Those who believe Obama will be easily beaten by GOP

[DearAbby]

Ask HRC how easy it was to put away Obama. It wont be easy. It seems like everything she has tried has seriously backfired. Lets talk here. What does the GOP have that can seriously damage Obama, HRC hasn't tried?

[Skittles]

1. not a good comparison

the sheer hatred shown for Hillary since 1992 is not something other candidates have had to deal with

[Drunken Irishman]

15. So all that hatred gave her huge poll numbers up until Obama actually started winning?

You can't account for the commanding lead she had in the polls as late as January.

[Skittles]

23. no

did I say that? And have you forgotten the primaries are pandering to DEMOCRATIC VOTERS?

[Drunken Irishman]

30. And the Democratic base LOVED Hillary all throughout 2007.

Clinton's campaign was a house of cards and Iowa proved that by removing one, the entire thing came crashing down. Oh sure she was revived by winning NH and Nevada, but that was short lived, because they invested all their time in some big states, conceding every other small state to Obama, then they failed to plan for any primaries post-Super Tuesday. The incompetence of her campaign rivals that of Rudy Giuliani. In fact, both can write a book on how NOT to run a campaign.

[anigbrowl]

17. 'Vote for me because I'm used to being hated by the GOP'

Well, that's been a big part of her campaign - she's 'battle tested' or some such bullshit.

Reality: she had a White House job she couldn't be fired from: first lady. That's nepotism (in the nicest possible way), not meritocracy. Any time she put her foot in her mouth, she could just be asked not to talk about policy in public for a bit and restrict herself to official duties. But if she'd been a regular appointee, would she have lasted out 2 terms in Bill's cabinet? Maybe, maybe not.

I'm sorry, being unpopular with the GOP is not an electoral asset. It's like saying 'You might as well pick me - I could hardly get more unpopular, and right now I still beat the GOP candidate! So what can go wrong?' What's gone wrong for her is that a lot of Democrats and independents have realized that they don't like her all that much either.

[cliffordu]

20. Yep!!! N/T

[Skittles]

24. ???

OK now you're being RIDICULOUS - where did I say her unpopularity is an electoral asset? AS USUAL, you are confusing me with a HRC supporter WHICH I AM NOT.

[anigbrowl]

27. Don't take it so personally

It's just a general point about the meaninglessness of the 'battle tested' pitch that's been coming from her campaign and supporters for so long. I'm riffing off what you said rather than trying to argue with you, sorry if that wasn't obvious.

[ingac70]

2. She's already used up...

all their ammo.

It's just going to be crusty old John McCain, promising 100 years minimum in Iraq, attacking Obama as too wet behind the ears to be Pres.

[Skittles]

4. actually ingac70

now McCain is saying the war will be over soon - talk about FLIP-FLOP :o

[DearAbby]

6. I dont even think the inexperienced card will play

its not high enough trump card to pull in the hand. I believe McCain is just a throwaway candidate. Its his turn. But they know they have lost control of this election. A Democrat will take it (Not for us to sit on our haunches, we still need to work like hell)

But they cant play the race card. The Muslim ties are coming up empty as well. The war will be a big issue. And McCain is right, it will hurt him. I dont believe they have anything that hasn't been thrown at him by the Clinton machine. Rove's tactics are not going to work this go round.

[depakid]

10. LOL -not by a long shot

Hillary's a powder puff compared with the Republican machine....

Moreover, despite his record- McCain's "reputation" as a Maverick -a bipartisan and a "different kind of Republican" is already cemented and will be reinforced, repeated over and over. And over.

Much as I hate the Republicans, I admire one thing- unlike the Dems in the past 15 years or so- they play to win, whether it's in presidential elections or on policy decisions.

Dems unfortunately are play a different game, by different rules- and they lose, time and again.

If the campaign clings to the "high road," and there's not an utter meltdown on McCain's part, the results won't be any different than 2000 and 2004.

[ginnyinWI]

12. The Repub machine is running out of gas.

Dems are out-raising Repubs two-to-one. Obama is flush with cash. This won't be a repeat of 2004. It won't be a cakewalk either, but at least he's got a great team and plenty of money with which to do battle.

And they like their candidate a lot less than we like ours.

[depakid]

22. "Dems are out-raising Repubs two-to-one. Obama is flush with cash."

Ah, but you see the Republicans own the corporate media and have the echo chamber, so they don't need nearly as much money as the Dems do to frame the debate and get their positive and negatives messages to stick.

[ginnyinWI]

46. McCain isn't raising any money.

The MSM is affected by who looks like a winner and who looks like a loser. They are going to cover a popular candidate because that affects ratings.

