At best only 35 percent of voters are Republicans. In case you havn't noticed it takes 50 plus percent of the vote to win the election. Where can a candidate get the additional 15 plus percent to make him president? Guess what ... the only possible source of those needed voters are Independents and Democrats.
Independents are not ideological. They sometimes vote for leftists and sometime for right wingers. It has nothing to do with the ideology of a candidate. They vote for the NICE GUY they like. They vote for they candidate they think will do the most for them. Attacking an opponent only turns independents off. It assures that they will vote for the non attacking opponent. What we have this year is Obama attacking McCain and McCain not atttacking back. That is exactly the way to win independents and all the polls show McCain with a big lead among independents.
Starting with IKE winning presidential candidate NEVER ATTACK THEIR OPPONENTS. NEVER!!!! They call for fair play and the treating opponents with kindness and repect. If they can find a way to get their opponent to attack them, they have a surefire winning margin from the independents.
So candidates say nice things about their opponent while surrogates attack the opponent.
Liberal newspapers and magazines always try to convince the right that the Republican candidate is losing because he is not atttacking the Democrat. Then less than bright right wing columnists take up the cry to go into full attack mode. There is no better way to lose an election. The media knows it.. only the right wing conservatives do not.
I spent 35 years in the media and MSM columnists used to write or broadcast stories about the Republican candidates refusing to attack to prove how ignorant and stupid they believed Conservatives really are. They would say the dumb a$$ed conservatives know nothing about winning elections. And will attack their candidate for trying to win the independent votes he must have to win.
Even people like William F Buckley wrote a column in 1980 trashing Reagan for refusing to attack Jimmy Carter. The idiot Buckley was angry that Reagan was not going after all of the Carter failures. Not once in that campaign did Reagan attack Carter for his handling of the Iran Hostage crisis... for his failure to get our hostages released. Not once did Reagan attack Carter for his failed economic polices. Reagan stayed positive as the right wing screamed that dumb a$$ed Reagan is going to lose. But come election day Reagan won with a majority of independent votes. Reagan knew what it took to win. ... even if his conservative supporters did not.
In 2000 Freeper after Freeper attacked George Bush for not attacking Gore. Bush they said was listening to former Democrat Karl Rove who Freeper after Freeper said was certainly trying elect Al Gore. Bush was too stupid, they said to know that Karl Rove was leading him to certain defeat.
In post after post Freepers attacked that STUPID KARL ROVE who they said was really a Democrat implant in the Bush campaign.
McCain is an old pro. He knows what it takes to win. There are a hell of a lot of people on this site, just as there were in 2,000 who know nothing about winning. They are experts at giving losing advice
What I do know is the left wing media thinks conservatives are stupid.. They know they can convince with polls and stories that the Republican candidate is doing everything wrong. This time the Media is trying a much harsher strategy. They just need to discourage the base so they walk away from McCain and therefore elect Obama.
The Media is certain the right wingers are far to dumb to figure it out. I think the media may have it right this time.
If Obama does win the election those of you critical of McCain need to look in the mirror and say.. OBAMA COULD NOT HAVE WON WITH OUT MY HELP!!! I made damn sure that there was no way for McCain to get from 35 percent to 50 plus percent of the vote.
OBAMA AND THE MEDIA THINK RIGHT WINGERS ARE STUPID AND IGNORANT. I am amazed when right wingers always try to prove the media has them pegged exactly right.
Windbag.
I remember something of that too, especially in Pres. Bush’s race against Al Gore and until now. I don’t remember too much of Reagan’s race. But I do remember reading about some conservatives giving Pres. Reagan an awful lot of static.
I also remember at least one conservative, Kate O’Beirne (sp?), saying once that she was really down on R.Reagan at times. Then she said she missed him terribly when B.Clinton was in!