7 posts tagged “2008 election”

I know a lot of the left-wingers are upset at Barack Obama for taking more centrist positions like his FISA compromise and the faith-based initiatives stance, but by November, no one will vote specifically on these positions anyway. From my perspective as somewhat of a liberal, I don't think these stances are going to change my vote from Obama to John McCain.  My feelings about the differences between Obama and McCain are so strong that unless Obama was the Antichrist himself, I would still vote for him.

In the last 8 years, George W. Bush and the Republicans have so ruined America and its reputation around the world that there is no way I would vote for a Republican.  McCain's reputation as a "maverick" is a false one that I don't think very many people believe anymore.  The Republicans are always wrong about the economy and have been wrong since Nixon.  Their idiotic trickle-down theory of economics relies on the false belief that wealthy people will help others by giving them jobs or by giving handouts to poor people.  Wealthy people stay that way by avoiding both of those things!  Worse yet, the Neo-Con Republicans have drained the wealth of America in a war of choice we didn't need to have (Iraq).  John McCain will continue both of these policies.

When all is said and done, maybe Barack Obama is not as much of a change agent as most of us want. But he has to get elected first.  I think tacking to the center won't change as many minds as he would hope, but it couldn't hurt if the so-called independents and moderate Republicans at least take a look at him.  If they help him get elected, then that's a good thing.  We can always hope he governs differently than he runs his campaign.

I get the feeling this could be a wipeout this time, but I've been wrong before.  The party in power now (the Republicans) are reviled and are running a candidate about whom they're only mildly enthusiastic.  Ironically, it's because they think John McCain is a sellout and is not as much a party loyalist as they want.  He has to walk a fine line between his perceived image (maverick) and his actual policy positions (which are now in line with the NeoCon wing of their party).  If he leans too much on his perceived image, he alienates the neocons.  If he leans too much on his current positions, he alienates the right wing Democrats and the independents.

On the Democratic Party side, those that support Barack Obama are enthusiastic about him.  The only thing that can prevent Barack Obama from winning easily is if he alienates enough of Hillary Clinton's supporters to stupidly vote for John McCain.  The difference between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is small.  The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is huge.  If her supporters stay at home, there is still hope.  Bob Barr is running as the Libertarian Party candidate and may appeal to enough Republicans (probably not).  I think enough clear-minded Hillary supporters will support Obama by election time, but they're upset by their favorite candidate's concession and her narrow loss to Obama.  She had a legitimate chance for the nomination, but her team failed to capitalize on her huge lead at the start of the election.  Funny enough, she wanted to use the superdelegates to win the nomination, but Obama was able to get enough momentum in the middle of the election to secure the nomination.

As the economy goes from bad to worse, more people are going to want change, regardless of how they normally vote.  I also like the fact that Obama has already hit back on many of the McCain team's accusations.  This is already going better for him over John Kerry.  The Swift Boaters and the flip-flop charges had sunk in enough for some Democrats and independents to vote for President Bush, even though job satisfaction for Bush was extremely low. The leaners voted against Kerry rather than for Bush.  I get the feeling this time around that the high price of gas won't change and enough people will be convinced to give the Democrats a chance.  I sure hope I'm right come November.

Thankfully, the Democratic Party primaries are over on Tuesday and we can move onto the General Election.  Hillary Clinton ran a strong, if a bit dirty, presidential campaign, but still lost to Barack Obama.  Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain represent the old school of politics that needs to go away: make as many friends with as many powerful people as possible in order to get elected.  Don't take too strong a principled stand so you don't offend corporate interests.

Hillary Clinton never really defined herself as well as she should have.  Obama was the inspirational leader.  McCain was the "maverick".  Unfortunately, these days, presidential politics is all about branding.  People don't care about specific policy positions.  They vote based on "gut feelings" of leadership.  If she was the woman's candidate (as many women felt she was), she should have been a stronger advocate for equal work, equal pay or some other specific woman's issue.  She kept trying to act like a "tough guy" and never yielded on positions she took (like aggression against Iran, or her vote on the Iraq War).  She seemed as stubborn as George W. Bush, and we already know where that got us.  John McCain is not the maverick he claims to be.  He unbelievably is now against positions he used to advocate (like a ban on torture, for example).  His positions now line up exactly with George W. Bush.  What's even worse, he knows nothing about the economy, and that's what's troubling Americans the most these days.

Now the healing has to begin for the Democrats.  Hillary has to make a concession speech that will bring her followers to Barack Obama.  No matter what happens in November, her followers have to vote for Obama or we will have more war, more recession and more division in this country.  This country will go further and further down the toilet if McCain wins and continues Bush's policies.

I don't know which is worse: Hillary Clinton getting attacked in a sexist fashion by idiot Republican types or her team (and her, in a subtle way) attacking Barack Obama using thinly veiled racist terms.  Hillary and her team want to overturn the vote of the majority by saying she and only she can appeal to the poor, working class white voters. In other words, only racists will vote for her in the general election.  She even implied that Obama could be assassinated, so she should stay in.  This long race is ending in a very undignified way.

