GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
In response to Sean’s analysis below, I thought I would share my thoughts on, frankly, the quite puzzling fear of my fellow Republicans (and fellow bloggers) who currently tremble at the prospect of facing off with Obamamania in November.
The exuberance with which The Left is propelling Barack Obama is nothing new (please recall John Kerry and Bruce Springsteen on stage together as five-figures worth of young screaming libs chanted and waved their fists), nor is Barack Obama’s current lead in the polls worrisome at this juncture (recall Micheal Dukakis’ 10+ point lead on George H.W. Bush at this point in the cycle, which should make conservatives who are presently cowering at Obama’s 3 point lead over McCain in the polls ashamed of themselves).
Bottom line- experience counts.
Barack Obama has been a U.S. Senator for exactly 3 years and 2 months. Prior to that, he served as an Illinois State Senator for 6 years.
I reside a mere half-mile from my own state senator, Ann Rest. I can tell you that I hope pray that the Lord will help us all if Ann Rest is running Western Civilization in 3 years and 2 months. Prior to that, Obama was an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. If elected, no President would have assumed the office with so thin a resume since the 19th Century.
Contrast this with McCain’s 22 years in the Senate (which includes his membership on the Armed Services Committee), four-years in the House and nearly 30 years serving our nation in the United States Navy.
Many folks mistakenly compare Obama’s thin resume with another young Senator who ran for President - John F. Kennedy. By the time JFK entered the White House at the relatively young age of 43, Kennedy was a decorated war hero (having been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal as well as the Purple Heart), won the Pulitzer Prize, served three terms in the House, and 8 years in the Senate. Obama is clearly no Jack Kennedy.
At the heart of every American’s decision in a Presidential election is who they feel is the most qualified person to become the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is especially critical in the dangerous times that we live in. The choice between John McCain, a man who could probably recite the names of every tribal Chieftain in Waziristan, and the naivety in world affairs demonstrated by statements made by Sen. Obama, could not be more clear. Underestimate this factor at your peril.
Barack Obama will quite deservedly occupy a space in the pantheon of the great liberal presidential nominees of the Democratic Party alongside such other Progressive luminaries such as Walter Mondale, Michale Dukakis, and George McGovern. Judged solely on the issues, Barack Obama will be the most liberal presidential nominee in two decades.
Obama isn’t an agent of change folks, he is a throwback to the Pre-Clinton Democratic Party of 1972-1988. Democrats win when they run centrist Southerners such as LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Massive increases in taxation, government spending, and entitlements, capitulation to our nation’s enemies abroad, combined with liberal social positions lose every single time.
Let me put it to you this way… What if on the day after the the 2004 elections I told you the that next Democratic nominee would be a Senator from a deep blue state that had a total of three years of experience in national politics whose platform consisted of European-style socialized medicine, the largest tax increase in American History, nearly a trillion dollars of new government spending and programs, Protectionism, complete surrender to Al-Qaeda in Iraq within 60 days of taking office, total capitulation to the worst dictators on Earth such as Ahmedinajad, Castro, and Chavez, as well as possessing the worst voting record on abortion of any Democratic nominee ever?
The answer is that you would have jumped for joy, and there is no reason to feel otherwise despite the pretty package that the candidate comes in.
Why? Because America HAS NOT CHANGED this drastically in the past 4 years! But the DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS! As I said, the reversion to a Pre-Clinton Democratic Party of 1972-1988 is complete. The Democrats have overreached based on their miscalculation of the country’s dissatisfaction with President Bush and have rejected the winning, inclusive Third Way politics of Bill Clinton to return the losing, divisive doctrine of Northeastern Establishment Liberalism.
This bill of goods has never sold in America folks, and it never will. No matter if it’s William Jennings Bryan, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michale Dukakis, or Barack Obama selling it.
P.S. For more on the “Obama Delusion“, see here.
Money quote:
Political candidates routinely indulge in exaggeration, pandering, inconsistency and self-serving obscuration. Clinton and McCain do. The reason for holding Obama to a higher standard is that it’s his standard and also his campaign’s central theme. He has run on the vague promise of “change,” but on issue after issue — immigration, the economy, global warming — he has offered boilerplate policies that evade the underlying causes of the stalemates. These issues remain contentious because they involve real conflicts or differences of opinion.
