McCain 08: Taking pride in being ignorant

TPM



A couple of weeks back when Steve Schmidt took over the McCain camp, we heard Ohhh Karl Rove Protege, he is going to smack down Obama, it's all over, now where talking. Yet, almost a month has passed and it seems as if nothing changed. For the most basic denominator, Obama led by 5 pts then, and he leads by an avg of 5 pts now. BUT, again that is the lowest common denominator.

Let's look at other facts.

1. Ground game. Nate Silver of 538, has so far Obama's camp with roughly 300 campaing offices compared to McCain's roughly 100.

2. Fundraising. McCain camp is still making raising 1/3 of what Obama is raising and they have to submit to asking 25 bucks for 10 dollar tire gauge.

3. Enthusiasm. Yet, the Obama campaign is blowing McCain out by a 3:1 margin in enthusiam gap. Although this does not translate proportionally into more votes, it does mean that the most enthusiastic are far more likely to vote than those who are not. McCain has been his party's nominee for about 6 months, Obama 2 months ( the numbers should be reserved).

4. Reaching beyond the 'base". It is not possible to watch an Obama rally without someone stating they were a former republican and are now voting for Obama. The only dems voting for McCain are the Hillary Dead Enders, I am willing to reach out on a limb and say the number of voters Obama is registering and the number of Republicans voting for Obama are more than those Dead-Enders. Also, making life harder for McCain is the nagging issue of Evangelicals. Sure, Obama may not win them because of abortion, gay rights, stem cell research and so forth- but he can get them to say "I won't vote for Obama, but that doesn't mean I will vote for McCain." If Obama can talk the lingo enough for them while NOT voting for him, don't hate him- score one for the Obama camp. The McCain camp acutally tried to win these evangelicals over by sending a statement to all the conservative evangelical leaders stating that McCain's faith is a personal issue and gave them excerpts from his books about faith. As you can imagine, that did not fly well over with these folks. McCain does not seem like the type to fake it, Bush yes, McCain no. You don't say these types of people are agents of intolerance one year and believably suck up to them the next.

5. Character Assasination. The McCain camp gets kudos for trying, but NO CIGAR. The good thing about the long primary is that Obama's story has been told to death,warmed over and told back again, and then re-heated in the microwave. Everyone knows his father left him, his mom had food stamps,blah blah blah. Everyone knows he had a crazy pastor, and might have passed by this crazy kook who hated American a million years ago by the name of Ayers. Everyone knows his wife (according to Hannity) didn't love or have pride in America- blah blah. So now that all that is out in the open, it won't have nearly as much potency had it come out in the General Election. InsHannity and Limpbaugh can cry and whine all day, but lets be honest Americans don't like leftovers if it ain't fresh-it ain't American. John McCain may have been in public life for 4 centuries, yet I don't think everyone knows about a certain Keating 5 scandal- I am sure we will be reminded of it..................cont.....