Korean Job Discussion Forums

stillnotking · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Location: Oregon, USA

He's doing what he can. His biggest problem is that he simply doesn't have much money -- it's an issue that will dog him for the entire campaign.

What he really needs to be doing more of is demonizing Obama. That's the only way he will get the big conservative $$. Conservatives don't like McCain and they never will, but he might be able to present Obama as so evil and un-American that anything looks good by comparison. So far, though, his attacks have been very tame.

I just don't think McCain has the temperament to run the kind of scorched-earth campaign that he needs to run. Which says good things about his character, but bad things about his chances.

mnhnhyouh · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Location: The Middle Kingdom

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Bob Beckel and I agree that McCain isn't maximizing his advantage at this time.

But for some inexplicable reason, after winning Florida and becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain once again abandoned his maverick image and returned to courting the right. McCain accepted a televised interview with Sean Hannity. I talked to Hannity after the interview. He told me, correctly, that he had gotten McCain to commit to the Bush tax and economic policies; back off the McCain/Kennedy immigration solution; and to nominate conservative Supreme Court justices.
The court promise was remarkable since it was McCain's efforts in the bipartisan "Gang of 14" that had avoided an all-out war in the Senate over Bush's judicial nominees. McCain had also publicly admonished Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito, for wearing "his conservative ideology on his sleeve," further inflaming the right. In a massive flip-flop McCain later spoke at the annual Washington gathering of conservatives (CPAC) promising to appoint future Supreme Court nominees in the mold of Alito.

Today, McCain still pays lip service to bipartisanship and attempts to hold on to some semblance of his maverick/independent image by campaigning in the black ghettoes of New York and the poverty-ridden Appalachians. Lacking unified Democratic opposition and fortified by an adoring press, McCain has been able to maintain this transparent shadow of his former image. That will end soon when the Democrats have a nominee who will draw attention to McCain's near total embrace of the Bush agenda.
To make matters worse, McCain's capitulation to the right has forced him to remain silent while Barack Obama has absconded with the anti-Washington, post-partisanship image. That image, once owned by John McCain, is the most powerful message among swing voters who will determine the next president.

By so doing, McCain has also abandoned the one weapon that might have overcome the historical and anti-Republican climate in 2008. It is that very McCain message which will gain Obama the Democratic nomination and likely the White House. McCain is now forced to convince the voters that another four years of Bush policies is exactly what the country needs. Democrats, prone to let victory slip away, should give thanks that the reactionaries on the right are still in charge of the Republican agenda.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/why_mccain_cant_win.html

Khenan · Joined: 25 Dec 2007

Amen.

agentX · Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Location: Jeolla province

McCain is using his surrogates to swing the mud for him, like Cunningham did.
Although, they do tend to go TOOO far, such as the North Carolina GOP did this week.
http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/mccain-asks-nc-gop-not-to-run-ad/20080423135809990001

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Re: the NC ad

This is the kind of thing that makes me and a lot of others respect McCain. I like his integrity in this situation. I won't vote for him because I disagree with just about every policy he has, but I do respect him as a man.

TECO · Joined: 20 Jan 2003

Summer Wine · Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: Next to a River

agentX · Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Location: Jeolla province

Well, the NC ad is no longer an issue. The TV stations don't wanna air it.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/north-carolina.html

Czarjorge · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:55 am Post subject:

HAS, not Is. HAS

Sorry to be that guy, but it's been driving me crazy since the thread went up.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

He really doesn't need to do much of anything. He can sit back and watch the Democrats commit suicide.

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10961825

It should also be pointed out that polls show that there are a number of Democrats who would rather vote for McCain than someone on the other side (Obama vs Clinton) as internal politics have become so bitter. Now this doesn't necessarily mean they WILL vote for McCain, but even if they just stay home it will weaken the overall Democratic vote.

McCain's chances are looking pretty good about right now.