McCain has a strategy????
Posted on 02/20/2008 10:17:53 AM PST by jdm
The Washington Post reports that John McCain's unexpected rise from the politically dead has created a big problem for the Democrats. They saw an opportunity to win the presidency by turning the interior West into a blue zone, using the Hispanic vote to overwhelm the GOP in one of its traditional strongholds. McCain has thrown a wrench into those plans, and Barack Obama may also present a problem:
For Democrats, 2008 was supposed to be the year of the Mountain West, when three years of relentless Republican attacks on undocumented immigrants would fuel a backlash among Hispanics that would change the playing field in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, and perhaps alter the landscape of presidential politics for a generation.
But the emergence of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as the likely standard-bearer for the GOP may have scrambled the equation, cooling a potential political revolt among Hispanics and sending Democrats in search of a new playbook. ...
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whose Tucson district is heavily Hispanic, said Democrats should change their tack toward Latinos and emphasize the economy, education and health care before even raising the immigration issue. Perhaps Democrats seeking the Latino vote would be best served challenging McCain on the Iraq war, suggested Guillermo Nicacio, Arizona state coordinator for Mi Familia Vota, an effort to encourage Latinos to apply for citizenship, register and vote.
Even as McCain moves to heal intraparty wounds on the immigration issue, Democratic community organizers in the West say his past battles with other Republicans over a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants left an imprint on the Latino community that will not quickly fade.
The Democrats thought they had the GOP on the ropes. They selected Denver for their convention, much as the GOP chose St Paul, to attempt to turn a battleground state into a solid backer for their ticket. They moved up the Nevada caucus to make the region more important to the nominating process. All of this effort and attention will likely come to naught as the Republicans nominate the candidate that most appeals to that constituency, and the Democrats nominate the one who appeals least.
That's not to say that McCain will win the Latino vote. He doesn't have to win it as much as he needs to keep Obama's margin small. Given his continued outreach to the Hispanic community at the expense of his standing within his party, that appears to be a realistic goal. George Bush won the 2004 election with a Hispanic vote somewhere in the mid-30s. If McCain can get within 5 points of Obama, he can easily beat him throughout the Southwest.
Nevertheless, both parties have plenty of time to re-strategize for November. At the moment, though, the interior West looks a lot less friendly for Democrats than they imagined.
“The Washington Post reports that John McCain’s unexpected rise from the politically dead has created a big problem for the Democrats.”
That makes NO sense. No matter who wins in November there will be a Democrat in the WH.
Given their stated mission, you'd think they could have an English name.
Democratic community organizers in the West say his past battles with other Republicans over a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants left an imprint on the Latino community that will not quickly fade.
Yeah. It left an imprint on REAL Americans as well.
The Demon-rats are not taking Colorado. Any movement they make this year will be cancelled out in 2010...
He won't. But as president he'll try to make citizens of tens of millions of additional Latinos so that no future Republican can ever be elected.
The Latino vote is not megalithic. Many are social conservatives who now find themselves under assault by gangs originating south of the border.
Law and order always works. No one wants to be a victim, especially of one’s own ethnic group.
I then went the other route and left the wildest, most uncontrollable kid in charge. When I came back...the classroom was quiet, all the kids were working on their assignments and no list. McCain will be kind of like leaving the bully in charge. It might be a stretch, but maybe not. I am definitely not a McCain fan, but trying to find a redeeming quality. This is the best I can do.......sigh
Excellent news, McLame is far better than the Marxist alternatives.
If the silver lining in the shamnesty debacle is that we don’t turn tail and run in the WOT, retain our tax breaks, and get a few goood SC judges out of it, that is much more acceptable than OsamaObama and Hitlery.
This is Primary Season. at the end of the day, Sen. Obama is a political neophyte, who will be crushed by Reality.
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Remember Dukakis - led nationally by 18 points.
Routed in the end.
Bump for moroe comments.
At what price to the loss of the GOP base who will just stay home if he continues his pandering? Such a strategy will hurt other Reps running on down the ticket.
I’m with you. I see McCain’s um, temperment, as a bit of a plus....
But there’s a dark lining around your silver lining. If McCain succeeds in getting amnesty for millions of illegals, and if they import all their relatives via chain migration, he’ll be the last Republican president we ever have. So a four year reprieve won’t help much.
