Let's not kid ourselves, John McCain has an enormous challenge ahead of him. It's a lot easier to win a debate with the issues on your side. By that I don't mean that Republican policy on the issues is all wrong, and I certainly don't mean that Democratic policy on the issues is all right, but public opinion shows that Americans are disillusioned with the George Bush-Neoconservative policies of the past eight years. John McCain is going to go into that debate partly having to defend why he believes the United States should not withdraw immediately from Iraq, why we should keep Bush's tax cuts, what he would do different from the previous administration to keep people from losing their homes. These are issues that a lot of Americans are siding with Democrats this election year, and Obama represents change in that regard. The good thing for John McCain is that he is not George Bush, no matter how many times Howard Dean and his 527's say it. That is why he was the best candidate out of the Republican field from the beginning, because he is largely independent from the last eight years, unlike someone like Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson, who switched their positions to represent those of the last eight years to run for President. Another thing to keep in mind is that instead of being aggressive and on the offense against McCain, Obama has adopoted a defensive mentality. "We will not be bullied" is a quote that would come from someone who is playing defense. They're so pissed off about the Palin pick they don't know how to effectively respond. McCain is vulnerable, but only if Obama takes advantage of it. Simply linking him to George Bush won't work.
Obama is a pro choice guy being asked a question about abortion when majority of the viewers probably are more religious minded than anything. Well at least the ones that took a lot from the forum. My point being the setting wasn't one where Obama was in a good situation to win. I think by going on there he really had nothing to lose and in the end he didn't lose anything and he also didn't gain anything. McCain was made for that type of a setting. The comment about defeating evil and following Osama Bin Laden straight to hell plays up to the religious based voters in my opinion. I think McCain new he would do well in that where as Obama figured I got nothing to lose so I might as well give it a go. Now the debates are going to be different. I think McCain is probably a better debater than Obama. Actually I know he is but the question is whether or not he sounds to much like G.W. Bush. He is still a republican and he still agrees with the president more than a lot of people do at this point in time. He'll have to work around that while Obama tries to point out the things McCain used to be against Bush on, he now agrees on. It really is going to be something to watch. I mean a lot of politcal junkies already know where they stand on issues but a lot of people don't and that's obviously the target both of them will be shooting for.
You keep saying this and I really don't understand it. As an Obama supporter, I am happy about McCain picking her. The only shot they have at taking votes away from Obama is getting a few Hillary voters to switch over. Her political stances are not going to win over Obama's current supporters, and she's not going to change a purple state into a red state. If anything, she negates progress McCain could have made by selecting a running mate with much more popular stances on the important issues. Or progress he could have made by selecting a running mate that was popular in a swing state. I think when all is said and done, McCain will be about as happy with his VP selection as John Kerry was with his.
He had a simple answer to give. "I believe X, but I don't force my beliefs on people." Strong, simple, easy to understand. He didn't.
It also wouldn't work with the type of voters that might actually decide who they vote for based on a religious forum hosted by a evangelical pastor. Evil exists but anything less than defeat isn't going to fly with those type of people. Anything less than making abortion illegal isn't going to fly with those people. You could tell Obama wasn't comfortable because his views don't really match up with that of a evangelical voter. Now of course Obama is not going to get away with not being straightforward in the debates and I'm pretty sure he's smart enough to understand that and it also helps that everyone will be watching that and a lot of people will decide who they vote for because of the debate. Not just one type of person. If Obama treats the debate like he did the forum, then McCain will begin to pull ahead and away.
Her selection gave a huge shot to the arm to the Republican party at the worst possible time for the Democrats. Her selection took the air out of the Democrats when it was supposed to be their week. As Denny said, she's a rock star. She is the next big figure in the Republican party.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/110050/Gallup-Daily-McCain-Moves-Ahead-48-45.aspx Gallup Daily: McCain Moves Ahead, 48% to 45% McCain enjoying increase in support following convention USA Election 2008 Gallup Daily Americas Northern America PRINCETON, NJ -- The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update shows John McCain moving ahead of Barack Obama, 48% to 45%, when registered voters are asked for whom they would vote if the presidential election were held today. These results are based on Sept. 4-6 interviewing, and include two full days of polling after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention last Thursday night. McCain has outpolled Obama on both Friday and Saturday, and is receiving a convention bounce just as Obama did last week. Tomorrow's report will be the first in which all interviews were conducted after the conclusion of the convention. Gallup measures convention bounces by comparing candidate support in the last poll done entirely before a party's presidential nominating convention begins with the first polling conducted entirely after its conclusion. McCain's 48% share of the vote ties for his largest since Gallup tracking began in early March. He registered the same level of support in early May. This is also McCain's largest advantage over Obama since early May, when he led by as much as six percentage points. Obama has led McCain for most of the campaign, and for nearly all of the time since clinching the Democratic nomination in early June. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.) -- Jeff Jones
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-07-poll_N.htm Poll: Convention lifts McCain over Obama By Susan Page, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the GOP all year. McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points. (My note, down 7 to up 3 is a +10 point bounce) The convention bounce has helped not only McCain but also attitudes toward Republican congressional candidates and the GOP in general. "The Republicans had a very successful convention and, at least initially, the selection of Sarah Palin has made a big difference," says political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point." However, in an analysis of the impact of political conventions since 1960, Sabato concluded that post-convention polls signal the election's outcome only about half the time. "You could flip a coin and be about as predictive," he says. "It is really surprising how quickly convention memories fade." McCain has narrowed Obama's wide advantage on handling the economy, by far the electorate's top issue. Before the GOP convention, Obama was favored by 19 points; now he's favored by 3. The Republican's ties to President Bush remains a vulnerability. In the poll, 63% say they are concerned he would pursue policies too similar to those of the current president. Bush's approval rating is 33%. In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples. (My note: up 10%) Among the findings: • Before the convention, Republicans by 47%-39% were less enthusiastic than usual about voting. Now, they are more enthusiastic by 60%-24%, a sweeping change that narrows a key Democratic advantage. Democrats report being more enthusiastic by 67%-19%. • Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a national unknown before McCain chose her for the ticket 10 days ago, draws a strong reaction from voters on both sides. Now, 29% say she makes them more likely to vote for McCain, 21% less likely. Obama's choice of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as running mate made 14% more likely to vote for the Democrat, 7% less likely. • McCain's acceptance speech Thursday received lower ratings than the one Obama gave a week earlier: 15% called McCain's speech "excellent" compared with 35% for Obama.
