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McCain plans fiercer strategy against Obama
Mercury News ^

Posted on 10/03/2008 7:50:09 PM PDT by Chet 99

McCain plans fiercer strategy against Obama

Article Launched: 10/03/2008 07:11:11 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Republican's campaign also is eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of TV ads are coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2008; mccain; obama; palin
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To: LegalEagle61

I don’t give a tinkers damn if you like my opinion or not pal. Last time I looked it was still a free country. I don’t like the guy. I am forced to vote for the idiot to keep Obama out of the White House, but there is nothing that says I have to like the idiot or his politics. So stick it.


41 posted on 10/03/2008 8:01:24 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (Is McCain EVER going to go on the attack? Nope. That will never happen.)
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To: Chet 99

In the debates, look straight at the camera, dumbie!


42 posted on 10/03/2008 8:01:31 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Are you ready to pray for Teddy?)
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To: Chet 99

“”We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said,”

They better get a LOT tougher because the left has got the media to do it for free.

Inside Edition (CBS) just did a solid 10 minutes on Cindy McCain and her ‘addiction’ problem. We knew this would surface, except they did a more thorough job than any of us did in the primary. They even covered ‘McCain’s coverup’ etc.

Maybe this will bring out some passion in him.


43 posted on 10/03/2008 8:01:36 PM PDT by AuntB ( "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: Chet 99

About time. Who is running McCain’s campaign, a bunch of British fops?

I could do a better job in my sleep.


44 posted on 10/03/2008 8:01:36 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Chet 99

About f-ing time!


45 posted on 10/03/2008 8:01:45 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: Chet 99

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain’s team has decided that its emphasis on the senator’s biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Republican’s campaign also is eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.


Oh..so..more of the same?


46 posted on 10/03/2008 8:02:23 PM PDT by CommieCutter (Suck it up! Must stop Obama Bin Biden!)
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To: Crimson Elephant

I agree, 30 days is enough time to create a narrative and he has the money to do it, I think people should keep in mind the money is still in Obamao’s Corner, as well as all of the free media coverage he could want.

McCain also had the Economy turn to doggy poo at the worst time, he should put Obama’s hand on everyone’s wallet and in everyone’s sportsmen’s gun cabinet.


47 posted on 10/03/2008 8:02:31 PM PDT by padre35 (Sarah Palin is the one we've been waiting for..Rom 10.10..)
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To: Chet 99

It doesn’t matter what the media does. Obama made the mistake of taping himself reading his own book. Just run the interview of Obama saying he went to church twice a month, then saying he didn’t ever hear anything bad coming out of Wright’s mouth. Then run Obama himself saying he joined the church because of sermons like the one entitled “the world in need because of white man’s greed,” or words to that effect. Finish the spot with Wright shouting “God D America.” Run it over and over in Ohio, Pennsylvania and yes, Michigan, and McCain wins handily.


48 posted on 10/03/2008 8:02:49 PM PDT by nailspitter
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To: bluedad

yep, let’s hope so. The polls are discouraging.

Some electoral vote map sites show Obama with 264 solid electoral votes, of the 270 needed for election. Obama is ahead in battlegrounds such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. It’s hard to see McCain win this election if he doesn’t get some of this group of the big battlegrounds.

Or put another way, if Obama has 264 electoral votes in his back pocket now, McCain would have to capture every single remaining battleground state. And that’s a tall order.


49 posted on 10/03/2008 8:02:55 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: shield

Blaming the dems about this does seem good to me, however, most average people blame both dems and republicans hence the single digit approval ratings...they will just see it as finger pointing politicians. WE see it one way, regular folks who don’t really follow politics see it another, so the ads would look like the blame game. The RNC has an ad that looks good pertaining to this issue, lets see how that does.


50 posted on 10/03/2008 8:03:14 PM PDT by LegalEagle61 (If you are going to burn our flag, please make sure you are wearing it when you do!)
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To: Crimson Elephant
Assuming that will be the “October surprise” and nothing else happens, ramping up 2 weeks earlier might help

Shakey assumption, imo. This ratbastard is playing for keeps, and as a political radical he will stop at nothing. I still expect a major racial incident, spun as a "hate crime", and blamed on the GOP. The media will go berserk on McCain and he will flip out, grovelling and generally blowing whatever momentum he has at the time.

I hope I'm wrong.

51 posted on 10/03/2008 8:03:53 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (Nature, red in tooth and claw...)
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To: Chet 99

Why o why Senator McCain, must you always wait to the absolute last minute to pull things out. It’s like you get a thrill out of it or something while the rest of us sit here and worry about a Marxist becoming POTUS. Is that fair?

30 days from NH Primary looked grim - Still Won
Let Clinton-Obama take the spotlight, then did not really challenge Obama for over a month and let him build momentum on his foreign trip - But then released “Celebrity”
Left doubts on Social Conservatives - then had Saddleback
Left doubts on your running mate - then picked Palin
Supported a bogus bailout bill (but at least you criticized the Democrats this time instead of the House GOP for being partisan, so I guess that’s a baby step.)


