Posted on 10/13/2008 12:19:37 PM PDT by Bobkk47
Three weeks before Election Day, John McCain on Monday unveiled a feisty new stump speech in which he portrayed himself as a scrappy fighter on the comeback trail against an opponent who’s already “measuring the drapes” in the Oval Office.
Appearing in Virginia Beach with his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain said to applause that "what America needs in this hour is a fighter, someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people."
"Now, my friends, let me give you the state of the race today and some straight talk," McCain said. "We have 22 days to go. We're six points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending — take away your right to vote by secret ballot and labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq — and concede defeat in Iraq. Our troops — my friends, I won't concede defeat. I'll bring our troops home with victory and with honor."
The audience responded with chants of: "John McCain! John McCain! John McCain!"
Referring to his more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, McCain continued: " I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength. I know what hopelessness feels like. It's an enemy who defeats your will. I've felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. [Applause]I'm an American, and I choose to fight."
McCain was appearing Monday in Virginia and North Carolina — two states that are usually safe for Republicans in presidential races and that he should have put away long ago. But Barack Obama is pouring visits and staff into the former Confederacy, and he has caught McCain in many Southern polls.
Nationally, the Real Clear Politics average has Obama up 7.3 points. A Washington Post-ABC News Poll out Monday morning gives Obama a yawning 10-point lead, while a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll shows Obama up just four points.
The reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is part of a new Republican effort to warn voters of the consequences of having one party dominate all of Washington, as Democrats would if Obama won in a landslide that helped his party rack up wider congressional margins.
"I know you're worried," McCain told the crowd. "America is a great country. We're in a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. Will we continue to lead the world's economies, or will we be overtaken? Will the world become safer or more dangerous? Will our military remain the strongest in the world? Will our children and grandchildren's future be brighter than ours? My answer to you is, yes, yes we will lead, yes we will prosper, yes, we will be safer, yes, we will pass onto our children a better, stronger country. But we must be prepared to act swiftly, boldly, with courage, with wisdom. "
The audience chanted, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
The McCain campaign is beset from all sides. William Kristol, the influential conservative commentator, has a column in today’s New York Times with the headline “Fire the Campaign” and the lead: “It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign. He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s.”
The third and final presidential debate is Wednesday at Hofstra University, the largest private school on Long Island, N.Y. After that high-stakes encounter moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News, McCain’s chances of changing the dynamics of the race dramatically diminish.
If every American gets out and votes, we can still beat the Obamanoid Kool-Aid drinkers.
It is an excellent beginning of the end of the campaign — as long as it’s a part of a two prong strategy, coupled with other campaign personnel takng the lead in bringing out the facts of Obama, ACORN, and other neo-Marxist alliances and plans.
“My friends” = fingernails on a blackboard. Sorry, Johnnie, you’re not my friend. I’ll vote for you, but only because the alternative is unspeakably worse.
Even the dead ones
"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
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I concur with you...I sit with friends and just cannot, for the life of me, understand what is Obama’s attraction?
Most Blacks I understand as they identify with a Socialist who looks like them, but middle and upper-middle class people?
Our largest two threats are Communism and Islamic terror...Obama is both and the fawning media will not stop their 24/7 drumbeat for the Marxist Messiah.
It is infuriating.
“My friends” and “Main Street...Wall Street” have driven me close to diving head first off of a tall building, just to make it all stop.
"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
McCain’s convention speech should have ended with “Fight for me, fight for me, fight for me, until Obama tells me you can’t”.
I hope he ignores the MSM and the trashy, racis,t Obama camp in the weeks to come.
If he doesn’t, we will lose.
So if McCain now says he’s six points down, I’d like to ask those who are “pooh-poohing” the polls to acknowledge it. The Republican ticket is in trouble, and the era of Hussein may be upon us.
All is not lost, but right now it ain’t lookin’ good.
"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
McCain has had real trouble picking a message and strategy and sticking with it. If he loses, and he very well might, a lot of it will be on him for running a terrible campaign.
(s)
McCain gave a speech? How, it was not sanctioned by CNN!(/s)
Brought me to tears
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