Internal Discord at Palin Camp
With a full week to go until election day, it seems that the Republicans are already starting to turn on each to other to begin to place blame for a loss. I am still not going to count this as a win (for Obama) until November 5th. Nonetheless, this is the strangest campaign I have ever seen.
Some McCain aides are claiming that Palin is “going rogue“
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.”
A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
If that is not bad enough, some Republicans are saying that down ballot Republicans need to save themselves.
The best bulwark for a nonpolitical finance system and a national culture of open debate will be the strongest possible Republican caucus in the Senate. And it is precisely that strength that is being cannibalized now by the flailing end of the McCain-Palin campaign.
What should Republicans be doing differently? Two things:
1. Every available dollar that can be shifted to a senatorial campaign must be shifted to a senatorial campaign. Right now, we are investing heavily in Pennsylvania in hopes of corralling those fabled “Hillary Democrats” for McCain. But McCain’s hopes in Pennsylvania are delusive: The state went for Kerry in 2004, Gore in 2000 and Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and McCain lags Obama by a dozen points in recent polls. But even if we were somehow to take the state, that victory would not compensate for the likely loss of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and other states tipped to the Democrats by demographic changes and the mortgage crisis. The “win Pennsylvania and win the nation” strategy may have looked plausible in August and September, when McCain trailed Obama by just a few digits. Now it looks far-fetched.
But it is not far-fetched to hope that we can hold 45 or 46 of our current 49 Senate seats. In 1993, then-Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) stopped Hillary-care with only 43 seats. But if we are reduced to just 40 or 41 senators, as could easily happen, Republicans and conservatives would find themselves powerless to stop anything — and more conservative Democrats would lose bargaining power with the Obama White House.
Elizabeth Dole has already moved to point two below in North Carolina
2. We need a message change that frankly acknowledges that the Democrats are probably going to win the White House – and that warns of the dangers of one-party, left-wing government. There’s a lot of poll evidence that voters prefer divided government. By some estimates, perhaps as many as 8 percent of voters consciously cast strategic votes in favor of division. These are the voters we need to be talking to now.
“We’re almost certainly looking at a Democratic White House. I can work with a Democratic president to help this state. But we need balance in Washington.
“The government now owns a big stake in the nation’s banking system. Trillions of dollars are now under direct government control. It’s not wise to put that money under one-party control. It’s just too tempting. You need a second set of eyes on that cash. You need oversight and accountability. Otherwise, you’re going to wake up two years from now and find out that a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House have been funneling a ton of that money to their friends and allies. It’ll be a big scandal — but it will be too late. The money will be gone. Divided government is the best precaution you can have.”
It’s the only argument we have left. And, as the old Washington saying goes, it has the additional merit of being true.
And finally, the Alaska’s Anchorage Daily News endorses Obama saying:
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.
On Palin, they wrote:
Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.
The message that Obama supporters should get from all of this? Show up at the polls as if this is going to be a close race (it may be)
Filed under: Politics
More and more it seems Palin is running her own campaign to be president.
They created a monster….A MONSTER! Bah wa ha ha, ha ha!
3 months ago, I would have been ok with either candidate winning the white house. The pick of Palin was the single reason that turned me away from McCain. McCain used to have a lot of supporters amongst independents, but his campaign in the last few months, and especially Palin has turned off a lot of people. For me, that extremely infuriating joke about community organizers in her convention speech was where I got extremely turned off.
There are a lot of commentators out there predicting that there will be a lot of soul searching in the Republican party if they lose the election (not a given yet by the way), and probably even if they do win.
There are many of us who would support a fiscal conservative party, and even many social conservative ideas. If they manage to get rid of that certain intolerant racial/religious element, I would look very favorably on the Republican party (ie closer to Ron Paul’s version, but perhaps a little less kooky)
That doesn’t surprise me.
In one of Sarah’s interviews, she basically let the cat out of the bag, by saying that she disagreed on John on some things. from reading about her legacy in Alaska, it seemed that she wanted the recognition to be all about her and her family.
That is bad when an Alaskan newspaper endorses the opponent.Yes, I will definitely agree. their campaign has to be one of the most strangest( and perhaps ugliest) that I’ve ever witnessed. Between John , Sarah and his campaign managers, they have screwed their image.
The Republican Party has never been of my predilection. As “conservatives” they want to “conserve” things as they use to be back when…
For a while I was supporting Mr. Obama. That was until his campaing telegraph very clearly that Muslims are not a group they care for. It was then that I decided to vote for Cynthia McKinney, the former Georgia Congresswoman. I know, I know, unless a miracle happen, Ms. McKinney is going no where. Why on earth I decide to vote for her you ask. Well, it was not a vote for her to become president. It is a way of saying thank you for all the support she gave to us Muslims. Ms. McKinney stood by us when it was not the politically “smart” thing to do. So I’m very thankful to her.
But now my decision have changed yet again. I must say Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin are just the best campaigners I have ever seen. They have worked so dilligently and so hard day in and they out, and they keep working with tooth and nail. So they did it! They convince me that I needed to go back to supoort Barak Obama.
The esquizofrenic rythm their campaing is following is just plain dangerous. Theirs have gone from political rally to lynching mob rally; and that’s not a time in history we need to re-live. The selection of the Governor as his running mate was the first of a loooong list of disasters that are plagging their campaign. The lady think that because she can see Russia from her backyard she’s an expert in international relations. If so, then I’m a Scholar in IR, because my neighbors at the left are from India, my neighbors at the right are from Russia and accross the street there is two Turkish families. Oh, I should not fail to mention that at the end of the street lives a Chinese couple. That should count, right?
Someone needs to tell them that been the governor of a state is to be a VP what been a kindergarden teacher is to be a University professor. Not the same thing at all. Also, the governor is just a plain insult to the female gender. Her retrograd and retardatarian ideas are not in sinc with what this country needs. That she’s a very religious person do not bother me; I’m very religious myself. What scares the Shahada out of me is her religious believe in “you’re going directly to hell if you do not believe as I believe”. Her faith stressess the we were created by God with “free will”.. Then who she thinks she is that she’s not going to respect and institution created by The Lord?
To finish my rant. There has been a bing deal made on her interview with Kathie Couric, and deservingly so. But there was a little fraction of that interview that was extremely distresing to me. It was when she was not able to mention even one newspaper that she frequently reads. Why was it distresing? the reasons are twofold. One, she couldn’t remember even one newspaper in Alaska. Second, and the worst, this lady has a degree in journalism!!!
One more thing I forgot to say. Mr. McCain and his supporters make a big deal of his military service to the country and that’s good. Soldiers, ALL SOLDIERS, need to be recognized when the sacrifice “life or limb” for our country. A big deal is also made of the leadership he learned with his military education. Well, I got some news for you. Did you know that he graduated in the 694 place in is class? What is this bad? Because that class graduated 699 cadets. Hooray for leadership!