The Presidential Race 08

[Chavez Ravine]

I suspect you're right in terms of the immediate reaction of the public and that's part of the reason all the negative coverage that has exploded in the week and a half since her nomination hasn't appeared to dent her popularity. If anything, all this coverage is probably giving McCain decent momentum right now as his campaign is suddenly the big story.

When this flurry of excitement dies down, however, I think it will end up hurting his campaign more than helping it as it mixes up most of the messages he's been trying to convey.

If she performs well in the debates, it's possible the excitement doesn't die down. She is the excitement on the ticket, which McCain needed. Otherwise it would have been another Dole/Kemp ticket going up against a young exciting candidate. Despite the downside, I think it's a risk McCain had to take. McCain wasn't going to beat Obama straight up. (IMO)

The Democrats have been clever in highlighting again and again the lack of attention to economic issues in the Republican convention and by the McCain campaign generally.

Totally agree, I think McCain needed to hammer home economic issues, gas issues, but instead chose to the POW issue. I think for the convention the Country First was a great theme, but it would have been simple to tie that into economic issues. Country First at Home and Abroad, Just like McCain kept country first as a soldier, POW, and Senator.

It seems like to me that Obama has beaten McCain to the punch regarding the issues of the campaign. Before the convention neither side talked much about the issues, but after the RNC it seems as if Obama came out firing, while McCain basked in the glow of the most watch convention in History.

[Chavez Ravine]

Here's another poll

McCain up 15% with independents. I'm surprised by this number.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110137/Mc...ependents.aspx

Rest of the poll covers McCain's post convention bump.

[Lacrosse Boy]

Totally agree, I think McCain needed to hammer home economic issues, gas issues, but instead chose to the POW issue. I think for the convention the Country First was a great theme, but it would have been simple to tie that into economic issues. Country First at Home and Abroad, Just like McCain kept country first as a soldier, POW, and Senator.

It seems like to me that Obama has beaten McCain to the punch regarding the issues of the campaign. Before the convention neither side talked much about the issues, but after the RNC it seems as if Obama came out firing, while McCain basked in the glow of the most watch convention in History.

Obama never really wanted to talk about the issues it seems. No idea why he decided to turn down the town-halls that McCain wanted to have with him. Presumably, the issues would've been discussed. I guess discussion of real issues like the universe of energy and the economy would get in the way and dilute the message of abstract issues like "hope and change"

[Chavez Ravine]

The leaders of a women's political organization that launched earlier this year to support Hillary Clinton are speaking out against what they say are examples of media sexism toward Sarah Palin and urging members to tell the press corps "to back off."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200...politico/20934


This article goes along with the opinion that people feel Palin's getting unfair treatment.

One more dispelling Palin Myths...from Newsweek...that biased piece of trash.

You can read it for yourself, but basically the rumors of:
-demanding creationism be taught
-banning books from library
-cutting funding for special needs kids
-support Pat Buchannon
-being a member of the Alaskan Independence Party

are all false

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157986


"So break open that cheese danish and pour yourself a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice for this update."

[Sir_Cliff]

Totally agree, I think McCain needed to hammer home economic issues, gas issues, but instead chose to the POW issue. I think for the convention the Country First was a great theme, but it would have been simple to tie that into economic issues. Country First at Home and Abroad, Just like McCain kept country first as a soldier, POW, and Senator.

It seems like to me that Obama has beaten McCain to the punch regarding the issues of the campaign. Before the convention neither side talked much about the issues, but after the RNC it seems as if Obama came out firing, while McCain basked in the glow of the most watch convention in History.

Completely agree. The Republicans could have actually used the fact that John McCain's history is already so widely known to subtly weave it into discussions of issues like the economy and security instead of repeating that history over and over again. I think you've outlined a far better approach than they took right there!

I guess Palin is still a bit of an unknown quantity and maybe he did need to take a risk. It has certainly shaken up the campaign in his favour so far. Will be very interesting to see how she does when she moves away from prepared remarks. One thing that they are doing quite well is lowering expectations so as to make it easier for her to impress and hammering the media so that if she does slip up under questioning they can portray it as yet another example of media bias against her. I'm still not convinced, but we shall see!

Obama never really wanted to talk about the issues it seems. No idea why he decided to turn down the town-halls that McCain wanted to have with him. Presumably, the issues would've been discussed. I guess discussion of real issues like the universe of energy and the economy would get in the way and dilute the message of abstract issues like "hope and change"

I think it was more that Obama thought he had a fairly successful campaign strategy going and figured he didn't need to do the town hall meetings whereas the McCain campaign was struggling for the coverage at the time. While I agree that a discussion of the issues is always good, as campaign strategy the Obama people probably felt it would just give the McCain campaign more coverage with little upside for them. While Obama only ever briefly led by a reasonably wide margin, in general candidates who are ahead aren't as keen on holding many debates whereas those who are behind will jump at the chance to be given any forum.

[MagicWDI]

Obama never really wanted to talk about the issues it seems. No idea why he decided to turn down the town-halls that McCain wanted to have with him. Presumably, the issues would've been discussed. I guess discussion of real issues like the universe of energy and the economy would get in the way and dilute the message of abstract issues like "hope and change"

Just a question: Have you been keeping up with the debates between Clinton and Obama? I can't see how what you said can be true if you have seen all the debates. The last statement actually falls heavily into one of the phrases the Republicans have created for Obama that is not true, similar to what the Democrats have created about McCain being the same as Bush, which is hard for me to believe as well.

[1FoolishMortal]

It's this kind of stuff that makes me think the choice of Palin is eventually going to backfire for McCain. Everyone is finding everything out about her at once and a lot of that stuff is going to put off moderates who might initially be attracted to her persona. Who knows how she's going to respond when she starts having to make unscripted responses to questions.

This is what worries me about her. People were so convinced that she memorized her speech at the RNC when she was just reading off the teleprompter like 95% of all other politicians! I'm curious to see how she'll do in an unscripted situation (which will be interesting given she's had none so far).

Obama never really wanted to talk about the issues it seems. No idea why he decided to turn down the town-halls that McCain wanted to have with him. Presumably, the issues would've been discussed. I guess discussion of real issues like the universe of energy and the economy would get in the way and dilute the message of abstract issues like "hope and change"

Problem is, McCain has now started calling for "change" in Washington as well. What ticks me off is he's blatantly robbing the campaign message from his opposition, apparently thinking nobody will notice. What this does, too, is weaken the argument that Obama is all about abstract issues when McCain is now doing the same.

[Majikku]

Toall those people who think Bush is a terrible president but are voting for McCain,ask yourself this, why would you vote for a candidate who is endorsed by a terrible president? lol doesnt make sense! think people!!

[Iframedroger R]

Dude, just because he is endorsed by the guy doesn't mean he is the same person. Obama is endorsed by Hulk Hogan, do you think he is going to turn out to be middle aged former wrestler with a reality show about his daughter? No.

You can't control who endorses you. What if a group called "Pedophiles and Rapists United" endorsed Obama? Would you still vote for him?

[Sir_Cliff]

You can't control who endorses you. What if a group called "Pedophiles and Rapists United" endorsed Obama? Would you still vote for him?

Well now you've just got to create that group and publicly endorse Obama to see what he does!