Posted on 07/25/2008 8:40:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If you read, watch and hear the media describe the campaign of 2008, it appears to be the most one-sided contest since Reagan trounced Mondale in 1984. McCain always comes across as borderline senile, lethargic, and pitiful while Obama is awash in media heroics and theatrical flourishes.
But the race is still basically tied according to the polls.
While Obama has gotten a four point bounce, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, from his European trip and the adulatory response of the left-leaning German crowds, the two candidates have been within one or two points of each other for the past three weeks.
Never has the disjuncture between coverage and reality loomed quite so large as it does in this race. You get one image from the media and a totally different one from the polling.
Behind this gap between perception and reality lies the more fundamental reality: Voters are worried about Barack Obama. Recent national polls show Obama with just a 40% favorable ratio among white voters. He is clearly hitting up against some substantial sales resistance, particularly among middle aged and older white women.
Obama went to Europe as a steak seeking to recover his sizzle. The absence of weekly teleprompter victory speeches in primary contests has sapped some of the enthusiasm his candidacy generated all spring. But, for a more sustained bounce, he went abroad to hype his ratings as a potential commander-in-chief and his standing as a foreign policy expert.
But clearly Obama is a domestic policy candidate. Overall, he can only win if foreign issues do not intrude unduly in the election campaign. Any reminder of foreign concerns, the war on terror, Iraq, or Iran, serves to undermine his ability to win. Never has there been a clearer fact than that McCain is better able to handle a foreign policy crisis, just as Bush was more prepared in 1992 to do so than was Clinton. Then, as now, the Democrat could only win if foreign affairs stayed on the periphery of the campaign.
But will they? Will Iran remain on a back burner as rumors of an impending Israeli or American military strike mount? Will Iraq stay off the front pages even though more than 100,000 American troops are at risk there? Will al Qaeda remain off balance and off the front pages?
Lately, it has become fashionable for McCain backers to complain about his seeming lethargy and the weakness of his campaign. Some extrapolate into speculation about his ability to handle the job of president. But, as delighted as the media is to fan such speculation, the fact is that he’s not running a bad race. He’s basically still tied and he has Obama on the defensive on the Iraq war issue, quite an achievement in itself.
Make no mistake about it, no matter how adulatory the media coverage of Obama gets, this race is still up for grabs and Obama has been unable to put it away. Sure McCain needs to step up his attacks and must pin Obama down on his flips and his flops. But even so, give credit where it is due — it is very unusual, in this sycophantic media atmosphere, for McCain to be running even with Obama this late in the game.
Barack is good for summer entertainment ... but not for President of the USA.
He takes 8 sides of every situation. So he'll be "right" again.
Figured that out all by himself, did he?
PS: One of the upsides of this election cycle is the MSM will pick up speed as it heads over Niagra Falls.
Obama went overseas to promise the “people of the world” that he would end the divide between rich and poor nations, and said, “people of the world, this is our moment, this is our time.”
Obama is running for a hostile takeover of the US on behalf of the anti-American international community. His plan is quite plainly to rape and pillage America’s wealth, and redistribute it to the rest of the world. His speech was brazenly candid about this.
He has already put forth this very plan in the S.2433 Global Poverty Act of 2007, which he authored in the Senate.
I agree. Sure, he could improve his campaigning, but he's toughened up his rhetoric and is taking some good shots.
Obama has peaked. Watch his face; listen to his tone. He is a sourpuss who drones on uninspiringly. Sure, he'll get bounce from the convention and he's got the black vote, but he's not only worrying voters, he BORING them.
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I agree! The media is doing irrepairable damage to themselves and they are so far left that they don’t even realize it. People are just plaln getting sick of this 24/7 BO lovefest.
If they do start openly questioning their annointed messiah, he will implode and will fall apart very quickly.
Well duh! Dick Morris, the Dan Dierdoff of politics.
That’s right, and you almost get the sens he was looking to goose his illegal foreign contributions as well!
McCain's "senility" is joked about (at length) every night on Leno. One can only imagine the jokes if McCain were the one who spoke of "57 states" or of Kansas tornadoes killing a 10,000 people. But because those gaffes are Obama's, they're completely ignored.
Mad Jon has an odd style of campaigning, he doesn’t pander per se, he picks off voting blocks, his lethargy is not so much that as he is taking his time talking with people and winning some of them over, by no means all.
Mad Jon’s path to victory is the White Male Vote, older Woman, and then 40% here and 40% there and just doing a bit better then one would think he does.
I don’t think he will have coattails, but he could win with that strategy, sort of a Southern Strategy, but only nicer.
If Obama loses the general election I don’t think I’ll be able to tear myself away from the TV for a full week. Watching the media gnash their teeth over another loss will be better than the 2000 election and the 1994 republican revolution combined!