Hillary has some very positive qualities: intelligence, toughness, political skill and savvy.  Yet she doesn't seem to advocate positions until someone else has articulated it.  For example, John Edwards was the first Democrat to come up with a well-defined universal health care plan.  This should have been the first thing Hillary should have done, since that was her huge public failure in her husband's first term as President.  Even now, her populist stance comes after Edwards adopted his late last year.  Hillary had name recognition and a lot of support among women voters, yet she still was unable to get the majority of the elected delegates.  She has every right to stay in the race as long as she wants (after all, Ron Paul is still in the Republican race long after John McCain captured the required delegates for the nomination), but with every desperate plea she makes to the superdelegates, she is only showing herself to be more  unqualified than Barack Obama.

The 2008 Presidential Election feels like it's been going on for five years, rather than 5 months.  I suppose 8 years of the disastrous Bush administration would make any sane person want to get new leadership as soon as possible.  I can't imagine very many people, Democrat or Republican, can admit with a straight face that the Bush administration has been good for the country in any way except to make the very wealthy even wealthier. I hope that Hillary Clinton drops out before the Democratic Party convention in Denver.  She cannot get more pledged delegates than Barack Obama even if Michigan and Florida were to count. Her argument for the nomination now turns to "electability," a more-or-less coded way of saying that poor white people won't vote for Obama no matter what.

From now until November, my only hope for change is that Barack Obama gets elected.  John McCain has proven in his candidacy that he will lie about his record to make him look more conservative than he purports to be.  His campaign, on the other hand, will try to make it look like he is still the "maverick" he used to be so that independents and some Democrats will vote for him.  His gas tax holiday proposal shows that he (and Hillary) will pander to the American public to get elected.  The United States needs real change in order to turn things around.  We have a sinkhole of a war going on and an economy that's getting worse.  Obama is not as experienced as John McCain, no dispute.  But at least Obama has the judgment and the will to take principled stands to solve the problems, not give people a temporary solution to make them feel better.  I may not have supported Obama from the beginning, but it is clear to me that he is the better candidate between him and John McCain.

I didn't watch the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania earlier this week.  I'm all done with debates.  I've already made up my mind between the two remaining candidates.  My stated preference is still Barack Obama.  He has a chance to be a more inclusive President than before and he is clearly the more inspirational candidate.  He has an insurmountable lead based on the math of the remaining states.  Unless Hillary Clinton wipes out Obama in Pennsylvania and takes every single state remaining, Obama will have more pledged delegates than Hillary.  None of these things are going to happen.

Hillary and Bill are absolutely convinced that she is the better general election candidate. I vehemently disagree.  Hillary, while a smart and competent candidate, has no more "presidential" experience than Obama, unless you count observation when her husband was in office.  She was not involved in developing policy, per se, and her one stab at it (health care reform) she failed miserably.  She also doesn't seem to have any strong convictions, and I fear she will be more hawkish in her attempts to overcome stereotypes about her gender.

The Clintons continue to be divisive for both Republicans and even Democrats.  I think that unless they get behind Obama, there is a chance that Democrats will not occupy the White House again.  If Hillary would somehow become the Democratic candidate, I would still vote for her.  I just don't want a Republican in the White House.  I can't believe there are supporters of either Hillary or Obama who won't vote for the other person, should that person win the nomination.  Are you people crazy?!!!  Hasn't eight years of Republican rule taught you that their party, as currently constituted, is a disaster for this nation and will continue to be a disaster under John McCain.  The name may change, but the outcome will be the same: More war, increasing income gap between the wealthy and the middle class, fewer jobs, a sour economy, and no major steps toward fixing the climate change problems of the future.  I hope that all Democrats can come together in November and vote Republicans out of office.  That is the only way we can ensure that after 4-8 more years, the United States won't be a bankrupt country with no hope left.

I'm getting really tired of the "gotcha" politics where every little sound bite is exaggerated and misinterpreted to make a point.  Of course, Hillary Clinton jumped on Barack Obama's remarks about economically-depressed small town voters and accused him of being an elitist out-of-touch with regular people. It's no wonder that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter would rather vote for her than John McCain.  It sometimes seems like we have two Republicans and one Democrat left in the race.

Obama did himself no favors with his word choice in his speech.  The Mainstream Media reduced what he said to "blue collar workers are bitter gun nuts that cling to religion", when what he said was more of an indictment of politics as usual that left these people behind.  I hope that people in Pennsylvania are smart enough to understand the difference.

I find it hard to believe that Hillary wants to paint herself as a "regular gal", when she comes from the same "elitist" background as Obama.  She went to Wellesley College and Yale Law School.  Obama went to Columbia and Harvard Law School.  Neither one's educational background sounds like they spent two years at community college and started working at the car repair shop.  Having shots with the regular folks at the local bar (like Hillary did) seems like a trick from the Karl Rove playbook: Fool everyone into thinking you're "regular folks", even when you're not.

I hope the polls are wrong about John McCain catching up to both Hillary and Obama.  Regardless of who the Democratic nominee ends up being, the Democrats have to win the 2008 election.  More Republican rule will ruin the country (if it hasn't already).  The only difference between McCain and the Bush administration will be fiscal restraint.  So all we'll end up doing is not crashing into the ditch as hard.