of the position?
ThymeZone
The press laughed at Ronald Reagan. The press has a lot less influence than it gives itself credit for.
The press is regarded somewhere below used car salesmen.
via journalism.org
cleek
where did i say anything like that ?
wha?
of course it doesn’t. but for some reason, Clinton supporters are more likely to take that absurd position. there’s just something about being a Clinton supporter that requires (or encourages) a hypertrophied sense of entitlement.
TenguPhule
I want to see Fuckstain behind bars for violations of campaign finance law.
And his cocksucking lapdog media supporters thrown in after him.
Is it fucking September yet?
Soylent Green
Yeah that will happen. Soon after Bush and Cheney are dragged out of the White House in leg irons. Both are justified, neither is likely in this lifetime. Bush, with his delusions of grandeur intact, is going to retire happily to riding his mountain bike to the brush pile; Cheney, with his Halliburton millions intact, is going to retire happily to killing captive birds and other small, helpless creatures; and McCain is going to skate right by that unpleasant business about his funding, which will not be a factor in the general.
merl
I’m a Clinton supporter, I won’t vote for McBush, so fuck you asshole.