Posts with the tag 'General Election'
The political commentariat is now operating under the assumption that Sen. Obama has at long last clinched the Democratic nomination by his landslide victory in the North Carolina primary and his near upset of Sen. Clinton in Indiana. This is wrong from the standpoint that Sen. Obama was effectively assured of the nomination following his string of victories following Super Tuesday, long before this past Tuesday. Indiana and North Carolina did not change anything except convince many of what was already, for all intents and purposes, inevitable.
Sen. Clinton intends to carry on, of course, because she is Sen. Clinton. As David Kahane writes, “She’s not going to quit because she has nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do. She lives for this, and without it, she has no life. In fact, without it, she doesn’t exist at all.” Since her husband raised his right hand in ‘93 she has been preparing for the day that she could raise hers. Until Sen. Obama’s nomination is official, she is not going to let that go.
Though it is all but inevitable at this point, it is only all but inevitable. That is how she will view the situation at least. She will look forward to large victories in the upcoming Kentucky and West Virginia primaries, hoping significant margins there will stoke further discussion of Sen. Obama’s inability to win over white, blue-collar voters and give Democratic super-delegates further pause as they size up the strength of Sen. Obama as a general election candidate. She will also continue to push for the seating of Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates at the convention (she sent a letter to Sen. Obama today laughably urging him to support that effort), arguing–not without some semblance of a point–that to deny those delegates seats would be to disenfranchise Democratic voters in those respective states and harm Democrats politically in what will be two pivotal battlegrounds in the fall.
Ultimately, these efforts will fail and Sen. Obama, warts and all, will accept the nomination in Denver this August. All that is really left to be decided is whether Sen. Clinton can and even wants to muscle herself onto the ticket and how exactly such a ticket would play in the fall. The race for the Democratic nomination is essentially decided and has been decided for sometime, but the saga and theater shall continue hence.
Tags: Clinton, Democrats, General Election, Obama
May 8th, 2008
Senator Obama is not happy that Senator McCain pointed out that Hamas stated they would like to see an Obama presidency.
“This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing,” Obama told Blitzer, when asked his thoughts about McCain’s comments that the terrorist organization Hamas wants Obama to be president. “Because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics,’ and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.
A smear would indicate that comments were either false or misleading, but that is not the case. Hamas made a telling statement and Senator Obama may not want people to know about it, but crying foul over a statement of fact is pretty weak.
Tags: election politics, General Election, glass jaw, Hamas, obama mccain, smear, statements, terrorists, touchy
May 8th, 2008
Titled Ignite.
The AP has some analysis on the video
ANALYSIS: McCain, who has said economics is not his strong suit, is coupling the release of this ad with a speech in Pittsburgh in which he focuses on the gas tax, Medicare premiums and the tax deduction for dependent children. His first ad in perennial battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania is an appeal to swing voters who will be key if he wants to win November’s head-to-head contest with the Democratic nominee. The ad is scant on details but appeals to Republicans with talk of taxes and to independents with his pledge to make health care cheaper and home mortgages less problematic.
As Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue to chase their party’s nomination, McCain is laying the groundwork in states that will be key in November. He runs about even with both Democrats in hypothetical polling matchups months before November.
McCain’s fast-moving ad shows a vigorous campaigner and tries to quiet concerns that, at 71, he is too old for the White House.
With Barack Obama doing everything he can to lose Pennsylvania, McCain is very wise to run an ad that focuses on the common Pennsylvania resident that Obama so despises.
Tags: ads, General Election, John McCain, mccain, Ohio, Pennsylvania
April 15th, 2008
Nedra Pickler has the story on Real Clear Politics.
McCain erased a ten point Obama lead from less than two months ago.
An AP-Ipsos poll taken in late February had Obama leading McCain 51-41 percent. The current survey, conducted April 7-9, had them at 45 percent each. McCain leads Obama among men, whites, Southerners, married women and independents.
Its just further confirmation that the more people get a peak behind the curtain, the less they actually like about the Leader of the New Hope and his lies and hypocrisy.
Against McCain, Obama lost ground among women — from 57 percent in February to 47 percent in April. Obama dropped 12 points among women under 45, 14 points among suburban women and 15 points among married women.
He also lost nine points or more among voters under 35, high-income households, whites, Catholics, independents, Southerners, people living in the Northeast and those with a high school education or less.
In a year when a Democrat “should” win the White House, no less.
Tags: General Election, John McCain, mccain, Obama
April 11th, 2008
Red State has a blog entry stating that pollster John Zogby suggested that high ranking Democratic party members want Barack Obama to release his delegates to former Vice President Al Gore so the party can nominate Gore to face John McCain in November.
I pray they do this.
The Democrats are facing a potential meltdown in Denver because they have two candidates that are so attractive to the Democratic electorate. Including Florida’s results, over 27 million people have voted, and the popular vote is split roughly 50/50. Because things are so close, neither candidate will be able to reach the 2,024 pledged delegates, and things are going to be decided by superdelegates.
The obvious problem there is no matter who the party throws the nomination to, roughly half of the voters will feel that their candidate lost the election in the ’smoke-filled room.’ For their sake, Howard Dean and the DNC needs to find a solution that is at least acceptable to the vast majority of the electorate.
Handing the nomination to the man that has not a single delegate in the 2008 election cycle, no matter how popular that man is, is not the answer.
If they steal the nomination from both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and give it to an old white guy, they will hand the Presidency over to John McCain.
If the Democratic Party really wants to go that route (and I doubt they are seriously considering it), they will be making their own grave.
Not that I’m complaining. Heck, I hope they do something like that every election cycle.
Tags: Al Gore, delegates, Denver, DNC, General Election
March 21st, 2008
