Thread: The Palin debate

Four weeks to election day and McCain is behind 6 pts. What can he do to turn things around? One article quoted a McCain campaign person that it was time to haul out the "Swift Boat"-style stuff. I can't believe a campaign staffer would say something so dumb, but in any case that's what's happening. Palin's Florida speeches in the last few days are hitting on Obama's connection with ex-Weatherman "sabateur" Ayers. She doesn't offer any evidence that Obama is a closet Ayers follower. But neither is Obama's defense that he was only 8 years old when Ayers was in his heyday proves a valid counterargument. Plenty of people follow Karl Marx today, and he's been long dead. Obama for his part has hauled out the Keating 5 scandal as a counterattack. Last anyone heard, Keating was not a bomber, but who's paying attention and McCain got no favors done for Keating other than to get him a meeting with government regulators, which he owns up to and regrets.

IMHO, personal attacks won't work this time around without a smoking gun. Obama's supporters expect it. Who is left to convince? Independents. Well, I've been out canvassing for the GOP and so far I have run into only one independent who is worried about Obama's personal past, his middle name.

All the other independents I've polled are worried about the economy, Iraq, health care immigration, and electing a trustworthy government, in that order. They're trying to figureout which candidate will best deal with those issues. So, a predictable end-game of dredging up dirt on the frontrunner won't answer the mail.

It seems to me that now is the time for McCain and his supporters to hit the experience issue hard, and at the same time get logical about the real effect of Obama's positions. For example on Iraq, Obama's withdrawal plan is really no different than McCain's. He says he plans to withdraw most of the troops in 16 months but also says he will listen to the advice of the commanders on the ground before acting. Isn't that more or less what McCain is saying? All Obama's timeline does is mislead his supporters into thinking he'll do things differently. It's not realistic for a president concerned about US interests to state in advance exactly what he'll do despite events that have yet to occur.

That's just one issue. National Health care, taxes, trust...follow the same pattern of exposing Obama's pie-in-the-sky positions. At the same time, come back to the experience issue... It takes experience to creat real change.

Now, mind you, this is a campaign strategy concept, not me starting an issues debate on the thread.

It seems to me that now is the time for McCain and his supporters to hit the experience issue hard, and at the same time get logical about the real effect of Obama's positions. For example on Iraq, Obama's withdrawal plan is really no different than McCain's. He says he plans to withdraw most of the troops in 16 months but also says he will listen to the advice of the commanders on the ground before acting. Isn't that more or less what McCain is saying? All Obama's timeline does is mislead his supporters into thinking he'll do things differently. It's not realistic for a president concerned about US interests to state in advance exactly what he'll do despite events that have yet to occur.

That's just one issue. National Health care, taxes, trust...follow the same pattern of exposing Obama's pie-in-the-sky positions. At the same time, come back to the experience issue... It takes experience to creat real change.

The experience issue is undermined by Palin being on the ticket. The McCain-Palin ticket has a muddled message, first it wanted experience then it wanted change, now it wants what change with experience?

McCain is desperate, they will be going negative now, that's why the Ayers "issue" is coming up. Right now though voters don't want to hear about it, they are pretty tired of re-fighting the '60s and '70s, heck I wasn't even around then. Obama has handled it pretty well so this gambit could backfire for McCain. Tomorrow though is the townhall debate, so maybe McCain can get some traction...but he is running out of time.