I woke this morning to find that the Zogby poll now says that McCain and Obama are in a statistical dead heat, with McCain just ever so slightly ahead. Additionally, there was remapping of the electoral college layout that now shows McCain in a solid position to beat Obama… under some circumstances, quite handily. So: Since the economy is issue number one for the vast majority of Americans, and 80% of the voting populace feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction, why isn’t this a walk on for Obama?
In a fit of pain centered around the notion of 4 years with another clueless Republican at the helm I wrote to my brother – a political insider in California and connections in the right place to ask what the heck is going on. While I waited for his response, I did come up with some of my own thoughts.
Hillary supporters that now support John McCain: I am not sure if this is just sour grapes (We didn’t get Hillary, so there’s NO WAY that we’re going to let you have Obama) or conveniently disguised racism, but in any case, there are a lot of Hillary supporters that are *vehemently* opposed to Obama. Since Hillary’s and Obama’s programs are at least on the same side of the aisle and, to a great degree, similar in concept if not execution, the only thing I can really come to is either they were only going to support Hillary because she was female and had no idea what her real programs were – because anyone that loved where she wanted to take the country just can NOT be in favor of John McCain. It’s a ludicrous shift that makes no sense at all. The real answer is probably a healthy blend of grapes, racism and gender politics.
Obama and White People: CNN reports that only about 30% of white people support him. Even if he gets every single black person in America to vote for him (and he probably will) that will still be a tough group to crack. If this isn’t racism in the worst way I don’t know what is. “I’d rather continue killing people in foreign lands, spend all my money and my children and grandchildren’s money on oil, war and debt, allow my country to be bought lock stock and barrel by foreigners, have no policy to protect the earth and allow the constitution to be ignored as irrelevant than see a NIGGER in the white house.” What kind of messed up country do I live in?
Fortunately, as I worked myself into a lather about the ignorance of my fellow countrymen, my brother responded with an eloquent and spot on email. Here is a nice snippet:
First, Zogby who had Obama behind is a notoriously bad pollster who is often wildly off mark. (He might be right, but let’s not panic yet).
Second, McCain has been doing what Republicans do well, and Obama has been doing what Democrats do well (unfortunately). McCain has gone on the attack and Obama has taken the high road, to the predictable outcome. McCain has stayed steady in the low-mid fourties, but he has brought Obama down to his level in the polls. McCain raised Obama’s negatives. There is a large number of undecideds in the poll, revealing that what McCain has done is not to convince the public to side with him or the Republicans, but has sown doubt about Obama.
Third, it’s a nice wake up call before our convention that this will not be a casual march to victory. If we lose, it’s not Obama’s fault. It’s not Hillary’s fault. It’s not any of our leader’s fault. We all must take ownership of this election and get involved like we never have before to sieze back the direction of our nation. Power is never given freely. We must sieze it, and we must all do it together, or we will watch as the Republicans work harder and fight dirtier to beat us at a pretty low-ball game that they have trounced us every time when we have sat back confident in our position of being ‘right on the issues’. We have to fight hard starting now.
Those are my thoughts. I’m planning on taking ownership of this election myself and doing everything I can think of to take back my country. It’s what each of us must do if we want to bring back the nation for our children that we all believe in.
Thanks so much bro, for your time and efforts for our country. It is your efforts and those of your equal that are truly patriotic.
the sour grapes group of ‘i wanted hillary so now i wont vote obama’ should just go die in a hole somewhere, unless they were originally republican which i would excuse as just being dumb in the first place.
I love this country. late night television would really fucking boring if it wasnt for the ignorant racist inbreeders we have.
Although i appreciate the high-road that the dems often take, I really do think we need to start playing the role of the asshole boyfriend to get people to want to stay with us. Because after all, if you are such a pompous sure of yourself prick, you must worth dating. I personally never had the balls to go this route, and often lost out the girl that prick, but at least I had my pride
So i want obama to just start being the adversarial contrarian dick.
‘oh you want healthcare? pfft, learn to do your own surgery.’
‘energy? meh, there’s no problem, we will just take the oil when we run out.’
I totally agree that Obama needs to start fighting, and not just taking the ‘high road’. The Democrats get beaten every time that way. The recent focus on McCain’s 7 houses is a good start. While the public is figuring out how to keep their home from foreclosing after the mess of the Bush years, it’s a good campaign strategy to make an issue of McCain’s 7 houses. This is a good start for the Obama campaign to begin illustrating how out of touch McCain is. But I also think we all need to personally get active if we want to win this. We can’t just point to Obama and the Democratic leadership. We all need to take ownership of the election if we want to win.
Hey Perk! Hope all is well with you and the family!
Regarding this election….Fear Not! The best is yet to come. We all know that many close President elections turn on the debates. If Obama can come out and get McBush riled up in the debates, it will bode well for him. He just needs to get “crisper” and not give too many long answers. I really think he’s gonna outshine him there.
I also firmly believe that there is a good 5 to 10% of voters who will NEVER vote for Obama because he’s black. Period. Sad but true. Which means he needs to win over the other 90-95% by a significant margin to win.
Nevertheless, I believe he will win. I can not for the life of me see how the average joe voter could vote for McCain unless he/she is a true right winger. The damage done to this country in SO MANY WAYS over the last 8 years is astonishing and the average Joe is now beginning to “feel” it in a BIG way.
If the dumbasses elect a repub prez again, then they deserve ALL THE SHIT they get. Unfortunately the rest of us will get it too
Anyways…glad I found this section Perk. I’ll be back more often
Con
The problem as I see it, is that the Republicans are so VERY much more willing to play shitball than the Dems are. It’s been amazing to me, that blowholes like Lou Dobbs have been saying “This is all politics as usual” and that no one is really trying, without even looking at the real flow of the ads. It seems extremely clear that Barack has only shot to the low road when he has been attacked that way.
All that said, I also completely agree that Barack, Joe and the entire Democrat body must take the attack to the right wing that has managed to convince a huge amount of America to vote against their own self interest, time and time again.