6 To 1 voters view McCain as the negative candidate

To: Campaign Leadership

From: Rick Davis

Subject: McCain Message

Date: 3/11/2008

John McCain is now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. It is critical, as we prepare to face off with whomever the Democrats select as their nominee, that we all follow John's lead and run a respectful campaign focused on the issues and values that are important to the American people.

Throughout the primary election we saw John McCain reject the type of politics that degrade our civics, and this will not change as he prepares to run head-to-head against the Democratic nominee.

John McCain will continue to run on his principles and will focus on the future of our country. The stakes could not be higher in this election, and John will contrast his vision for America with that of Senators Clinton and Obama. He will draw sharp contrasts: victory versus surrender to Islamic extremism; lower taxes and spending versus more big government; free-market solutions to health care versus costly mandates; and the appointment of strict constructionist judges versus those who legislate from the bench.

Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents distract from the big differences between John McCain's vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats'. This campaign is about John McCain: his vision, leadership, experience, courage, service to his country and ability to lead as commander in chief from day one.

Throughout his life John McCain has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues. We expect that all supporters, surrogates and staff will hold themselves to similarly high standards when they are representing the campaign. To help guide you, please find talking points below.

This is an exciting time for our country and our Party. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. We face a great challenge this November: John is ready, and with your continued support I am confident we will succeed.

Thank you.



http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/03/mccain_memo_respectful_campaig.html

 

Is there any surprise here?

To the person who's idea this poll was...

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

 

McCain is really coming off as a nagger with these negative campaigns.

It doesn't suit him, either, he's letting his campaign people run the campaign for him. If he wants a chance to win, he needs to voice his own virtues, not base his campaign against smearing his competition.

 

Telling the truth about a liberal is a negative attack.

 

Telling the truth about what "conservative" leadership has done to this country is the truth.

Conservatives can't handle the truth.

 

Not really. But lying and saying that his entire energy plan is to fill up your tires, or acting like being popular in Europe is a bad thing, or lying about his plan for taxes, or claiming that he puts ambition over love of country, are all things that are negative, and have absolutely nothing to do with the truth.

 

Being negative works.

 

Actually, I think it's really sad that only 29% think McCain is running a negative campaign.

 

You're right. That's why the Democrats need to start going after him. He's basically writing the ads for them the last couple days.

 

whoops, yeah need to read the numbers... not encouraging.

 

No, 3 out of 10.

 

I think it is a real issue... whether or not Obama is ready to lead the nation... if that's deemed a "negative" then perhaps the DNC should reconsider their nominee.


It's only a negative because it's also true. Sometimes the truth is negative.


I understand that the Utopians of the left feel that there can be no negative about their guy.



What some on this board don't realize is that, as conservatives, we already understand our guy is not perfect -We already know that McCain has flaws, perhaps great flaws in some areas...

We just would like to point out that we're not the alone in the arena of candidates with flaws.



Not being "as prepared" to lead a nation is a HUGE flaw...

But that is strictly a negative if your personal choice is the person in question.

To some, it would only make sense then to not choose the unprepared to be the nominee... to others, reality eludes them, and then they become upset or even combative when the truth is pointed out.


There are, were, some great presidential candidates in the GOP that were not yet ready...

Pretty sure we just handled it "in house."

The DNC will have to face the consequence of not selecting the correct nominee.



Again.

 

What truthful attacks have there been to show that Obama is not ready?

The only one that I've seen is that he hasn't given the surge full credit for being successful in Iraq.

That attack isn't anything that has caused people to accuse McCain of being negative.

McCain claiming that Obama would choose to loose a war in order to win an election, is both negative and groundless. Mocking the tire inflation answer of Obama's is both negative and ignorant.

It could be that I've missed the ads that people are claiming happen to be negative but also truthfully point to the idea that Obama is not ready to lead the nation.

It's even more ridiculous considering on foreign policy and economics Obama has been more accurate and sound than McCain.

 

Age.

Number of years of public service.

Voting records in his short lived time in congress.

His rhetoric.

Lack of real foreign policy experience.

Brought up the race card, himself.

Experience.

Experience.

Experience.


Look, I could have swallowed the idea of Obama as a VP this go 'round.



Michael Steele 2012.


(by the way... Steele is not yet qualified either)

 

Age - goes both ways, but I haven't seen the McCain ad saying Obama is too young.

Lack of experience also goes two ways. Obama hasn't been around as long as McCain, and yet knows more about the middle east, Muslim extremist groups, How many American troops we actually have in Iraq, where Al-Qaeda is, has been against Iraq from the beginning, has been way out in front on beefing up troop levels in Afghanistan, going after terrorists in PAkistan etc.

McCain's experience has put him on the wrong side of all those issues.

Obama didn't bring up the race card himself. Others had attacked both he and his wife on race prior to his statement about who was on money and how he looked different.

But actually all of that is a little bit of a distraction.

Which McCain ads have focused on that and been called unfairly negative?

I think at least some of those things are legitimate issues to make negative attacks against opponents.

 

He's already said if he picked Lieberman he'd only serve one term... I really think if Steele is a VP or a cabinet man, McCain would be pushed by the GOP to bow out.


I think McCain's main objective is to "finish" the main conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan... then hand it off to a younger POTUS.

This is my gut feeling, not anything I've read or seen (although they mentioned the "if Lieberman" scenario on abc news the other night).

 

for what it's worth...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/21/politics/politico/main4369062.shtml

John McCain stated unequivocally in an interview with Politico Wednesday that he would not pledge to serve only a single four-year term, rejecting a suggestion that some allies believe would allay questions about his age and underscore his non-partisan message of putting country first.

“No,” McCain said flatly, “I’m not considering it.”

 

Well then see... it's the media machine at work again. Abc news just reported that the other way around like a day ago.

Oh well. I guess he's feeling his oats after the recent 12-14% polling swing.