Thursday, February 21, 2008

How The Rightists Will Whump Obama

This is of course after the fact that he's essentially black in a still-racist country and that Big Media are rightist water carriers.
I’m sure some Democrat is going to interpret this as reverse psychology, or that I’m simply issuing misinformation from Dark Master Rove, etc.

So they’ll probably ignore this warning. But if I were a Democrat in Texas or Ohio (or Pennsylvania… or Vermont or Rhode Island, for that matter), I’d be a little hesitant before I drove a stake into the heart of the Hillary Clinton campaign in the coming weeks.

Barack Obama entered national politics with what was widely regarded as a dazzling speech at the Democratic convention in Boston. His expected opponent, Jack Ryan, imploded when his private divorce records were ordered released to the press. Alan Keyes barely amounted to a speedbump. Once elected, he was immediately featured on magazine covers, with Newsweek declaring that in a country of red states and blue states, he was "uniquely qualified to nudge the country toward the color purple."

Barack Obama is doing fantastic in the head-to-head matchups with McCain (or previously, any other Republican) because the average voter has probably heard little or nothing negative about him. Ironically, some of the most widely-trafficked criticisms are nonsense – that he’s secretly a Muslim, or was sworn in on a Koran. So far, there’s nothing to back up speculation from a Hillary surrogate that he dealt drugs in addition to using them.



Democrats may believe that because Obama is besting Hillary, he can withstand anything McCain will throw at him. But a lot of lines of attack that are available for John McCain that just wouldn’t work for Hillary Clinton. For starters, she’s tried to go after him on experience, but she’s got all of four more years in the Senate than he does, and is left arguing that as First Lady, she was responsible for all the good parts of her husband’s White House and none of the bad ones.

John McCain can point out that Barack Obama opposed "letting people use a self-defense argument if charged with violating local handgun bans by using weapons in their homes. The bill was a reaction to a Chicago-area man who, after shooting an intruder, was charged with a handgun violation." Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out that Barack Obama sought to ban the sale of firearms at gun shows except for "antique" weapons. Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out that Obama wanted to make it a felony if your gun is stolen from your residence and used in a crime, if the government determines you did not “securely store” the weapon. Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out how Obama opposes a ban on partial birth abortion ban, and who voted against a bill that would require medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out how Obama was the only state senator to oppose a law that prohibited early prison release for sex offenders. For some reason, Hillary Clinton hasn’t.


John McCain can point out that Barack Obama has been rated the most liberal lawmaker in the U.S. Senate by National Journal. Hillary Clinton can’t.

In other words, the only information most Americans have encountered regarding Obama so far has been gushing press coverage, and ineffective attacks on him from Hillary from the left. Conservatives have not, by and large, focused their ire on Obama… mostly because he ain’t her.

But Obama has also been helped by a Aegean shield of charisma, by the gut-level connection that he, and his wife, just seem like likeable people. A lot of conservatives and Republicans, myself included, looked at them and thought that, policy differences aside, they seem like decent folk.

But in the past few weeks, we’re seeing a different side to the nice guy. We’re seeing crowds chant, ‘we are the ones we have been waiting for.’ We’ve seen speeches with the word ‘hope’ repeated with such frequency, it appears to be used as a comma. We’re seeing Che appear on the walls of his volunteers’ offices. And finally, Michelle Obama asserted she had no reason to be proud of her country for roughly the last 25 years.

A comment like that, and one has to wonder how many Americans might do a double take and say, “hmm. Maybe these two aren’t as likeable as we thought.”

Once you take away Barack Obama’s likeability… what’s left?So, Democrats… are you sure you want to place that bet?
Link.

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