52 posted on 10/03/2008 8:04:00 PM PDT by parksstp (McCain/Palin - Vote for the future to survive the present)
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To: Chet 99

“There’s no question that we have to change the subject here,” said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

I am not buying that this even came from the McCain camp.


53 posted on 10/03/2008 8:04:11 PM PDT by Gator113 ("Noli nothis permittere te terere.")
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To: bahblahbah
This is all a bunch of BS! They see that the base is getting pissed off, so they kill some more time by appeasing the sheeple... In the meantime, they just count the days until McCain helps ZeroHussein make history, and he can say he was a part of it... What a disgrace

Yesterday, a group of women urge him to attack...A minute later, he says that he's proud of Zero's accomplishments... WTH???????

54 posted on 10/03/2008 8:04:24 PM PDT by NYC Republican (Infuriate the MSM- vote for Palin/McCain)
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To: paudio
I dunno... do people have to be reminded again and again that he is a war hero?

Did you read the whole sentence?

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama.

In other words, the McCain folks know that the war hero thing ain't working.
55 posted on 10/03/2008 8:04:50 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: gov_bean_ counter

Last debate McCain played coy around the economy so not to spook the markets and be responsible for the bill’s defeat.

This time there is no reason not to come out with both guns blaring. That last debate should have been delayed but then Obama knew that McCain had too much integrity to really attack so he wanted the debate but now the bill is passed and McCain can unload naming names of who caused the crises.

You will see a different McCain just like the 3rd debate in 1984 showed Reagan on his game.


56 posted on 10/03/2008 8:05:12 PM PDT by PhiKapMom ( BOOMER SOONER -- VOTE FOR McCAIN/PALIN2008! LetsGetThisRight.com)
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To: Crimson Elephant
"Now it might be a case of allowing Obama too much time to recover that last few days."

There are enough skeletons in Obama's closet to expose a fresh one each and every day until the election. I don't think he'd be able to recover from any of them if Obama has to explain them all. In fact they can be used to make Obama trip himself up with his own lies he uses to explain them all away. Could be interesting and fun,
But I'll believe it when I see it.

57 posted on 10/03/2008 8:05:46 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Chet 99

I’d like to see an ad kinda like thise letter I sent to the editor of the local newspaper:

Isn’t it wonderful that the Communist Party of America has endorsed Barack Obama. Writing in The People’s Weekly World, the national Communist Party’s newspaper, Pepe Lozano the leader of the Chicago based Young Communist League called Obama, “the communist party’s best hope.” Browsing through the online pages of the The People’s Weekly World, one finds that the Communists are at least as enthusiastic about Barack as the Democrats are.

The endorsements just keep rolling in. In April, Hugo Chavez the America hating Venezuelan lunatic endorsed Obama. Also in April, the bomb-throwing terrorists at Hamas, who hate both America and Israel, endorsed Obama, saying, “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election.” Why? “He has a vision to change America.” Isn’t that special?

In May Fidel Castro endorsed Obama, calling him “the most advanced candidate.” In June North Korea’s Kim Jong il endorsed Barack through Chosun Sinbo, a Japanese Communist front group.

The same month, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, went on Al Jazeera and endorsed Obama as “a fellow Muslim.” We all known Obama is not really a Muslim, but surely good ol’ Muammar knows a good man when he sees one.

With endorsements like these, how could we go wrong in supporting Obama? After all, if Hugo, Fidel, Muammar, Hamas, the “Dear Leader,” and the Communist Party of America have anything in common, it is their desire for change in America.


58 posted on 10/03/2008 8:06:06 PM PDT by Lucas McCain (No relation to John McCain)
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To: AuntB

What he also needs to do is shore up the Get Out the Vote effort, he seems just blind to that and it is so crucial this time around.

Who is his liason to the Evangelical Community? How about the Conservative Catholic Community?

He also needs to get busy with his Economic Message.


59 posted on 10/03/2008 8:06:15 PM PDT by padre35 (Sarah Palin is the one we've been waiting for..Rom 10.10..)
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To: Chet 99

“Getting tougher” would include going public with what is known about the Obama-ACORN alliance, and the shifting of money and outright corruption that goes on in the widespread defrauding of mortgage banking and “no documentation” loan practices that poisoned so much of the mortgage paper held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I would have felt MUCH better about John McCain if he had come out AGAINST this “bail out” of the big credit institutions that bought into so much of this oversold debt, and are now whining about the looming “crisis” which does not affect just all that many people. Sure, a number of banks would have failed, or been taken over by stronger institutions, and the incentive to buy into these “poison” mortgage backed securities would have dropped to its realistic market value, but that would have been the way the free market has ALWAYS corrected itself. This way, the eventual “bail out” will probably be two or three times what this current price tag is, and the poison will not be purged for years.

Plus, there is strong incentive for the government to cover its debts by accelerating inflation to near hyperinflationary levels.

Nobody wants that. Jimmy Carter was doing that in 1978.

Just as Richard Nixon had been doing in the last days of Viet Nam.


60 posted on 10/03/2008 8:06:34 PM PDT by alloysteel (Just because you are a target, does not mean you have to be a victim.)
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