Palin Bounce Has Democrats Off Balance (Hey, Isn't It Just A Bounce, Hahahaha Alert)

The emergence of Sarah Palin as a political force in the presidential race has left many top Democrats fretting that, just two weeks after their convention ended on an emotional high, Barack Obama's campaign has suddenly lost its stride.

Obama has responded aggressively this week to Palin's presence on the Republican ticket, using TV ads and campaign rallies to attack her contention that she is a political reformer who will take on the Washington establishment -- a role Obama has long claimed as his alone.

But some Democrats are now worried about the perils of Obama's strategy, saying that his campaign, instead of engaging the Alaska governor, should avoid any move that draws more attention to her and could enhance her appeal among the white, blue-collar voters who remain cool to Obama's candidacy.

A series of new polls suggests that Palin has given a major boost to John McCain's campaign, exciting the GOP base, winning over white women and all but erasing Obama's lead.

Concern among Democrats was high enough Tuesday that Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), one of Obama's strongest supporters, felt it necessary to cite historical polling data at a lunch of Democratic senators to convince them that post-convention "bounces," such as the one that has followed last week's GOP convention, have often faded in past elections.

I just don't see it. I thought before with just McCain and a depressed republican base that it would be a toss up election along with one of the lowest turn out elections ever.

No matter how enthusiastic the young crowd is on the dem side they have historically never shown up at the polls. Secondly, the dem party is built on racism, everything they have ever done has been designed to keep the blacks down and voting dem. That older dem voter 50 and older their most loyal voter is not going to show at the polls for Obama, same goes supposedly for the Hispanic population, and definitely for the Asian's having a black problem then Arab population is very racist but he does have an islamic upbringing on his side so that will be an interesting one to watch, so will the Jewish vote be interesting to watch.

Basically I thought this was a toss up election until Palin, now you have excited a base that will show in huge numbers to the polls against the other party's depressed voters except for their youth crowd (who do not show) and the wacko crowd.

Obama is running the WRONG campaign.

McCain has run circles around him, proving he will make a much better President.

The well-telegraphed running against Bush misses a few basic realities:

Pelosi and the 230 Democratic congress-critters in the House that voted her Speaker and the Reid-led Democrat Senate majority are on the ballot. Not Bush.

She promised lower oil prices in 2006 and delivered ... higher oil prices. Bush got ‘blamed’ for it, but Pelosi and the drill-nowhere do-nothing Congress are the REAL problem. (Hence their attempts to at the last minute ‘do something’ with fake half-measures on drilling, they are desperate to get the target off their backs.)

She and the Democrats promised to get out of Iraq ... they opposed the surge that WORKED and proposed alternatives that would have led to defeat, had we not gotten lucky enough to see the incompetent Congress fail to get their way. Bush is still unpopular, maybe, but the confidence about Iraq has had a tremendous turnaround - and why not. Bush and the Surge have finally succeeded in Iraq. Victory is at hand, and men like McCain called it right, while Biden and Obama and Reid and the Dems were calling it a ‘failure’ only 12 months ago.

Bush=Iraq is the real Dem playbook, and as long as Iraq was a failure, running against Bush was smart. Now that Iraq has turned around and Bush has suceeded in winning via the surge, the argument fails. Obama has waffled his way to a position that in terms of troop deployment, is barely distinguishable from what McCain has advocated.

Meanwhile, for every problem the Democrats have proposed spending more and taxing more.

The Democrats are trying to run against the status-quo by running against Bush, but thats hardly an inspiring campaign. The Bush-bashing DNC convention missed the whole point. If it’s change you want - “What will you do differently?” not differently from Bush “What will you do differently from the Republicans running on the ballot now?”

McCain has brilliantly stolen the playbook, while the Dems are stuck fighting the last war (2006). I believe that when a candidate or a party tries to win based on false premises, they usually lose and deservedly so. The “change” message of Obama is a hollow one, he promises a continuation of the current failed Congressional policies, not change. Obama deserves to lose so long as he fails to be honest and acknowledge that Obama and McCain are just different brands of ‘change’.

The voters are not all dumb. (”You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time ...”) Candidates are dumb for thinking they can win on false hype. The more Obama campaigns, the more hollow and flawed a candidate he becomes. Change is coming, either via far-left inexperienced junior Senator Obama or the center-right bipartisan reformer McCain. Who can deliver a better future for most Americans?

We are back to a more real and more honest set of choices: What will we do in the next 2 to 4 years. The Congressional Republicans can run on the same themes of Real Change (kudos to Gingrich who saw this well before others) - drill now for energy independence, keep the tax cuts for economic health, say no to earmarks to reduce the sway of special interests, fight and win the war on terror and return with honor from Iraq ... oh and defend families, marriage, personal responsibility, and the unborn.

In other words, a conservative center-right issues campaign, with a dash of populism, is a winning campaign. Bush-bashing and liberal elitism will win New York and Hollywood, but not the Presidential election. Sure the Dems can run on some things, spend more on SCHIP, giveaways for College kids, but their very panders telegraph that they cannot also talk fiscal responsibility. They cant add.

McCain’s election to lose if he starts focussing on that future and what good things he will try to deliver in the next 4 years: Complete the mission in Iraq and bring the troops home honorably while fighting to win against terrorism; move to energy independence and post-fossil-fuel economy; end earmark and corporate welfare; advance the ‘Real Choice’ agenda - school choice, health care choice, retirement choice. That plus a ‘real-world’ perspective to appeal to the ‘small-town clingers’ will win the election.

In the end, this election is not about a lame duck President, its about America’s future.

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