What Obama needs to do is take the gloves off when they get on the debate stage. McCain is easily provoked, and the spectre of the potential prez losing his cool on national TV makes me drool.
There is no nuance. It has nothing to do with being a red-stater. It has everything to do with it being Clothahump.
You have officially been added to my funniest poster list.
I personally think the pollsters are in a cabal to make us think the race is close to make us watch more television and therefore, more advertising.
That or Obama needs to learn how to deal with the negative ads.
On the other hand, it’s not encouraging seeing Obama pander to those who want unworkable fixes to high energy prices, the nation’s security be damned.
"Not only did Obama push for drawing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he also reiterated his changing position on offshore drilling — first revealed last Friday — suggesting that he could live with it if done in an environmentally sound way and as part of a bipartisan energy compromise.
The limited drilling part isn’t so bad (both McCain and Obama have now reversed their opposition to more offshore drilling), if it can be tied to requirements for a comprehensive energy plan which includes beefing up alternative energy production and conservation – but drawing down the strategic reserve is a really awful idea.
MCCAIN DEFEATS TRUMAN
With turnout in US elections being relatively low (by world standards), an important aspect of winning elections is “energising your base”, i.e., motivating your supporters to enrol and vote for you. I get the feeling that in this election it’s Obama’s base which is being energised, while McCain doeshave mouch of a base anyway (since he’s not the sort of candidate that most Republican voters really support).
So polls showing a close tie now might be deceptive, because a much higher proportion of Obama’s 45% will actually vote compared with McCain’s 45%.
In addition, if a lot of the Democrat’s traditional base won’t vote for a black candidate, they might not find that a really good reason to get out and vote for the other guy, if the other guy is not from the party that is normally supported. So again, they are probably polling as McCain supporters, but they won’t get out and vote for the lesser of two evils.
Still it’s not a good sign that the dip occurred after the attack ads this weekend. Expect this to convince them it worked and I’m sure they will run many more such ads. The sad part is that people are stupid enough fall for this kind of stuff.
I was wondering about this; specifically, the last bit of your linked article says:
Does that make Obama’s refinement (pun intended) any better? More generally, does tapping the reserve make any sense?
I wonder, if there is any thinking-through about the ads as time goes on or an accretion of “these ads are stupid” reactions, will this change.
Giles, excellent analysis.
Sheesh, it’s only [del]June[/del] [del]July[/del] August, for pete’s sake. I’m not going to pretend I know who’s going to win until Dan Rather calls Florida for one of them.
No. It’s a hedge against foreign sanctions or some other catastrophic event, not a political football.
ETA: That said, if there were some catastrophic event which cut off our oil supply, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would only last about a month anyway.
Obama is no more a socialist than you are, as you know. And less of a fool, as you should know but don’t.
From the OP’s lips to God’s ear.
I would agree with you, except I would say he has moderate socialist tendencies. If McCain is smart enough, this should be Obama’s undoing. McCain should dial back the negative ads a little bit (although his new one is screamingly funny, and exactly what Obama deserves. If you run your campaign as a cult of personality, don’t be surprised when your opponent mocks that) and release a series of ads that directly highlight the more liberal and socialist things that Obama has proposed, backed up by quotes from Obama’s website and his speeches, along with what McCain proposes instead. I envision targeting maybe 5-8 specific policies, it doesn’t have to be every single issue, and it certainly can’t be things like immigration where McCain is just as wrongheaded as Obama, but Obama has put enough out there in spite of himself that he’s vulnerable IMO. That outta be enough to swing 5-8% of those middle of the road undecideds to his side and with them comes the election. I know that big intrusive government plays big here on the SDMB, but thankfully amongst the voters who make up the independents and undecideds (IOW, the people who are going to decide this election) it really, really doesn’t, and McCain needs to take advantage of that demographic. QED.
Maybe they realize that government doesn’t work. As for the rest of it, I can’t imagine anyone who has at least the brain capacity that God gave lint that wouldn’t want not just a cut-my-taxes-and-leave-me-alone president, but an entire cut-my-taxes-and-leave-me-alone government.
Gasp!
McCain was Dewey all along!
That’s the most plausible conspiracy theory I’ve heard for quite some time.
No pol who supports a universal health care plan that would still leave the private health insurance companies in business can reasonably be credited with even “moderate socialist tendencies.”
No, Obama is Dewey. Gotta get your talking points right.
There’s a too-easy age joke in there somewhere!
Well, actually, it’s right there in plain sight.