Obama’s nomination seems all but certain at this point, so it’s time to start the real campaign season (i.e., that in the GD Forum of the SDMB; I understand there might also be a public election or something to ratify the verdict of our collective wisdom, but I’ve got no cite; probably just a rumor).
This is not a “Who will win?” handicapping thread. This is a “Who should win?” debate/argument thread. Who would make the better POTUS – Obama or McCain?
Give reasons, please, this ain’t IMHO.
Obama, because he’ll actually talk to Iran rather than follow a belligerent, “Manly man”, foreign policy.
Who SHOULD win?? The person who SHOULD win is the one who is able to convince more folks to vote for them state by state. Who WILL win? The person who best appeals to the center and the undecideds.
At this point I’m truly unsure of who that will be. I thought it would be Obama…but he may be too far to the left to appeal to the center politically. McCain’s politics also have several spots where they don’t appeal to the center, but I think most of his positions are soft enough and bland enough that they may. Physically, I THINK McCain is too old and physically doesn’t appeal to most people (but this could just be a matter of taste on my part…he looks like death warmed over to me), while Obama is definitely young and good looking…very appealing IMHO. Personality wise it’s no contest…McCain is old and crabby, pugnacious and in your face, while Obama is charismatic, polished, sophisticated and very articulate.
So, by my reckoning that means they will both lose. 
I THINK Obama will managed to squeak out a victory in the end simply on his raw charisma and personality…but I think it will be a close one.
-XT
Unless you want more Roberts’s and Alito’s on the Supreme Court, Obama should win.
Seriously. Look on the man and despair, GOP. Meanwhile, here’s you. I like Obama’s policies a hell of a lot more than I like McCain’s (as I am most certainly left-leaning), but I think we’re dealing with Kennedy vs. Nixon all over again on the charisma front.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Obama is the choice on the SDMB by about 9 to 1. I would be OK with either of the two, although I give a slight edge to Obama mainly because of Iraq. I just don’t want the Clintons (or the Bushes, for that matter) anywhere near the WH.
You think?
I wanted to start a thread called “McCain: The First Forking”
He looks like crap. He’s wearing too much make up or something. His crowd is small and listless. He sounds whiney and patronizing.
All this Obama vs. Clinton business has led us to forget what the GOP is stuck with. Good man, but not a good candidate.
Roberts’s and Alito’s what?
I’d vote for Obama if I was American, but I don’t think McCain (who, if this was a betting thread, I’d bet on to win) will be the huge disaster Bush has been; he’s much smarter and doesn’t demonstrate Bush’s stubbornness. He’s right on free trade, whereas Obama is either wrong or lying about what his position is. I also really don’t think in the final calculus either man will be able to make a huge difference in how Iraq plays out.
I’d vote for Obama just because (a) a democracy sometimes just needs change, even if for one term, and Obama is a bigger change than McCain, and (b) His charisma may grant him better diplomacy-fu.
To point out what should be obvious, “should win” in this context involves moral and practical considerations, not just legal ones. Plenty of nasty or incompetent people have been elected over the years, and it’s quite possible for the better candidate to lose. And, it’s quite possible for the electorate to choose someone they shouldn’t, either for moral reasons or ones of competence; just because democracy is better than the alternatives doesn’t mean we have to pretend it’s infallible.
That being said, I think Obama, mainly because he’s not a Republican. The Republicans have been a disaster, and McCain certainly doesn’t seen bent on repairing their flaws.
I want more Scalias on the Supreme Court.
Two isn’t enough?
Even as I was (ingrammatically) typing that, I thought of you. I almost tacked on, “plus, Bricker’ll owe me $100.” Or however much it was; I’ll have to look for the post where we agreed on it.
Which is a big reason I’m voting for McCain, although I’d hope for more Scalias. (ETA on preview: Damn you Bricker! :D)
Just out of idle curiousity, have you stopped calling yourself a Democrat yet?
Oops. wrong thread.
Just out of idle curiosity, why should I give a bloody fuck what your opinion of my political identity is?
Huh. I assumed the question could have been answered with a simple yes or no. My mistake.
I am utterly unsurprised by friend Bricker’s comment.
These days, some people want a great man of precision of law. Others want a great man who is large in charity of heart.
Me, I say, why can’t we have both, like the late Earl Warren?
Now comes the VP. I’m really liking Jim Webb for Obama: he literally wrote the book on the Scots-Irish (a pretty good one too- I read it before I really knew who he was) so maybe he can pull in some of the hillbillies he stems from and some of the southern white vote.
If I were McCain I’d go with Sarah Palin, the Anti-Obama in someways (he’s a liberal Dem from 1959-fringe-state Hawaii, she’s a conservative Rep from 1959-fringe-state Alaska) but she’s also young, attractive, sharp, and female. I think it’d be a nice balance.
Anyway, the asked for reasons I think Obama should win assuming “who should win?” is asking “based on merit” as opposed to “based on probability”:
-He has pledged to end a bloody expensive and absolutely unwinnable war. In cost alone this most be done: in a time of record foreclosures we spend enough on that war to buy- outright buy- houses for 100,000 families every month and we’ve been doing this for years.
-Charisma and eloquence are NOT “nice to have but unimportant” qualities in a 24/7 media age but an absolutely essential must have
-He has galvanized a large section of the youth and disaffected feeling minorities and may make them give a damn about politics (and I believe the children are our future)
-He has an excellent education (and actually knows the difference in Sunni and Shia)
-While to give him his due McCain has crossed party lines more than once in his career, I think Obama is the most likely to be bipartisan as president and partisan fighting is more than any other single cause what’s ruining America
-He vows to get rid of the stupid ass tax-cuts for the very rich (that they didn’t even ask for) and concentrate on the eroding middle class
-I have absolutely no rose colored glasses about how well a UHC will work in America, but having been without health insurance several times myself and being able to tell you nightmare stories about people I know who have literally died or lost loved ones due to their lack of coverage, it’s high time we have something in place for the tens of millions who fall in the Goldilocks cracks (“this one earns too much [for Medicaid]” “this one earns too little [to afford private health insurance]”). I honestly think that in 50 years people will look back on the decades without any kind of UHC as a dark age idiocy not far short of Jim Crow laws, Prohibition and male only suffrage.
-I think he’ll make cabinet appointments based on merit and who he thinks will be best for the country and not to reward his buddy Tex from Texarkana
-I think he’s the most likely to be viewed with respect and admiration abroad in a time when the U.S.'s international reputation and credibility is at a nadir and must be rebuilt
-He’s young and healthy (this really is a concern for me about McCain, for as said before the 2008 electee has one hell of a job cut out for them in repairing the mess of the past 8 years)
-This sounds silly and overly liberal perhaps, but he’s just a great symbol- like America itself he’s a blend of cultures/races/socioeconomic groups/outsiders/insiders, etc… I honestly don’t think this is as unimportant as it sounds.
-He does not pander like McCain and Clinton even when it would probably help him. His refusal to suspend the 18 1/2 cent gas tax (a cut that wouldn’t save 1 in 100 people enough to make or break their lifestyle but would deprive infrastructure of billions) and his refusal to say “I’m going to freeze foreclosures for a year” or “I’m going to bring all troops home by X date” is something that’s refreshing and shows that he’s going to be far more likely to tell us “tighten your belts, I don’t work miracles, you’re going to feel the burn… but you’re going to be one hell of a lot better off because of it” than the “have another Reese’s and a Sprite and we’ll work out twice as hard tomorrow” rhetoric of the populists.
Anyway, I could go on, but the not-pandering/intelligence/charisma/domestic policies/and most of all no commitment to years more in Iraq are the big reasons.