Am i the only dude, who thinks that obama made a mistake by choosing biden over hillary. Just check the polls out. FYI: Im not an hillary fan
That's actually a raging debate going on within the Democratic Party these days, or so I hear. It's not all that publicly talked about, but reporters mention it's going on from their conversations.
The sheep on the religious right needed a reason to come out and vote. Palin gives them that. The unfortunately reality is that trying to be a centrist will kill McCain in the voting booth. He has to get the people he doesn't like in the party to get out and vote.
General Election: McCain vs. Obama RCP Electoral Map | Changes in Electoral Count | Map With No Toss Ups | No Toss Up Changes Polling Data <table class="data"><tbody><tr><th class="noCenter">Poll</th><th class="date">Date</th><th>Sample</th><th>McCain (R)</th><th>Obama (D)</th><th class="spread">Spread</th></tr><tr class="rcpAvg"><td class="noCenter">RCP Average</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>--</td><td>48.6</td><td>45.4</td><td class="spread">McCain +3.2</td></tr><tr class="alt"><td class="noCenter">CNN</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>942 RV</td><td>48</td><td>48</td><td class="spread">Tie</td></tr><tr><td class="noCenter">USA Today/Gallup</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>823 LV</td><td>54</td><td>44</td><td class="spread">McCain +10</td></tr><tr class="alt"><td class="noCenter">Rasmussen Tracking</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>3000 LV</td><td>48</td><td>47</td><td class="spread">McCain +1</td></tr><tr><td class="noCenter">Hotline/FD Tracking</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>924 RV</td><td>44</td><td>44</td><td class="spread">Tie</td></tr><tr class="alt"><td class="noCenter">Gallup Tracking</td><td>09/05 - 09/07</td><td>2733 RV</td><td>49</td><td>44</td><td class="spread">McCain +5</td></tr></tbody></table>See All General Election: McCain vs. Obama Polling Data Intrade Market Prices for General Election: McCain vs. Obama <table class="data"><tbody><tr><th> </th><th>McCain</th><th>Obama</th><th> </th></tr><tr><td class="noCenter">Intrade Real Time Quotes</td><td><iframe src="http://www.intrade.com/promo/Affiliates/sites/realclearpolitics.com/mdInfo.jsp?contractId=376101&valueName=lastTradePrice" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="17" width="35"></iframe> </td><td><iframe src="http://www.intrade.com/promo/Affiliates/sites/realclearpolitics.com/mdInfo.jsp?contractId=409933&valueName=lastTradePrice" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="17" width="35"></iframe> </td><td class="spread">(See More Data)</td></tr></tbody></table> <!-- amline script--><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/scripts/swfobject.js"></script><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/amline.swf" style="" id="amline" name="amline" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high" flashvars="path=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/&settings_file=http%3A//www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_settings.xml&data_file=http%3A//www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225.xml&preloader_color=#999999" height="250" width="594"> <script type="text/javascript">var so = new SWFObject("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/amline.swf", "amline", "594", "250", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("path", "http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/");so.addVariable("settings_file", escape("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_settings.xml"));so.addVariable("data_file", escape("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225.xml"));so.addVariable("preloader_color", "#999999");so.write("flashcontent");</script><!-- end of amline script --><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/amline.swf" style="" id="amline" name="amline" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high" flashvars="path=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/&settings_file=http%3A//www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/spread_settings.xml%2Chttp%3A//www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_spread_settings.xml&data_file=http%3A//www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_spread.xml&preloader_color=#999999" height="150" width="595"> <script type="text/javascript">var so = new SWFObject("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/amline.swf", "amline", "595", "150", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("path", "http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/");so.addVariable("settings_file", escape("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/spread_settings.xml,http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_spread_settings.xml"));so.addVariable("data_file", escape("http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/charts/225_spread.xml"));so.addVariable("preloader_color", "#999999");so.write("flashcontent2");</script>
I don't neccesarily think Biden was a poor choice. IMO it was kind of mediocre compared to McCain's pick. I mean, you have the supposed "Washington outsider" change candidate picking the ultimate Washington insider who's been there for 35 years, and then you have the other Washington insider picking a real Washington outsider change candidate for VP.
