How is that McCain, who's PROMISING to govern just like Bush, is ahead in the polls?

[brentspeak]

By common consensus, Bush is the worst president in the history of this nation. He has taken a gigantic wrecking ball to our country. And yet, here we have John McCain, who not only praises Bush, but actually vows to govern just like him! (i.e. "stay the course in Iraq"; "let the market 'fix' our broken health-care system"; "outsourcing is good for you").

Are Obama and Clinton so weak that even someone like McCain can defeat either one of them?

[JuniperLea]

1. Good for you!

This is where our focus should be!

[babylonsister]

2. Because he doesn't have any real competition-yet. He will soon. nt

[joshcryer]

5. Ding ding. The above poster is correct. People see it as a 3 way race almost.

Once Obama wins the nomination (the likeliest outcome) he will get numbers never before seen in a Presidential election.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Because many Americans are a bunch of fucking morons

[DJ13]

4. Its because our party cannot yet speak with a single voice

McCain is the ONLY benficiary of Clinton remaining in the race.

[shaniqua6392]

6. To answer your question:

Yes. Obama and Clinton can not defeat McCain. Not as long as we are divided. Not as long as we continually fight each other over which of our Dem candidates is best. We look disorganized and inadequate. Just because a bunch of us either like Obama or Clinton does not mean much. Half the Dems like Clinton. Half the Dems like Obama. We are split in half. When either one of them drops out, we will lose Dems who favored that candidate. We fight each other. We call each other names. We spread lies about the opposing candidate. We completely misinterpret the opposing candidate. We should be opposing McCain, but we are opposing each other. United we stand and divided we fall.

[wiggs]

7. We have to hope that, for the first time in 8 years, our candidates and leaders

will begin to shed light on this administration and talk about misdeeds and mis-leadings in frank, honest terms. No triangulation, no gray. Just the truth, just the record.

I hope the reason polls are close is because dems haven't focused attention on the administration and McCain yet. I hope..but it could be that the same pattern of complicity is becoming apparent, that the opposition party is just a show and that many on both sides of the aisle are really in league together, having common friends, common history, and common income brackets. Really, this is what we've seen for a long time now...the same could have been said, was said, in 2004: Kerry should have easily beaten the worst president in history.

(Note: yes I know that it is possible or even likely that Kerry did win technically in 2004. I was a strong advocate for not certifying electoral votes for Ohio and didn't understand why more dem leaders didn't express suspicion.)

[Thepricebreaker]

8. Because he was against Bush on a lot of things..

[MadBadger]

Because Obama and Hillary are still fighting for the nomination while he has it easy

Once this is all wrapped up and we have a nominee, the numbers will improve.

[MadBadger]

9. Because Obama and Hillary are still fighting for the nomination while he has it easy

Once this is all wrapped up and we have a nominee, the numbers will improve.

[SeattleGirl]

11. Yep, that's exactly it.

McCain has not been hit really hard yet by the Dem side. He will, though, once the nominee is chosen.

[Middle finga]

10. Because the media is full of corporate controlled whores and too

many americans of voting age are dumb as a bag of rocks.

[progdog]

12. Bingo!

n/t

[AlinPA]

24. Yes.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. Republicans are attacking Democrats. Democrats are attacking Democrats.

Sadly, this isn't going to change any time soon.

[acrosstheuniverse]

14. thanks Hillary

Like Bill said "I still believe in a place called Hope. I still believe in a place called America" Too bad his and your legacy are more important then what his own words claimed back at the 1996 convention.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. I'm afraid that your post, sir, is a perfect example of the problem.

And I don't imagine you're a supporter of Hillary, so you've fairly effectively disproved your own point - it's not just Hillary's fault; it takes two to quarrel.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

15. I have bear witnessed too many Republican Black commentators

on the MSM talking up the pros of a Hillary ticket. And I wonder, just what is their home life like?
There is a great book in there somewhere.

[Sparkly]

16. Um... what?

I didn't understand that.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

17. They want a Hillary ticket to run against.

Much easier on the homefront.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. Black?

Are you talking about their race, or as in the sense of "black propaganda"?

[Carrieyazel]

18. McCain has been quite careful NOT to explicitly say that he'll govern like Shrub.

He's done everything to get the radical/ultracon Repukes to fall into line of course, but he rarely mentioned; basically ignored Shrub, except for the obligatory Shrub White House visit.

Now he gets to run towards the center. He'll try to run away as far as he can from the Shrub failures; and he'll likely get away with it.

He's an effective candidate, whether we want to deal with it or not.

1. "Straight Talk Express"
2. "Maverick"
3. Has higher favorability and lower unfavorables than Hillary or Obama.
4. Has much higher approval ratings than Shrub or Chainee
5. Isn't a member of the Shrub administration; so not technically an incumbent and can rail against the Shrubbers when he believes it'll help him politically (and he'll be doing it soon).

He's getting to define himself right now, with little opposition from Obama/Hillary and run an early pre-GE campaign to "introduce" himself. He is doing whatever he wants right now. No surprise that he's ahead of both Democratic candidates.

[Perry Logan]

21. I'm sure those one-to-one match-up polls are meaningless.

[Political Heretic]

22. He isn't. CNN and MSNBC tonight have latest nationals putting BOTH dem. candidates up by 5%

against McCain.

[AlinPA]

23. Media likes him. They will decide who is ahead in polls and who will win. 'murcans are

easily convinced by the tee vee.

[JI7]

25. they aren't really listening to him, just looking at the war hero stuff

right now most don't pay attention. they just see him as the war hero candidate.

the democrats are still competing and negative stuff is coming out which always gets attention unlike the issues.

most people probably don't know McCain even said he would govern like Bush.

[polichick]

26. Someone at msnbc talked about this yesterday...

Pointing out that voters don't think of McCain under the Republican brand, but still under the Maverick brand. When the GE begins and people start paying attention to what he's now saying, things will change.

[AllentownJake]

27. Relax

Its April. Plus I'm willing to bet 10% of that is the people threatning to leave the party if their candidate loses. That will turn around once people have time to calm down.

[demokatgurrl]

28. What polls are you looking at?

The last ones I saw had both Clinton and Obama beating McCain by a few percentage points, and they haven't even started on him yet because they are too busy fighting each other.

[SaveAmerica]

29. They're not trashing him in the news? He's seen as a ghostly smiling man,

when the Democratic focus turns to McCain, people will get to see the real deal.

[pdxmom]

30. McCain is getting virtually nothing but positive press in the MSM. Dan

Abrams is the only one pointing out McCain's negatives right now, that I have seen. Outside of that, progressive talk radio is talking about him and his flip-flops and mistakes. But in general, the public is only getting a positive view. So much so, that I saw some poll (don't remember what or where) where 30% of those polled preferred McCain's economic plan...and he doesn't even HAVE an economic plan!

I'm going to assume that once the Dems situation is resolved and we can focus on McCain and his inconsistencies and outright wrong views, the public is smart enough to pay attention and make the correct decision.