A sad day...
Well, Hillary's out and the bruising Democratic primary fight is over. This is welcome news for Democrats but we Republicans would have liked to have seen it gone on a bit longer.
Now Hillary is obviously pushing for VP...but, as Fred Barnes has pointed out, this is a test of Barack's character right here. He can't continue his messsage of "change" and have a Clinton on the ticket. The Clintons are anything but change.
Let's admit an ugly little truth, here, too. Everyone is proud that Obama has been nominated; that a black man has received a nomination for the highest office in...well, arguably the world...from his party. But the ugly little truth I'm referring to is that Obama won because he is black. If Obama had been the exact same person with the exact same speaking style and been white, you could say hello to HRC, your Democratic nominee.
Now, Obama has yet to move to the center for the general, although he has months to do that -- and needs to do that. He's far left on everything, and I don't agree with him on...well, pretty much anything. He's a compelling personality and a charismatic man but, from my point of view, he's got the wrong ideas about governing.
But McCain isn't capitalizing. Instead, McCain is doing things like delivering speeches on global warming. Give it up, Johnny-boy. You are not going to win the election on global warming. Anyone who believes in the dangers of man-made climate change to the point where they're going to vote on that issue and that issue alone...is going to vote for Barack Obama. You can't win an election by letting your opponent dictate the issues. That's what an election is about -- setting the agenda.
The candidate who sets the agenda of issues in this election will win. If Obama turns the issues leftwards, so we're talking about man-made climate change and "how quickly" we should leave Iraq, as opposed to even considering the possiblity of staying, McCain is going down. However, if McCain hammers away on national security, taxes, limited government...he's got a much better chance of winning.
Ah, well, the gloves are off now. Let's see what happens.
I will say this, though: I do not believe Obama is going to pick Clinton as VP and drag her and the baggage known as Bill Clinton along with him for the general. Besides, he's already going to do as well in New York state as he can without Hillary, so she doesn't give him any swing states.
posted by Kip Lange @ 6:58 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Yes, but will McCain pick Hillary? After all his praise and worship of her thighnesss, and the endless mentioning of his record working with Democrats, it seems a natural.
The thought crossed my mind, but -- no way in Hell. McCain still has to shore up his conservative base. I don't think Hillary will help do that, nor would I think she would accept a McCain offer, since she's gunning for a *Dem* nomination in 2012...Condozeela Rica crossed my mind, but she's too tied down with the current administration that McCain won't watch to take her for fear of the "McBush" label...I expect McCain's choice to be boring. I think the most exciting we'll get is Mitt Romney, and I'm not really happy about that.
Meanwhile, McCain needs to switch his goddamn position on drilling in ANWR (he's currently against it).
He needs to switch a lot more positions than that. He has lost the conservative base - he did that a long time ago. There's nothing to shore up.
Conservatives realize we're fucked no matter what. McCain will only make it last longer. Obama will fuck us so fast that we'll see a lot of new faces in Congress two years down the road.
I keep saying this: we had no horse in this race (we being conservatives). Every choice was bad. The only thing you can say about McCain is he's the lesser evil. But no, he ain't a conservative leader. That being said, I think most conservatives like myself realize how alarmingly liberal Barack Obama is. I mean, I know it could bring change about, and force conservatives back into control of the Republican party (and face it, we're tarnished by Bush, too -- not by his policies, by his ineptitude at controlling the media and making his case to the public...although he's much more conservative than McCain and I have *also* said I would gladly take another 4 years of W.)
We have no Reagan, sadly, no. And yes, if Obama wins, the chance arises for the Republican party to realize it needs a fire *conservative* spokesman. There are people I would love to see run. I would have love to have seen Newt *really* give it a go. You want conservative, Newt has the bona fides.
So we could get a Contract with America moment, yes, but remember then that in the 90s when this last happened the Congress, the last Conservative Revolution -- Bill Clinton got the credit. For welfare reform, which he fought tooth and nail from the Republicans. For NAFTA (Republicans). So Obama could also benefit by something like that as well, don't forget that.
I think that's our best hope, frankly, that Congress is so hopelessly mired in bureaucracy that *neither* McCain but *especially* Obama would have a hard time ramming the liberal stuff down our throats. We've got cap and trade on emissions with both of them though, which sucks. McCain should be talking about drilling. A lot. Right now. And nuclear power.
And if we have any shred of keeping the White House out of liberal hands (and listen, McCain may be a RINO but Obama is a fucking *Marxist*, okay?) I think it lies in national defense. Obama is -- obviously -- weak on it. McCain needs to talk about war more and he's afraid to do it. He's an idiot to try to run on the environmental platform -- even though his and Obama's positions are comparable, anyone from the Church of Gaia is going to vote for Obama. Duh. You can't out liberal a liberal. Don't waste your time.
Looking at the VPs, I dunno, man, maybe Romney can help?
But I don't feel good about things, no. I feel like we have a weak candidate in John McCain, although still one infinitely preferable to Barack Obama. And I feel like Obama's stage presence and the love of the media and the understandable dream of electing a black man to the highest office in the world...is a lot to run against. Obama is a juggernaut. And a fundraising juggernaut. He outfundraised the Clinton Machine. That takes some balls.
So, I mean, what you want me to say? I'm not happy, but I'm going to do my bit to keep Obama out of office because he is simply a disastrous choice for anyone who is conservative to even think about. You want government in your face? Vote Obama. I guarantee you you'll get more government crawling over your back than if you elect McCain. And Obama wants to put the cap gains tax to 28% instead of the 15%. McCain won't do that. I don't *think*. That's huge, man! We can't take a hit in the cap gains tax at a time when the economy is sluggish (not I did not say in a recession, which we're not)!
Also there is one single reason to vote for John McCain. It all boils down to this for me:
Barack Obama will immediately withdraw troops from Iraq. John McCain will not. This is the one issue I'm voting on.
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