Posted on 05/13/2008 9:50:43 AM PDT by shortstop
Obama can't win.
It's not that complex, really. He just can't win.
A candidate who can't win over his own party certainly can't win over the country.
The traits and flaws which make him an unacceptable candidate to roughly a third of Democrats will make him an unacceptable candidate to a majority of Americans.
And that's how you lose elections.
This isn't meant to bash him, it's just meant to be honest and lay the cards on the table. The nagging question from the Clinton camp -- Why can't he close the deal? -- is legitimate and haunting, and it gets to the point. Barack Obama has fared poorly in big, electorally rich states in his quest for the Democratic nomination. The reasons for that are only going to be exacerbated when he faces independents and Republicans.
And here are those reasons.
Barack Obama is a black nationalist with a condescending attitude toward people who are different from him and, just for good measure, he has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. His viewpoints on taxation are confiscatory, his attitudes toward entitlement are socialist, his thoughts on the war are defeatist.
And he doesn't seem to like white people who live in small towns, own guns or go to church.
And those attitudes don't win many friends across the electorate. And before you denounce that perspective as racist or reactionary or unfair, please note that it is an assessment which has been made by hundreds of thousands of Democrat primary voters.
And if the white Democrats don't think they can trust you, you don't have a chance with the white Republicans. If Democrats think you're too liberal, you're not going to win over very many independents or conservatives.
Though I am a Republican, and am going to vote for John McCain, the Hillary Clinton campaign has a very valid point when it raises the issue of Barack Obama's electability. They are right to point out that he doesn't have any. The darling of the news media and the favorite most liberal Democrats is not a good match for the country as a whole.
Barack Obama has been a fulltime candidate for a year, and today West Virginia Democrats are going to hand him his lunch. Barack Obama has been a fulltime candidate for a year, and he couldn't win California, New York, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan or Florida. That's a murderer's row of electoral-vote states and Obama whiffed in each one of them.
Granted, he came close in some, and two of them the Democrats aren't going to count, but in the states where you need to win a majority of voters to become president, he hasn't even gotten a majority of Democrats.
And he's running against a liberal Republican who appeals to independents and disaffected Democrats.
Against a conservative, maybe people would rally to Obama as an alternative, but against a Republican who's not very Republican, he's more frightening to the center than is his opponent.
So the math on Barack Obama becoming president is sketchy at best. His only hope is that Democrats rally to him with complete enthusiasm, that bygones are truly bygones, and that somehow John McCain has a meltdown that completely alienates everyone but diehard Republicans. Barack Obama's best hope is that Democrat hatred for George W. Bush can be transplanted -- without a good reason -- to John McCain. That's why Obama says McCain is running for Bush's third term, because he knows he can't beat McCain, but he can beat Bush.
The last successful Democratic presidential candidate who campaigned as a liberal was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton all campaigned and were seen by the voters as moderates. Some of them didn't turn out to be, but they kept that little fact hidden until after the election. There is a reason they did it that way -- America isn't really comfortable with liberals, not in a majority way.
That's why candidates like Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry have done so poorly. They each were clearly identified as liberals -- in fairly liberal eras -- and they all lost.
Though he has since taken a hard-left turn, Al Gore campaigned as a moderate -- and scored a virtual tie for the presidency.
America doesn't like liberals in the White House. That's why there have been so few of them there. Just Wilson, Roosevelt, Carter and Clinton in a century.
Obama's liberalism goes against the electoral experience of the Democratic Party and against the electoral tastes of the American people.
His arrogance and elitism, and his 20 years of listening to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are just icing on the cake.
If a man can't even win his own party, it's not likely he can win the country.
Barack Obama has faced the Democratic primary voters and he couldn't win their nomination. He couldn't quite get it over the top.
And that's just how he will do in November.
If conservatives had any clout, McCain wouldn’t be the nominee. I think the “base not turning out” nonsense is just that.
Unfortunately, the country can't win in November, either.
Never in my lifetime have I seen a Presidential election that offers NO possible good outcome for the country. We're in serious trouble with the current trio of fools running for the Presidency.
Hmmm... Conservatives don’t have clout huh? What’s that make you? A liberal?
Well, here’s how BAD it really is...
Two weeks ago, I was leaving the military installation where I work, which also houses a huge portion of the Missile Defense Agency... an Agency designed around Reagan’s vision of protecting this country from nuclear missiles from other countries.
Guess what I see in front of me? An employee of said Agency driving his little BMW with a bumper sticker I never thought I’d see... “Obama ‘08”.
It’s THAT bad. When people who work for the government as contractors and government personnel place idiotic bumper stickers on their car knowing FULL well, they will be out of a job if Obama or Clinton gets in office.
Oh, I had to ask you... what are you a lib? Yes, you are...
stravinskyrules
Since Apr 14, 2008
Troll
The pundits were saying the same thing about Truman in 1948.
Today, Rush is saying, “Our goose is cook”.
Permeating among (many) conservatives like you. Read the first three lines of your response for the definition of defeatism.
“Yes he can!
(His opponent is a Liberal himself and the American people always choose a D Liberal over an R Liberal.)”
Strange, a guy who voted for the Iraq War, opposes abortion, is against gay marriage and favors the 2nd. Amendment is viewed by many conservatives as a liberal. What’s up with that?
Shhhhhhh!
Before the Dem SDs catch on.
Funny thing about elections, though. Eventually, someone will win it.
Conservatives shot themselves in the foot by bailing from the last election. The numbers from that election clearly indicate that going left will get more votes than going to the right. Add in the fact that its McCain and he as no choice but to track hard to the left to win.
Hold on! We’re about to get six months of propaganda about how Barak is a great guy, and everyone who disagrees with him is racist. Six months of bemoaning the state of this country.
bologna
Oh, yeah, old stravinskyrules has been on other threads(yesterday)telling us all how Al Gore is right on Global Warming. He is about as liberal as they come and most likely a Dem troll.
Well, he’s wrong. Obama will win in the landslide IMHO. Though the bloom is off the rose, he’s survived the Wright affair in good shape and the contrast with the grumpy, erratic old man will work increasingly to his favor.
If the primaries were the general, Hillary would have won 306 electoral votes to Obama’s 232.
In other words, she’d have won and he wouldn’t have.
It’s that simple.
West Virginia might go over 70% for Clinton. If it does that is a HUGE signal to the Democrat party, but they won’t see it.
Hillary should call on Obama to drop out.
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