Dick Morris on how McCain can win
Filed under: 2008 elections, Barack Obama, Democratic party, Dick Morris, Guest Post, John McCain, Politics, Republican Party, Republicans — Fausta on May 18, 2008 @ 3:43 pm CEST
Dick Morris, in today’s Washington Post: Obama Has the Upper Hand. But McCain Can Still Take Him.
To sum it up: A candidate who cannot get elected is being nominated by a party that cannot be defeated, while a candidate who is eminently electable is running as the nominee of a party doomed to defeat.In this environment, McCain can win by running to the center.
His base will be there for him; indeed, it will turn out in massive numbers. Wright has become the honorary chairman of McCain’s get-out-the-vote efforts. It would be nice to think that race isn’t a factor in American politics anymore, but it is. The growing fear of Obama, who remains something of an unknown, will drag every last white Republican male off the golf course to vote for McCain, and he will need no further laying-on of hands from either evangelical Christians or fiscal conservatives.
So McCain doesn’t have to spend a lot of time wooing his base. What he does need to do is reduce the size of the synapse over which independents and fearful Democrats need to pass in order to back his candidacy. If the synapse is wide, they will stay with Obama. But if they perceive McCain as an acceptable alternative, there is every chance that they will cross over to back him in November.
Who am I to disagree with Dick Morris, but the way I see it, McCain has an even bigger problem: many Republicans are assuming that McCain will win, and they are doing next to nothing to help him win, to get out the vote or even donating.
I’ve been discussing this with a friend who has been watching and participating in American politics for decades. Her appraisal is very somber when it comes to the cult of Obama and the upcoming Obamatopia (TM).
She recognizes that McCain is against a mighty juggernaut (the hugely-funded Democrat party machinery, of course), but also against a cult-like following “that victimizes itself with politics of hatred”, in which propaganda “worms/ingratiates/infiltrates and then stays like a stubborn virulent disease with no fact overrides” (her words). At the same time, McCain is not stirring the Republicans.
Dick Morris says that McCain can win by moving to the center.
The question is, can McCain mobilize the country to effectively win over what has turned into an article of faith?
Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog
1 Pug
May 19, 2008 @ 2:58 am CESTSo anyone who supports Obama is a cultist and a hater? Is that supposed to be an argument of some kind? Sorry, but it sounds like name-calling and not much more.
2 Jason
May 19, 2008 @ 3:56 pm CESTWhen name-calling is all they have got, it’s all they can do. Take it as a positive sign that most anti-Obamans are still too intellectually lazy come up with anything more effective than just repeating the same 5th-grade level junk that they have been repeating for months.
And I suppose I shouldn’t mention Dick Morris and toe-sucking. Whoops. I just did.
3 The Rude Dog
May 19, 2008 @ 7:39 pm CESTadmin: personal attacks, blatantly racist misinformation, and trackback spam all in one! nice try.
4 kritter
May 19, 2008 @ 8:28 pm CESTAnd of course Dick Morris was amazingly successful as a presidential advisor—leading Clinton into the lion’s den with his sage advice. Sarcasm off.
The guy is a goofball, whose employment by Fox was a direct result of his eagerness to take his vendetta against the Clintons on the air. Two years ago he thought Condi Rice could defeat Hillary.
5 Tully
May 20, 2008 @ 12:30 am CESTAnd I suppose I shouldn’t mention Dick Morris and toe-sucking. Whoops. I just did.
Well, not if you want to live up to your own standards. Though personally I think the initial response to any Dick Morris column should be, "Woof! Woof woof!" It can’t be examined for actual content after you get the really fun cheap shot out of the way.
6 The Rude Dog
May 21, 2008 @ 12:34 am CESTAdmin, you cannot refute the comments you deleted. The only personal attack is you calling me a racist. Thanks for demonstrating the oonly tactic of the Obama campaign.