“It’s not inspirational; it’s creepy messianic. No substance.”
“No resume. McCain is experienced.”
“He’s an extreme liberal with a Leftist agenda. McCain is centrist.”
“His wife hates America.”
I am sure they’ll trot out the Rezco horse again too.
Will any work with either the middle or with exciting the base? Any other tactics that they may try? Other than, y’know, actually discussing issues and contrasts between them on things like Iraq and stuff, which of course will not be a focus.
I hate to say this about a fellow dem but watch the Clinton’s Camp and what they have been doing. Otherwise, the ones you brought up are spot on for the most part.
No matter, Obama with Hillary out of his way will trounce McCain. I’d predict a 60/40 or maybe even higher.
Some people do seem to have a visceral reaction to the Obama hype, so some of that could be effective for them. McCain’s speech on Tuesday focused mostly on the experience card, particularly in the context of Commander in Chief. That argument hasn’t worked very well for Clinton, but since McCain has a much stronger military resume it could work better for him. He also did play the substance card.
Well, I’ve heard some religious nutters fiddling around with “Obama is the Antichrist”
And then as to experience, there will be, “This is a time of war,” or “These are dangerous times,” and “We can’t afford to give an inexperienced politician on-the-job training in these dangerous times.”
Same sex marriage. Obama’s denomination, the United Church of Christ, is the only mainline denomination to support it.
Not sure if Obama’s particular church supports it or not, however. Each church in the UCC has a great deal of autonomy. The United Church of Christ is congregational and each congregation makes their own decisions.
Still, I’m sure this issue will get trotted out again, especially in Florida.
I think the real question is what tactics WON’T the Republicans use. Honest Debate, reasoned discourse, and not fear mongering are among that short list.
With the crack/gay prostitute to the “stealth Muslim” to “all talk, no substance” to “socialist”, there is nothing you won’t hear from them.
Well, there is one thing you won’t hear: “We think Obama’s a pretty good guy, and will probably be a better President than our guy, so we’re going to withdraw and let him have the office uncontested.”
Oh, and they probably also won’t say, “Robot monkeys pound our testicles into Nilla wafers,” either.
Oh GAWD - does Clinton really think millions of people are just going to say, Yep you’r right! I’ll vote for you now… There aren’t enough rolleyes to give that one. LOL!!
I don’t think McCain’s campaign will bring out cockroaches like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or anything like that. He’ll jab at Obama’s percieved lack of experience, his percieved lack of a policy platform, and his percieved ultra-liberalism. He’ll tout his own reputation, his military buddies will campaign heavily for him, he’ll try to convince us that his military background proves he is the better candidate for handling terrorism.
I think the biggest issue going for him right now is that there’s a rift between him and the parts of the Republican party that are so distasteful to moderates. He doesn’t have great religious fundamentalist support, which by itself makes him seem more “moderate”. He’s almost in line with Democrats when it comes to environmental issues, and he’s percieved as moderate on tax issues as well. If he doesn’t turn around and try to court the extreme conservatives, he’ll end up with a whole lot of “regular people” votes that wouldn’t ever have considered voting for Romney or Huckabee.
Republicans don’t attack Dems where the Dems are weak; they attack where the Dems are strong. Al Gore was a sober pragmatist, so they painted him as a liar and loon. John Kerry was a decorated veteran, so we got the Swift Boaters. (The preceding is paraphrased from some ideas of Chris Kelly’s, in a previous article on Huffington Post). Obama is an inspirational genius, so they will paint him as a snake-oil salesman. They will tell us that he’s a smooth talker, but we’re too smart for him. We’re not persuaded by all that talk. Bonus points in Missouri for quoting Willard Duncan Vandiver, who gave rise to the state’s motto with these words: “frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”
McCain is already echoing Clinton on the experience all all speech no plan thing, but the more she tried that, the more votes Obama got. It’s funny, that whenever a candidate goes heavily into policy wonkdom, they get criticized for it. I’m sure they’ll play the military card, but this might just remind people about Iraq. I’m sure they’ll try the “he’ll raise your taxes” ploy also.
The real question I think is whether McCain will sell out to the Rovites to get elected, or if he will maintain some integrity. Depending on the answer to that, we’ll see very different sets of tactics.
Even more liberal than Bernie Sanders. So they will say. And he’s already being called a “socialist” and a “Marxist” on the more rabid-right message boards. (“Communist,” not so much. Have you noticed how nobody seems to use “Communist” as invective any more?)