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A Glimmer of Hope? McCain Wins Indpendents by Nine, According to Politico »
October 16, 2008
There Is Only One Issue
Ah, so here's that Ben Smith article people were talking about.
I'm not being a "pessimist." I am seeing the situation accurately, which John McCain is not. The public is seething in white-hot anger over the destruction of the economy and the $700+ billion (and growing!) cost to even have a chance of staving off economic catastrophe.
There is only one issue. There is only one issue.
Whoever is blamed for the crisis will lose. Catastrophically.
John McCain tried to stop it, but won't say so. The Democrats engineered the crisis, but he refuses to blame them. (Sorry, PUMAs, but it's true -- even Bill Clinton said the Democrats blocked the necessary oversight because all they cared about was affordable housing.) Obama voted present, but he won't note that, because Obama's black and to suggest he did anything wrong would be racist.
There is only one issue.
Yes, they believed the charges against Obama. Yes, they actually think he's too liberal, consorts with bad people and WON'T BE A GOOD PRESIDENT...but they STILL don't give a f***. They said right out, "He won't do anything better than McCain" but they're STILL voting for Obama.
The two most unreal moments of my professional life of watching focus groups:
54 year-old white male, voted Kerry '04, Bush '00, Dole '96, hunter, NASCAR fan...hard for Obama said: "I'm gonna hate him the minute I vote for him. He's gonna be a bad president. But I won't ever vote for another god-damn Republican. I want the government to take over all of Wall Street and bankers and the car companies and Wal-Mart run this county like we used to when Reagan was President."
...
I felt like I was taking crazy pills.
McCain won't make this case, however. And the entire Republican Party will suffer for it.
It's not "defeatism" to scream to your party leader that he is destroying your party.
Incidentally? McCain running as a POW Maverick reformer who reaches across the aisle?
Helps only him. It's as if he's unwilling to make an argument if, incidentally, it would also help other Republicans win.
He's determined to have a Lonely Victory or none at all.
Styen: McCain has no one to blame but himself.