Hernando Today
Email
Print
McCain Needs To Man Up
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 12, 2008
Updated: 10/12/2008 10:26 am
When Sarah Palin heard that running mate Sen. John McCain planned to abandon Michigan, she argued to no one in particular that the Republicans should stay active in the state and fight it out with Sen. Barack Obama.
Gov. Palin's approach is correct. After all, the Republicans are campaigning for the White House on a platform to create more jobs and to maintain lower taxes. Both issues should appeal to Michigan's auto workers whose jobs are increasingly threatened by Asian competition and weak domestic demand.
The dual message should be easy to communicate. And the last thing McCain wants to be known as is a "cut-and-run" kind of guy.
McCain could be surprised by how rapidly the tables could turn in his favor. He needs that Michigan foothold to capitalize on any Obama mistake or misspeak. McCain, for example, has been panned in the liberal media for asserting, while Wall Street might be burning,the American economy is fundamentally strong.
Thathas to be elaborated on; U.S. unemployment and inflation rates may be too high for our tastes, but they are low enough that many other First-World countries would gladly suffer our stingy levels.
We should also emphasize to voters that America's credit ratings are strong — an impressively AAA strong. Not many other countries or businesses can make that boast. We still have no problems borrowing as the world leader.
Is McCain already throwing in the towel to Obama? The junior senator from Illinois is, after all, the more charismatic figure and the more gifted orator of the two presidential candidates. Remember, Barry Goldwater and Adlai Stevenson were, too, and they lost big time.
McCain should not to be overwhelmed by, or resigned to, the dire state of the national economy, or any other Bush legacy. We are starting over, not extending the Bush administration into a third term.
By equating patriotism with higher taxes, the Obama-Biden ticket can have handed McCain a free ticket to "go." I never saw the Democrat who didn't think that higher taxes would cure any political malady.
If McCain withdraws from Michigan with his tail between his legs, it's apt to have a negative impact on voters in other states. And it would certainly invigorate Obama's campaign.
Warning signals from swing-state Florida actually should worry McCain more than his standings in Michigan. McCain needs Florida's 27 electoral votes. But recent polls indicate that, while McCain is slipping, Obama is taking a commanding lead of from four to eight points in the Sunshine State.
This is a stunning development in a state where at least a third (including offspring) of its 18 million population has turned its back on a random dictatorship and where McCain's fighting brand of patriotism should prevail.
McCain can, instead, demonstrate that he is a man of action, not just of bipartisanship, and a worthy pit bull without lipstick. The Republican candidate has been too much of a gentleman, thus far. He's in politics, for crying out loud.
Obama's naivete on foreign policy questions is certainly fair game. Florida political refugees or their sons and daughters should be especially receptive to any reminder that Obama has said he would talk to the likes of Castro, Ahmadinejad or Chavez — without any preconditions.
More can be done with Obama's elitist comments on "bitter" people who would prefer their "guns and religion." Floridians love their guns; the state is literally crawling with hunters.
Count the overwhelming number of churches in Hernando County alone. Excursions through other parts of the state confirm my observation that Florida is, indeed, a powerful Bible Belter.
The twin issues of the company Obama keeps or who his mentor might have been — they're ripe for any pit bull, with or without lipstick, to question the Democratic candidate's ability to judge character.
How can anyone, even Obama, not have been influenced by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as his pastor for 20 years? It isn't just Wright's anti-American rants that scare; it's his unchallenged assertions, for example, that the U.S. invented the AIDS virus as a form of international genocide, or that we infected Tuskegee airmen with syphilis.
What about Obama's early consort with confessed domestic terrorist Bill Ayers? Or his allegedly taking cash favors from a now-convicted slum lord? Or his backing from Chicago's infamous political machine of cemetery headstone voters?
Looks like McCain and Palin have lots of campaign fodder to go on, and a whole month — an eternity in politics — to make their case.
A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.
HERBERT
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