The truth is, the Republicans lost the demographic battle for the United States in 1965 when they backed Kennedy’s immigration debacle. Want to see what Texas will look like politically in 2016? Look at California today.
What happened in 06?
Satin, how I wish these worthless campaign hacks would heed your words....
Not amongst Black voters. They're more than happy to keep voting for pro-criminal rodents. :-\
If not now, then by the end of this generation, no national election will be won without appealing to the tens of millions of new citizens (including tens of millions of grown-up anchor babies, tens of millions of those deriving citizenship from amnesty, and tens of millions of American-borns who are shamed into solidarity with "their people" by the MSM, religious-leftist leaders, and their own internally-derived identity politics).
And that means "free" healthcare, no SS reform, more welfare, more third-world aid (especially to politically expedient parts of the world down south), adherence to international climate-change treaties (see third-world aid), broader internationalism, more free faux crony-trade agreements, etc.
The GOP *might* be able to keep a semblance of fidelity on the issues of abortion, gay marriage, and war, while the rest will be traded for votes. Very sad.
If we had only allowed dimocrats to vote in the Republican primaries, McCain would still be our man.
Illegal aliens voting, which is against the law. If we don’t enforce our own laws, we have only ourselves to blame.
Lots of so-called Hispanics have been here literally for centuries.
Now we’re hearing the same story about Hispanics. If we just agree to open the borders and let millions of them come in, they’ll vote Republican. If we agree to provide welfare benefits for illegal aliens, they’ll vote Republican when they become citizens later. Hispanics are Catholics and pro-life so they’re “natural Republicans”.
I’ve seen nothing to indicate that Hispanics are going to be any different than blacks. We’ll get some of their votes, sure, and no doubt more than we get among blacks, but we’ll never get a majority.
The “bully” analogy is apt.
The only thing I hope for if this guy wins in November is that his volatility level comes back to the normal range because he would be where he always wanted to be. In other words, it may be easier to tolerate roadblocks and setbacks if you’re President than if you’re not.
Exactly!
McCain, Hitlery and the Obomination are tripping over each other to appeal to the ILLEGALS and legal Hispanic vote. The rest of us that pay for all this can go to hell.
The problem with the GOP is that much of their gains in the hispanic vote came along because of the agreement on family values. However, the GOP never followed up on their 2004 promises of doing things like protecting marraiges. Still, McCain does well with them becuase of his shamnesty bill, even though its bad policy.
Maybe a Democrat by label, but Hillary and Obama aren't Democrats...they're Marxist/Socialists. Obama, especially, is a Socialist of the first order. He's willing to steal money and give it away to the lazy-butts of the country, faster then we working hamsters could possibly make it. The tax increases will doom the country. Hillary is right up there with him.
McCain, will care for the troops, and that is a HUGE something and he has a fairly decent economic policy. Conservatives can work with him.We cannot afford--either ideologically or monetarily---to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and allow Obama to win the election.
Dukakis was a white guy Obama is not.
I so hope you are right. What's scarey is that in the classrrom, the bully had me to directly answer to...Who will McCain "feel the need" to answer to.
LOL!!! I'm with you on that one. But then again, who knows what the bully did to the kids in the classroom while I was away?
I love it when a RAT plan falls apart.
Here's hoping if he keeps that temper of his that he can get a handle on it and use it for some good!
Hi SD. - They are going to change the law to make the illegal, legal.
Same result.
This is hell.
Don't be so pessimistic. The shamnesty bill was defeated last summer despite a President who supported it, and despite efforts to push it through in secret by a Congress that supported it. We the People got wind of their game, melted the phone lines and won. I don't see any difference if McCain is President than if Bush is on this issue.
The key will be the Congress - prevent a big Dem win and you'll preserve those votes (esp. the reluctant ones) that saved us last summer. Don't show up to the polls because you hate McCain, and you'll not only get a worse President (think WOT, socialized medicine and taxes, at a minimum), but you'll get a heavily Dem Congress that will do whatever the shebeast or empty suit ask of them.
How, exactly, does that help Obama? Most of the country is white, and there are more Hispanics than blacks (and Hispanics tend - TEND - not to be terribly kindly disposed toward blacks, at least according to my admittedly small and unscientific sample of life experiences).
Obama is also of Muslim extraction, and my understanding is that his father's side of the family also has a lot of Arab blood.
Again, how does this help him? At least Dukaka had leadership experience as a governor - where has Obama had to exercise any sole decision-making authority, and be accountable for failures?
