The reason for the Dem overconfidence is the enthusiasm gap, which isn't really reflected in polls. Polls have a simple yes/no for if you're a likely voter. What they don't grasp is how likely a voter people are. In all the primaries so far (except FL/MI), Dem voting has outnumbered GOP voting by fairly large margins. In SC, for example, Obama got more votes than McCain and Huckabee combined and I believe Hillary got more votes than McCain. In general, the 2nd place Dem candidate has been getting more votes than the 1st place GOP candidate in many of the primaries. The GOP is going to have to figure out a way to excite their voters, and turn them from likely voters to very likely voters. So the polls might show it being close, but voting patterns so far suggest the opposite. I think if the general election were today, it would be a blowout - despite what the polls say. That likely will change as more people start following the race and that enthusiasm gap narrows, but the GOP has a lot of work to do right now.
And as a Republican grassroots worker, I don't know how to reach the people who are excited about McCain. McCain has a lot of moderate, independent, and even populist liberal appeal, but other than the moderates who identify themselves as Republicans, those aren't who we generally target in get out the vote efforts and drumming up support. It may be easier in more Republican areas, but it's difficult in my county and my precinct.
Of course, no experience of his indicates that he is either competent or qualified for the most powerful job on earth. But if you are an Obama supporter -- it apparently doesn't take much to sell you... Sure I'll sign that contract! Don't even need to read it!
Nobody knows that yet. Certainly not. Barack Obama's resume is paper-thin, as far as Presidential candidates go. He's a charismatic individual who people want to believe in. If he weren't, the voters would have rejected him for someone more experienced. His major accomplishments so far legislatively have been mostly administrative, non-partisan (distinct from bipartisan) bills in the Illinois legislature, and winning a virtually unopposed Senate race. I'm not saying that any of that's a bad reason to vote for him. "Outsiders" in government can be really beneficial. If Obama didn't constantly vocalize a naive, civics-book-level faith in government, I would have some hope that being a relative outsider that he might be able to reform some things.
The Obama-Coburn bill was bi-partisan and more than just administrative. Especially given how the transparency in funding is shining a light on McCain's ties to lobbyists.
of course you voted for bush who had achieved nothing in life but buying the rangers with granddaddy and daddy money and selling at a profit.
So is Bush your standard of quality now in selecting a President? Interesting, given your past opinions of him. Last I checked, the choice was between McCain and Obama (likely). So I suppose you are so satisfied with the Bush Administration that you would like to put in place a new President with an even lighter resume. Nice. Got it!
And it's a great bill that Senator Coburn had been pushing for some time and needed Obama's help (and some bloggers who outed the committee members who were blocking it) to pass. But that's one bullet point on a political resume.
no, what i'm talking about is your glaring hypocricy. the subject is you. i'm tired of defending obama for now, he won the primary already. its just funny to see you squirming. so since you want to challenge me on bush, why don't you defend some of mccain's positions. here you are posting about the democratic convention LOL. but i can't defend my candidate. and as far as my standard, no we all know obama is more intellegent than your president, more knowlegable about world affairs. your president couldn't even name world leaders in his first campaign, so know our standards are much higher, again the subject is your hypocricy.
Riiiiight, since Obama traveled to Pakistan when he was in college and studied at a Muslim school in Indonesia, he is the true expert on foreign policy. Do you recall the debate in Ohio when Obama was unable to name the new Russian President? That invalidates your argument... in grand fashion. Obama's foreign policy gaffes on the campaign trail have been the stuff of legend -- boycotting China, and invading Pakistan have already spooked world leaders... some 'uniter', lol... and last I checked, Obama does not have the necessary delegates to secure the nomination. Man, none of your points were true, pgabs. A big fat zero. Nice work!
like not supporting a war that is a mess. like calling for air strikes in pakistan which actually were followed through on. the only person harping on the indonesia school is you. no one mentioned it as far as experience but you in this thread. funny, you mention muslim school, blah blah blah, jeremiah wright blah blah blah, bitter blah blah blah, keep it up these tatics are obviously working. as i remember hillary actually attempted to answer this question at least he knows the difference between shia and sunni, oh that's right we don't actually talk about your candidate you're right, he won't be the nominee LOL
Especially uncreative and hackneyed - even your 2-3 person fanclub will not find this one funny. Are you tired this AM? Are things OK at home?
McCain ain't a conservative Democrat. He's a moderate(and I use that term generously) Republican. Yes, the country is mostly moderate(leaning towards conservative on many issues). The problem is the GOP ran on a conservative agenda back in 1994, swept their way into power, and then squandered it starting in the late 90's up until 2006. I agree that the Democratic controlled Congress has been a disaster so far. And it offends me that the media focuses all their attention on a lame duck like Bush being responsible for everything wrong in this country when the House and Senate have done virtually nothing in the last year and a half since the Dems took over. Unless of course you consider holding hearings where Maxine Waters threatens to socialize the oil industry as doing something about gas prices. But conservative voters are not about to reward the GOP just because the Democrats suck at governing. Where is the leadership in the Republican Party? What is their plan for the war in Iraq, the war on terror, fixing the economy, achieving energy independence, stopping illegal immigration, etc.? Has anyone stepped up to the plate?
About 1 1/2 yrs is not a "couple" of years. I can appreciate how you would want to try to tie the Dems into the mess created by conservatives in complete control of the government, Presidency, S. Ct. and Congress. Again, 80% think your crowd has led the country in the wrong direction.
What in my post drives you to this conclusion? We have a number of posters here who like to point out every little thing about Obama, but the issues surrounding McCain are substantial if underrepresented in this forum. For instance, there is no thread on Gramm's role in crafting McCain's economic program. I was merely pointing out that if you're playing out scenarios where the Dems could face a post-convention problem, it's not that much of a stretch to see something similar on the GOP side. Nothing in my post said anything about Obama, much less him having this thing sewn up. Now, for the record, I think he will win, but I know it will not be easy. There are a bunch of challenges facing Obama as the first minority candidate. Still, I suspect most of the smart Repubs have already reached the conclusion that he is likely to win and so they're going into this Fall election not really concerned about building McCain up as much as they are with tearing Obama down. If they drive up his negatives enough, that makes it easier to oppose him when he's in office... and who knows, they might just get lucky and have McCain squeak in.
The Democrat-controlled Congress' approval rating is lower than Bush's. The American people know how poor of a job they have done.
As if the republican congress the previous 6 years prior 2006 had nothing to do with our country's decline. The democrats came in 2006, 2 years ago. I'm pretty sure this country started going down the ****ter before 2 years ago... The reason this congress might appear bad is because Bush is a lame duck president and nobody trusts him. Im sure if Obama wins the election, Congress will side with his policies and we will see a lot of bills and laws go into action. And the issue of comparing Bush and Obama to each other because both of them have thin resumes is dim-witted. EVERYONE could tell that Bush was a dumbass yet stupid rednecks and ignorant, stubborn rich continued to vote for him just because he was a republican.
