After yesterday’s fiasco with McCain’s Texas fundraiser, and as the numbers continue to come in from polling, it seems to me that his campaign is self-destructing. For those who aren’t aware, McCain has accepted more than $300,000 raised by an oil magnate named Clayton Williams. Williams is infamous for having said that rape is like bad weather, that women should just lie back and enjoy the experience. He also compared Texas Governor Ann Richards to a cow, saying during his campaign against her that he would “head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt”. McCain refuses to give back the money (or give it to charity as his opponent did with Reznik’s money) ostensibly because the donations Williams gathered were for McCain, not Williams.
It also surfaced yesterday that one of McCain’s principle Veep candidates, Gov. Bobby Jindal, participated in an exorcism that he wrote about in 1994 for New Oxford Review. According to Jindal, supernatural forces were pushing down on his chest while he prayed on behalf of a possessed woman named Susan. He says he was afraid her demon would leave her and possess him, so he chickened out and stopped praying. But the exorcism as a whole was a success, he said, and he believed that as an added bonus, the procedure cured her cancer.
Daily tracking polls are consistently showing McCain trailing, not just overall but among key groups. And the margins appear to be widening, especially among women and minorities. Representative Rosa DeLauro said yesterday that a full-blown campaign is being organized to educate women about McCain and his positions. What effect this could have on the vote might have come to light yesterday, when NARAL released an interesting poll. Asking women simply which candidate they prefered, the poll showed McCain trailing by only 2 points. But when the question was asked again after reading the candidates’ positions on key issues, McCain fell by 5 points, and his opponent increased by 6. That same poll shows McCain losing support among both Independent and Republican women in the key states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
It’s too early yet to know what effect some of McCain’s positions might have, like his opposition to Habeas Corpus (the right of people to be heard by the judiciary when they are detained), that could also affect women, who generally oppose war and support human rights. But as his opponent establishes beachheads in all 50 states and continues to build momentum while controlling the news cycle, McCain seems stuck in the mud. His speeches in his small town hall meetings have devolved into white noise, as he can do no better than beg for media attention and take random cat-swipes at his rival.
But even given all these bad signs, McCain’s campaign is not without hope. MSNBC said that there are rumors that McCain supporters are in the process of launching an all out e-mail war on Michelle Obama, apparently hoping that they can bring down the Democrat by attacking his family. McCain seems to have paved the way for that effort by dismissing calls for civility last week, claiming that he cannot police every 527 group out there — groups that he helped create with his campaign finance reform. But such an aggressive move could backfire, and even hurt McCain’s vaunted support among white men, who admire men who defend their wives and might be put off if the attacks become too severe or random.
Issues for debate: (1) Will McCain’s attempt to hit on Hillary’s women ultimately fail? (2) Is he out of touch on issues like civil rights and liberties? and (3) Would his campaign benefit from the purchase of a modem so it can Google for information on people like Clayton Williams?
It does seem to me that his rival is campaigning circles around him. McCain appears to be coming across as quite the phoney with respect to women and their issues. And he seems to be surrounded by incompetent staff. I’d love to hear the points of view from his supporters on these matters.