-Roscommon
If he goes left or middle of the road I think he eats it.
If he picks a strong conservative (who might that be??? - John Bolton would be something...) conservatives will be better able to stomach voting for him.
I look forward to the calls of voter tampering and recounts in 9 states and the like.
I think my blood pressure doubled on that one.
If McCain picks Bolton (and I sure hope he does) the Left would go absolutely ape. It’d be entertaining to watch.
Yes, probably ever since they enlisted--"I wish Bush weren't president, that's why I'm joining up!"
Anderson Cooper? You have a strong stomach if you can watch that bore.
WAtch his head swivel from side to side when he speechafies...He never stops and looks at the crowd in the middle (he's not looking at them from side to side either) - that's because he's reading the TelePrompters on the right and the left.
He looks like someone watching a tennis match.
I would love to see one teleprompter malfunction and watch his reaction.
First, a look of confusion, then a bit of panic, then a whole lot of uh uh uh's while he found his place on the one working prompter - and then focused totally on that one - no more moving head.
We need to FREEP Rush, Hannity and Brit - let them point out how his head swings back and forth like a bobble head.
Thereafter, anytime he speaks, people won't hear what he's saying. They'll be too busy laughing/
It has been said that Obama is so slick, he can tell the unwashed masses that they can pick up a Dog Turd by the clean end — and they’ll believe him!
LOL!
Lets hope the press never sees an Obama White House. They are fully to blame should it happen.
Imagine an Obama White House:
Michelle Obama will be Americas First Lady, she will tell you often how much she loves America, maybe until Obama gets the second term in office.
Pastor Wright will be there
Bill Ayers will most likely be a visitor.
Farrakhan will be at Obamas side.
Wake up AMERICA!!!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I thought I read he was already getting 90% of the conservative vote. Maybe he actually doesn’t need to pick a strong conservative VP. Unless, if he didn’t, that 90% would go down.
The MSM is oblivious of the fact that the general population is skeptical of Obama. It reminds me of the story about the NY lady who lamented Nixon’s victory over McGovern in 1972 - she told a friend she could not understand it because everyone she knew was voting for McGovern - no one voted for Nixon. I think I read it in one of Bernie Goldberg’s books.
In Hollywood, the conventional wisdom is that Obama will win by such a landslide that the cognoscenti have already moved on to other things; the election is over. America has been transformed. The libs are congratulating themselves on their victory. They are planning the second term. At last! Deliverance!
Please don't forget about the "bodyguards with bowties."
yes, he was a “toe sucker”, but he has repented and changed his life after giving it to Christ (quietly, without a lot of publicity).
Of course, neither his sins nor his repentence has much to do with his ability or lack thereof of predicting elections.
And he is wrong quite a lot.
Well it’s too bad that McCain can’t pounce on Obama for his far-left views on immigration, seeing as how he shares most of those views.
One interesting aspect of the 2007 version of McCain-Kennedy was the provision to end chain migration and replace it with merit-based visas. Of course this provision was weak and likely never would have gone into effect, especially if Obama had his way. He championed an Amendment to strip the bill of its provisions that purported to end extended family chain migration. It is clear that Obama would love to increase immigration so as to speed up the demographic destruction of the GOP. It’s sad that McCain largely agrees with him.
LLS
and he acts like an old rust belt cracker union man if weren't a stand up comedian
All McCain is to me is his Veep pick!
I'll be voting more for his veep and against Obama than for McCain...
You just nailed what has always bugged me about him but couldn’t place it. That head swinging is terrible.
He kept his eyes on his notes or down and to the left, as though he was thinking hard, which he may have been. He tried to keep a regular rhythm with equally spaced shorter pauses and literally stopped himself when he inadvertently uttered an *uh*. The *uhs* were almost subvocalized, they were evident, but not predominant.
His content was much lower key. He acknowledged that he was only a candidate, that we have one president at a time and we do not take politics abroad.
While I have advocated a tactic of laughing at him openly, there is a downside: his campaign will rally to eradicate his mistakes. But, there is still an upside: it must be pissing off his moonbat base to hear him sound so supportive of American political tradition abroad. And it may break the spell if he continues to attempt to speak without his trademark passionate arrogance. People may actually find themselves listening to the content and beginning to question it. At the least, as he attempts to correct himself, he will sound hesitant and will also inevitably lose the contagious self-importance that hypnotizes his followers.
