Posted on 10/10/2008 12:55:51 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Can John McCain possibly win this thing? Can he actually win in November?
The outlook is bleak: The polls are ugly, the Electoral College map is grim, the economy is getting worse, and McCain's choice of Sarah Palin may have energized the Republican base, but it has appalled and frightened many outside that base.
Still, McCain's campaign has come back from the dead more than once: He survived his early support for immigration reform; he not only survived but has prospered from his support for the Iraq war surge, and he rebuilt a primary campaign that was in a state of near collapse to win the Republican nomination.
But can McCain do it again? That question was posed to a panel of Republican experts:
• Ken Duberstein was Ronald Reagan's chief of staff from 1998 to 1999 and deputy under secretary of labor for Gerald Ford.
"I think it is uphill for McCain but a victory is doable," Duberstein said. "He needs obviously to raise questions about Obama, but he also needs to reassure the America people - and not simply the base - that he has a plan to get us out of this economic mess and restore America's stature throughout the world.
"He needs to spell out not why he is a maverick, but what he will do to lead. What are the specifics? What is the strategy? He needs a three yards and a cloud of dust and not a Hail Mary strategy. He needs to do what John McCain does best, which is explain to the people where John McCain wants to take the country.
"There are a hundred lifetimes yet ahead in this campaign, starting with the debate Tuesday night. This is an election about big issues and big ideas, and this is not the time to play small ball. We are well past this stage. To many Americans, earmarks are a facial blemish. He has to talk about spending, not just earmarks, not just about a Bridge to Nowhere and about bears' DNA."
• Greg Mueller was a senior adviser to Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes in their presidential campaigns and is an expert on conservative politics.
"McCain needs to change the discussion back to a referendum on Obama. He needs to define Obama's agenda as dangerous to America," Mueller said.
"It is dangerous to the economy. Obama is calling for higher taxes, historical spending and a huge increase in regulation that will hamper American business. Contrast that with McCain's message of lower taxes and freezing spending. On foreign policy and national security, Obama is a risky bet in a hostile world. McCain needs to keep banging those themes over and over again so on Election Day voters think Obama is just not ready for this.
"The Supreme Court issue can be extremely powerful for McCain: Obama is basically for using the court for social engineering. This is key for Reagan Democrats in key swings state. Catholics respond very well to the Supreme Court issue. McCain and Palin have got to get on that."
• Whit Ayres is a pollster and consultant who worked in Lamar Alexander's 1996 presidential campaign and in numerous Senate and governor's races. He is an expert on Southern politics.
"Anybody who is talking about a race being over a month out has not been participating in very many campaigns," Ayres said.
"The Obama-Biden ticket is the most liberal ticket the Democrats have offered America since George McGovern in 1972. Barack Obama is far morel liberal than most Americans. Moreover, a politician's associations are a window into his values. If John McCain liked to hang around with the Ku Klux Klan and if his church had given a lifetime achievement award to racist David Duke, all of us would consider those legitimate areas of inquiry.
"On leadership, values, culture and ideology, John McCain is far closer to most Americans than Barack Obama."
“He cannot win, Bill. He cannot win.” Hillary Clinton talking to Bill Richardson, referring to Obama
Reagan would have made mincemeat of Obomba .
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Of course he would have, because Obamba would have only been 18 years old.
All of us e-mailing the McCain/Palin ticket about what they seriously need to do in order to successfully win on November 4 doesn’t hurt. I also consider it good therapy, while also witnessing the entire U.S., as a country, still moving towards long-term socialism. The majority of conservatives really still don’t like John McCain that much for a highly finite number of legitimate reasons.
The only people"appalled" and "frightened" by Governor Palin are the usual hate American leftists and their allies in the media.
As others have posted, the polls in '04 gave a considerable edge to Kerry and we know how that turned out.
Right now my greatest worry is the voter fraud. In a fraud free election McCain wins.
Does not sound to good for us at all does it?
Time for the “Hail Mary”:
Put Palin on the TOP of the ticket.
Country first...
Yeah, remember what happened to Bob Dornan out in Orange County, California -- done out of his seat by a ballot-stuffing Chicana, Loretta Sanchez. Now both Sanchez and her sister sit in the House, communing with Borg Queen Nancy Pelosi and the Hive Mind.
Those ACORN radicals and their allies including one Barack Hussein 0bama are a menace to our Republic.
Is this a rope-a-dope to pronounce McCain as the far shot?
McCain is now hitting hard. Obama peaked. He’s in pass prevent mode in the last quarter.But this often is a losing strategy especially for the inexperienced.
I reject the notion that Obama is winning. The McCain/Palin
appearances drw big enthusiastic crowds, overflowing crowds.
The MSM is desperately trying to diffuse the McCain-Palin
surge.
If McCain is OFF the ticket the base would EXPLODE. 10 point lead overnight. Put a good Conservative on the ticket, a Hunter or a Pence, and you'd see the landslide the RINOs want...
Brilliant application of that quotation!
SCJs sounds like one of two issues to push. Appoint judges to stop social engineering and get back to what the Constitution actually says. I mean, doesn't a wide majority of Americans dislike activist judges? Also appoint judges to ACLU, which nearly everyone despises, and that point should be highlighted.
The other tact is draw out of Obama what he would do about Chavez's build-up of Russian military hardware. That's an issue The One is terrible with and sure to produce many, ums and uhs.
I don't believe this is correct.
” Of course he would have, because Obamba would have only been 18 years old.”
Hehe...you know what I meant ! ; )
many papers have said many pollsters gave a private presentation to the network news divisions the night before the election in 04. They all predicted a significant Kerry win.
PM Blair got a briefing from his intelligence services and Tony went to bed considering how his relationship with a Kerry Administration would work.
The exit polls said the same thing.
Bob Shrum asked Kerry if he could be the first person to call him Mr. President around noon eastern time the day of the election.
Those stories are in more than one paper.
You're right. I checked a bunch of polls the other night, and Bush lead all of those I checked in the final month of the 2004 election.
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