McCain raised as much in all of 2007 as Obama raised in January, give or take a million. That will not escape their attention. I'm optimistic.

[DearAbby]

16. I believe McCain is making a mistake

moving too far right and in the lap of the NEOCONS...19% approval rating is partly a rating against NEOCON agenda. Majority of Americans are just as sick of Bush and the NeoCons as we are. McCain moving into their camp, will not help him. If he had been running the same campaign he did in 2000, that would be a different story.

[cali]

45. um, no. JMac's reputation is not cemented

it's absurd to say that. The dems have barely started on him, and the media is no longer infatuated with him. It's pretty clear that Obama also plays to win, and Howard Dean has started a tough frontal assault on JMac. In addition, he's closesly tied to bush and has literally no domestic policy in a year when the economy is in dire straits. Dems hold huge advantage on domestic and economic policy which is now the overriding concern of voters. You're giving McCain and the repukes far too much credit here. 2008 could well be a repeat of 2006.

[Double T]

3. The GOP has professional 'think tank' political career destroyers...........

and believe ME, they want obama to win as they already have their Democratic destruction plan in place.

[DearAbby]

8. What....what can they throw at Obama

that the HRC hasnt tossed and it backfired? Lets be a think tank and think what this could be, then we could be a step ahead

[anigbrowl]

29. I heard he was romantically involved to a black woman

and he's probably a communist or something.

[DearAbby]

34. He has fathered not one....but TWO Black babies ::gasp::: n/t

[anigbrowl]

28. So you keep saying

Don't worry, we have professional super-secret career bodyguards on the left too. They're called journalists with integrity, though they often go hidden.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. Um... John McCain will not be obliged to not alienate black voters

He will feel quite free to criticize Obama without pulling his punches.

That may well alienate voters from McCain, but he has a lot of options Hillary doesn't have.

"Barack Obama wouldn't know an RPG from a bong."

---John McCain 2007

[Johnny__Motown]

7. True, but he needs "the middle" to contest with Barack, he can't win the middle as a racist

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. I agree, but there's racism and there's racism

Overt racism is a turn-off, but McCain will not be called a racist for saying Obama is inexperienced, or too liberal or whatever...

If McCain made Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" comment there would be no public outcry from leading Republicans that he needs to watch his tone, for instance.

[anigbrowl]

31. Fuck it...every time he says that we can just replay 'bomb bomb bomb Iran'

I am not 100% serious, but McCain's history is rich with embarrassing quotes and situations that allow the Democrats to run a campaign along the lines of 'Is THIS the sort of 'experience' we want in the White House?'

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

35. McCain will be a horrible candidate.

And Barack is a good match-up for McCain.

Obama is probably a better match-up against McCain than Hillary would have been.

(I would expect Romney to have possibly beaten Obama, but to have lost to Hillary.)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. I don't know if it will work, but the plan is "les autres"

Difference, pure and simple. Barack is "different."

That's the beginning and end of the plan. t's actually the same plan they always use, because it works well.

The fact that Obama really is different in so many ways is just a bonus for them. The anti-Dukakis and anti-Gore campaigns were all about difference.

"Not like us."

90% of presidential politics is about a sense of shared identity and insider vs. outsider stuff.

I think Obama will win almost by default, but 40% of the country will think he's a martian after the process runs its course.

[anigbrowl]

33. Don't agree.

It's a good point you make, but the problem of many previous democratic candidates has been that they're not good communicators. Look how much more popular Gore is now than when he was VP...and look how much better of a talker and more comfortable person he is nowadays.
'
Obama is comfortable speaking for himself in large or small contexts. I have to admit that the other really good communicator in the race is Mike Huckabee. My partner and I think he's a bad joke as a candidate, but we still like him on a personal level.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

37. Not saying it will work, just that it is the plan

Republicans have been putting boilerplate attacks on Obama in all (and I mean ALL) newspaper comments sections online for a while now, and you can really see where they're going.

It's all about foreign-ness... cultural, physical, religious, background. Even being from Hawaii is "different"

They seldom bother to explain why the differences are bad. Just creating a sense of difference.

No telling if it will work, but it seems to be where they're going.

[anonymous171]

40. I think you're right.

I was astonished when one of my conservative friends told me, in all seriousness, that the fact that Obama had attended a Madrassa in his youth was "fishy." There are some who believe that he is some kind of manchurian candidate from Al-qaeda or something like that. God people are stupid.

[ecstatic]

13. Obama won't embarrass us if he's the nominee

I'm now convinced that he will remain cool and level headed yet tough enough to ram his points home and win points, little by little.

[stahbrett]

14. No way will Obama lose to McCain, and here's why:

All my opinion, of course, but...