As for McCain, I watched him give a speech today. He was energetic, not lethargic, and he was not hyper, but relaxed and intense. His phrasing and delivery were punchy, consistent, rhythmic and he would look down at his notes briefly during a natural pause, then look earnestly at his audience,not at the camera, and continue without breaking stride. No verbal fillers were evident. He was sincere and authentic. He is not as he is portrayed by the media and neither was Reagan. Even W is a much better speaker than BO, IMO. W looks straight at his audience and speaks with real passion when he is campaigning. I have seen him in person when he was tired and hoarse and he made not one gaffe, used no quirky words and was in command himself, his material and his audience. He accomplished that without one rhetorical trick, just with the force of his persona and the truth of his message.
The media has set the meme that only Democrat candidates have rhetorical ability and that there is only one sort of excellant public speaking. It has lost them the Presidency election after election, with the exception of Clinton, who is a boring speaker with an admittedly attractive facade. Funny how Clinton was praised for being a wonk, but any Republican wonk is portrayed as out of touch and arcane.
VISUALIZE the Barack Obama dashboard bobble head.
Coming soon to a truckstop near you.
[Watching the media gnash their teeth over another loss will be better than the 2000 election and the 1994 republican revolution combined!]
2004 wasn’t bad either... remember the gloating over the early exit polls? And then they had to call Virginia for Bush? Then the slurring Susan Estrich?
“f McCain can keep it close a little while longer, the media will have to ask why Bambi can’t put him away.”
I’m not as sanguine as you concerning what the media will do.
I believe the media will soon hit its “Let’s make stuff up” phase.
As the media enters this stage of its liberal insanity, we will see made-up stories like “Obama leads McCain by 77 points.” Or “Obama wins support of Mrs. Reagan.” The stories will be completely lacking facts and attribution.
The media is entering the world of fanciful fairy tales and it will do anything to see its new fuhrer elected, even diluding itself into a kind of mental state to convince themselves, in their own delusional minds, that obama wins even if he loses.
We are entering the age of the idiot and the media is not immune and is, in fact, leading the way.
There is a very serious problem in this country if those domestic policies are considered popular with the masses. It is a problem of ignorance of American principles, history, and values.
I wouldn’t make a big thing about the toe-sucking incident. It seems apparent that Clinton and company, for whom Dickie was working at the time, set him up for a very public fall. Hence the favorable result that Morris has spent the last decade or so of his life seeking personal revenge on the Democrats and their media pals, and doing a pretty good job of it.
Thinking that his quick mini-tour through foreign capitals will make him a foreign policy expert is like expecting to become a fast-food industry expert by going through a McDonald's drive-through.
HEADS UP, Freepers.
Want to see a great pick for Veep? watch:
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks to surrogates: Senators John Thune (for McCain) and Claire McKaskill (for Obama).
Put it on your calendar.
Thune could bring in all the ‘Bitter’ people...he ‘retired’ Daschle. He's a Conservative straight through. He's NOT a lawyer. He's rock-bed America. The camera loves him...(would knock the anointed one off the charts, personality, believability wise.) Experience balances out McCain's. (Thune received his undergraduate degree at Biola University and his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota)
Watch a few short clips from his successful campaign and think how Thune would resonate with REAL Americans.
http://www.johnthune.com/index.php?content=important
http://www.johnthune.com/index.php?content=grow
http://www.johnthune.com/index.php?content=comm04
Thune actually WENT to Anwr - and, in 2005, Senator Thune spoke on the floor of the United States Senate in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska (ANWR)
http://thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Images.Detail&ImageGallery_id=ed950b0f-d9d7-4054-9507-e65875abcf75
Put Senator Thune in your bookmarks - spread the word. This man would knock the socks off Americans on the campaign trail. People would think: “Yes. This man could transition into the POTUS slot.”
Remember also that Bubba once attacked him and had him on the floor, looking like he might kill him = with the hilderbeast having to drag him off, screaming.
What a dark day it was, having those two in the WH.
Those policies you mentioned ARE popular with the masses - it means they can stop thinking and worrying, and be happy with their bread and circuses. It means Daddy Guvmint will care for their every need, while they can watch celebrity show trials and the indoctrination programs.
And as far a Xian conversion goes, it’s just more evidence of subterfuge; religion means nothing to the Clinton machine. Morris is playing his role well as an agent provocateur, hoping that his “conversion” makes sympathy with the right while spouting misinformation.
Thanks for your reminder of that episode (in Little Rock(?)) where Bubba physically attacked Morris. Yet for some reason, he agreed to come back to the Clinton WH for more abuse, until the tow-sucking incident and attendant aftershock made them political enemies forever after.
Ping!!!
Thanks for the ping!
Thune comes across as somewhere between Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner to me, in other words a real man, he has the carriage, the long, lean, strong look and the vocal delivery. Obama, on the other hand, seems as I believe Larry Sinclair described him, if my ears were working properly,”A womanly man with a deep voice”.
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