Actually, Biden was a poor choice in just about every way. The best thing about him is that he'd be good at the VP job of president of the Senate. 1) It pissed off Hillary supporters. Before the Palin pick, a full 20% of Hillary's 18M supporters said they intended to vote McCain. 2) It was an admission that Obama's resume is weak - he picked a guy who filled the gapingest of holes in his resume (holes still exist). 3) It was a "safe" pick, but it left the door wide open for McCain to do something out of the box that grabbed peoples' imaginations. 4) Biden ran for president and got very few votes for president - why as VP is he going to be some sort of boost? 5) He's an old white man with the ultimate Washington "insider" credentials. Hard to argue "change" when it's more of the same ol' (white man) same ol' (white man). 6) The pick did nothing to unify the party. From a strategic POV, McCain hit a home run, while Obama bunted the runner over to 2nd. With 20-20 hindsight, he could have and should have held his nose and picked Hillary and the polls would show McCain trailling badly. If he insisted on refusing to pick Hillary, he should have picked Bill Richardson - as popular as Palin in his home state, fills the gaping hole in Obama's resume even better, and nullifies the lack of picking a woman and lends credence to change by putting forth an all-minority ticket.
RCP shows an average of McCain +2.9, 48.3-45.4. This is easily his best week since the general election began.
Who's the rock star? http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5755471 McCain Campaign Crowds Grow Exponentially The 'Palin Factor' Bringing Excitement and Bigger Crowds to McCain Events By BRET HOVELL Sept. 9, 2008 — At John McCain's rally in the town of Lee's Summit, Mo., there were more people standing outside than were able to fit inside. That kind of crowd just hadn't been seen at McCain's events before last week's Republican convention. Saturday in Colorado Springs, about 10,000 people waved American flags at McCain's rally in an airport hangar there, and Friday in the town of Cedarburg, Wis., there were more people crowding the main street and the surrounding blocks than the population of the tiny town. These numbers seemed unfathomable to the campaign just last month. So what happened? Two words: Sarah Palin. A typical McCain event before he announced the Alaska governor as his running mate averaged only about 1,000 people. Now 5,000 has been the low end of turnout in the last few days, and the biggest event last weekend drew about 11,000. These are crowd sizes that are pretty typical for the Obama-Biden campaign, before and after the conventions. There were about 10,000 at an Obama-Biden event in Lancaster, Pa., last week, and more than 12,000 estimated at the Democrats' event in Battle Creek, Mich., earlier in the week. But there have been unusually big crowds for the Republican ticket this year. "Isn't this the most marvelous running mate in the history of the nation?" McCain asked the Wisconsinites Friday morning one the Republican ticket's first day of barnstorming after the convention. "Sarah Palin -- she's magnificent." The Arizona senator's pick for a running mate seems to be a huge hit within the party. Homemade signs about Palin were seen in greater numbers in Missouri than were signs for McCain. Cheerleaders from a high school in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday night launched a Palin cheer while warming up the crowd -- but no such cheer went out for the presidential candidate. Crowds at all of this weekend's stops found cause to interrupt the proceedings with chants of "Sar-ah! Sar-ah! " McCain seemed enthused too. "I could not ask for a greater partner than the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin..." McCain told the crowd in Albuquerque, Saturday night. "Because the response, the response to her has been overwhelming, it's been incredible, she's ignited America. I'm so proud to have her with me." So proud, in fact, that McCain asked her to stay on and campaign together a little longer than previously scheduled this week. Palin had planned to head off to campaign on her own in swing states before heading back to Alaska for a few days. But the joint road trip has been extended. <!-- page --> "We're having a good time, he's enjoying campaigning with her and he just wanted to extend it," senior McCain adviser Mark Salter told ABC News. "Obviously we know we've got to cover a lot of real estate, and that will always be the case." "They're good campaigners together, [but] you can't do that entirely for the next two months obviously," Salter said. Palin will leave McCain's side midweek to head home for a few days and sit down for her first major interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson. When she resumes campaigning, it will likely be without her running mate by her side, for now. Actor Robert Duvall claimed to have known about Palin all along. At the New Mexico event, he was on hand to cheer on the new political couple. "About a year ago I first saw this wonderful woman speak," the veteran of "Lonesome Dove" and the "Godfather" movies said. "I didn't know who it was. And I said who is this woman? And a year later, I said to myself about three or four weeks ago, why isn't she up for the vice presidency?" ABC's Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.