1) Kerry, against an incumbent with a lot more money, came really close to beating him. (Some say he did, actually.) Contrast that to Obama, who is a much better candidate, and he will have tons more money than McCain.

2) Obama has already proven that he can and does "fight back". He responds to attacks quickly, he responds effectively.

3) Obama has been largely responsible for a huge increase in turnout on the Democratic side. This increases his chances of turning faint red and purple states blue.

4) He's not one of the long-time politicians - he's a fresh-faced outsider. There is a huge contingent of people who do not want to have "politics as usual" continue.

[DearAbby]

18. Great points

I agree, it also appears that Obama has done his homework. What mistakes are made he learns from them quickly.

[johnnydrama]

39. you forgot one

McCain is just a horrible candidate.

Look at today, he backtracks on every statement he gives 5 minutes later.

He gets caught in lies that are easily debunked

He says he never said stuff that you can find him saying on youtube in 5 seconds.

Obama never even has to say one word in his ads, he just has to split screen 2 or 3 McCain's saying 2 or 3 different things on the same subject, and do it on everything.

100 years in Iraq, I know nothing about the economy, etc. etc..

[Thrill]

19. No one is buying the GOP BS

Not after Bush.

If the economy wasn't in the shits and the Iraq wasn't going on . I would worry. But McCain can easily be torn apart

[MonkeyFunk]

21. I don't think he'll be easily beaten by the GOP

but I do think many of supporters are in for a very rude awakening when things get underway.

[doc03]

25. It mostly depends on the news media

Obama has been their darling on the Democratic side and McCain on the Republican side. They are both a creation of favorable news coverage. Everyone knows Obama has gotten a free pass, they even had a skit on SNL mocking it. McCain doesn't have to worry about being accused of racism he won't carry any black votes anyway. Just visit the Trinity United Church of Christ site, there is plenty ammunition there.

[Raejeanowl]

26. What Does The GOP Have?

A total lack of shame when it comes to being divisive and polarizing. That's enough.

[nolabels]

32. Yet it's worse than that too........

Just turn on AM Hate radio or Faux news for a couple hours or even just a few minutes. It's all pretty much schtick but they blovacate it like it's proven fact when most of it is known lies. Putting oneself into their shoes, the economy is tough and News Reader for Faux probably doesn't look that good as a job title on the resume.

[DemGa]

36. What does the GOP have that can seriously damage Obama?

Republicans, for one.

Just as the right-wing machine changed perceptions of Hillary (which Barack used against her), Kerry, Gore, etc., etc., with Republicans, so they will with St. Obama.

[LiberalAndProud]

38. Hint of things to come

I always look to Rush to get the early scoop on the current memes ...

Angry white women will not vote for Obama.
Liberal Jewish men will not vote for Obama.

There's way too much fainting going on at Dem rallies (?!?)

Farrakhan endorsed Obama
and that is somehow important because ...
Obama's mother is a white woman (?!?)

Of course, I seem to have heard most of that here first (shocked.shocked i tells ya)

[doc03]

41. You also can add Obama's church publication the

Trumpet it gave Lois Farrakhan what they call an Empowerment Award. Go to the Trinity Church of Christ web site, if that was a Southern Baptist Church and you would substitute the word white for black it would be considered racist. The Republicans won't miss that.

[LisaL]

42. Let's just be realistic.

What states is Obama going to win that neither Gore nor Kerry did?
As far as I can tell, Obama is not doing so hot in OH and FL.
So, how is he going to win GE?

[Recursion]

43. Go west, young man, go west

(Though I'm guessing from your handle you're not a man.)

This election is about the west, which is probably at a gut level why they picked McCain.

[jaybeat]

44. Just wait

Hillary is a Democrat who's positions are substantially the SAME as Barack's on 95% of the issues.

Look at all the grief she's gotten for her supposedly "vicious attacks." "Shrill bitch" that she is.

The Republican campaign is going to make Hillary look like an Obama cheerleader. Pom poms and all.

I fear that Obama is an empty shell, into which the media have allowed millions to poor all of their hopes and dreams for a post-Bush world. And the media, who want their Republican FCC, will turn around and expose that shell with a gusto that will know no bounds.

Do you REALLY think that the Clinton campaign has given Obama the *worst* he'll get?

"Do you want a black man raping your white daughters?" "Obama Hussein bin Laden" A towel-head, no less.

Just wait. It is going to get so ugly and repulsive you won't recognize your own country.

And if it doesn't look like it is working, all they have to do is plan/allow/fake another major terrorist attack. Then we'll have the True-Grit American POW Hero against the African Chicago cocaine-snorting gang-banger. It won't even be close.