I don't see Obama doing so well nationally, not when the country gets a load of his lack of experience and his lack of substantive policies. Charisma will only get you so far, and I think McCain at least smart and aggressive enough to call Obama on these things.
“The Latino vote is not megalithic. “
A pretty important reality. Blacks proved to be monolithic, with Bush running on compassionate conservatism never garnering anywhere near even 20% of that vote. He did win 30% of the Hispanic vote, which is growing proportionally as more Hispanic children who are US citizens reach voting age, register and vote.
McCain can conceivably win more Hispanic votes than Bush won. It is the fastest growing demographic in the US electorate so this can matter a great deal.
Obama is hyper liberal. There is, of course, no such thing as a liberal. Just as there is no such thing as a conservative. There are only people more liberal or more conservative than others. Obama’s appeal to Hispanics who are more conservative (less liberal) than the Move On base that defines Obama’s policy array will be limited. McCain can very probably peel off a substantial number of those.
McCain strategy is to win from the middle. The middle does indeed decide all elections. Obama is so very far to the left that the Democrats may wake up in September and discover that they have nominated an unelectably extreme candidate and are facing a centrist.
With the backing of conservative candidates who stood no chance and the backing of Obama to take out the weaker Clintons conservatives seem hellbent on losing and losing big in 2008.
Well, first of all he isn’t going to get elected president so the issue of a president McCain is just fantasy.
Second, I saw him about 12 years ago in the airport in Phoenix. He really is a runt. Very small. Only person I can see him punching would be a prepubescent female – and she’d probably turn around and slap him silly. A normal grown human – particularly a grown MALE – would tear through him like wet tissue paper. He isn’t punching anyone.
Even Bob Dole won Colorado.
Nope. Running against McCain who knows little about economics and wants an Army in Iraq for 100 years, is their dream come true.
Maybe true in the Dem Party, but I don't think that applies on the other side. Right now Obama is a massive fad among the libs - because he's more of a Leftie than even HRC, and because he's can make a good speech. HRC is shrill, which doensn't help her much.
But Obama is, as they say here in TX, "all hat and no cattle." There's no there, there. This will be exposed soon enough, if not by HRC than by McCain. McCain may be a lot of things negative (and, believe me, I can name a bunch), but he's not one who likes losing and not one to go down without a fight.
Anyhow, the guilt-ridden whites are highly concentrated in and around the cities in blue America. Those places would vote for Adolf Hitler if he had a "D" after his name, so there's no gain to their side if Obama is very popular vs. HRC or any other Dem.
Napoleon was also a runt, and no one did too well by underestimating him. Maybe he didn't punch anyone out, but he didn't need to with the (then-magnificent) French military at his command.
Let's keep the ad hominem attacks to a minimum, please. I don't like the guy, either, but I dislike him and his policies a whole lot less than the 2 Bolsheviks on the other side.
“McCain, will care for the troops,”
What exactly is it that you think the Democrat half of the one-party is going to do to the troops? Other than bring them home where no one is shooting at them?
“and he has a fairly decent economic policy.”
By McAmnestys’ own admission, he knows nothing abou the economy. Hell, he’s ENDORSED Clinton so that goes to his judgement as well.
What do we have? A crusty old white guy who isn’t black. We are going to get creamed if Obama is the nominee. Not only for president but downticket too.
“Obama, especially, is a Socialist of the first order. He’s willing to steal money and give it away to the lazy-butts of the country, faster then we working hamsters could possibly make it.”
As opposed to McAmnesty who wants to give your hard earned dollars to non-citizens.
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“...For forty years...we’re told that blacks are fed up with crime in their neighborhoods, gangs, and so forth. They still vote Democrat...Now we’re hearing the same story about Hispanics...I’ve seen nothing to indicate that Hispanics are going to be any different than blacks...we’ll never get a majority.”
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Agreed. But we can still get enough conservative votes from both groups to win in November.
They are all pro-illegal—from McCain to Obama, what would be accomplished by voting third party, or getting one of those two Democrat/Socialists into office? As I said before, at least McCain is pro-military.
Actually they are ALL just blabbering, they can say all they want about this or that and what “they” will do, but it will be Congress that says yes or no.
Re#34 Yep. I am comforted by the fact that he did not blow during the primaries. Must be the right mix of meds. ;^)
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