The contrast between his broad rhetoric and his narrow agenda is stark, and yet the media — preoccupied with the political “horse race” — have treated his invocation of “change” as a serious idea rather than a shallow campaign slogan. He seems to have hypnotized much of the media and the public with his eloquence and the symbolism of his life story. The result is a mass delusion that Obama is forthrightly engaging the nation’s major problems when, so far, he isn’t.
P.S.S. I also echo Sean’s sentiments of Hillary’s electoral chances versus Obama’s in a clean primary victory.
To win in ‘08, the Dem nominee needs to win Ohio. If you think that a candidate who voted to allow babies who survived abortions to be killed by doctors will play in deeply religious Southern Ohio that the Dem candidate needs to do well in to win, I have some Minnesota oceanfront property I think you would be interested in.
Contrast that with Hillary’s statements on abortion (that it is a tragedy and we should do whatever we can to decrease the number of abortions in the US) and you can see how far the Democratic Party has overreached in their opinion of just how far Americans are willing to go in this cycle.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Cool riff, Kavon. Adding to your points, the former Jane Galt is tackling the implications of Obaman policy prescriptions and finds them lacking.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Kavon,
Just wanted to say that this is a great piece you wrote here, and as i’ve said many times on this site, once everything in this race settles down and you know what 2 candidates will be facing each other, there will be a night and day difference that voter’s will get to decide on. And now that it’s looking more like Obama, i’m not to wrried at all to tell you the truth, and i think the Chris Matthew’s interview with that State Senator spoke volumes, Obama just doesnt have the experience to be POTUS, and his Liberal views are as far Left as it gets, and once Americans realize this, they will flock to McCain in record number’s. I think McCain win’s this race without too much problem once people actually realize the type of CHANGE that Barack Obama is truly wanting to do to this country IMO.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Unfortunately the way Obama whips people into a frenzy he could be reading the phone book out oud at his rallies and it wouldn’t matter.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Bryan, unfortunately McCain’s record is less than stellar as well. His recent big policy that he championed was the failed immigration bill. Before that, we have McCain-Feingold. He’ll get taken to the cleaners by the MSM, He has yet to be vetted, and what a vetting he will get. The MSM didn’t make him the nominee for free - they have an agenda, and don’t think that they are not ready to unleash a firestorm on him at the right moment. Now is not the right moment.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
“He has yet to be vetted”
There probably have been few more thoroughly vetted candidates in recent years. He’s been in public life for a quarter of a century, and a major player on the national level for a decade.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
True, but I have never seen a real dossier on McCain. That whole Keating Five thing, for example, has not been explored in this campaign and I know absolutely nothing about his time in the House.
I think the election in the fall is going to come down to who voters think is going to help them out of whatever troubles them. McCain is counting on everyone wanting someone to protect them, but when you’re unemployed your main concern is a job. And when your house is in default you want mortgage assistance. This is not the year to tell people to help themselves.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Lincoln had served one term in Congress. Greatest president ever.
Not saying Obama is Lincoln, but come on. It’s a moot issue.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
[...] Kavon and Sean both make good points in their analysis, they wonder why some of us continue to be [...]
February 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Kavon,
I assume you called Obama “she” by accident, right?
February 20th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Eric #9,
Yes. Oops. Thanks you for bringing that to my attention.
I knew that I was going to write about my state Senator Ann Rest in the next paragraph, so I subconsciously jumped the gun and wrote “she” instead of “he”.
It’s fixed now.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Good argument. It’s possible to beat him.
My worry is that McCain’s people won’t understand what will work and what will backfire with respect to Obama. I’ve never seen an ounce of savvy from them.
People want to be inspired, and they are willing to overlook A WHOLE LOT with an inspiring guy like Obama.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Kevin 7. “Lincoln had served one term in Congress. Greatest president ever.”
Speaking of strange persona cults, Lincoln started a war that killed 600,000 Americans. Greatest. President. Ever.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The Confederates fired on Fort Sumpter to start the war.
“The union of these states is perpetual.” Great president rhetoric - with results.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Instead of comparing Obama to JFK, McCain and others should start comparing him to Carter:
economic policies leading to stagflation, weakness with enemies, and a general deterioration of the national good. Well-meaning, but disastrous.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
13. Axel
Lincoln raised an army and invaded the south. This is what led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, not rebels firing on a Union-held fort in Confederate territory. This was after the south had offered to pay for the forts and attempted to enter into a peace treaty with Lincoln. He refused to even talk with the south. His arrogance and belligerence led to the war, and for this people call him ‘great’.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
USA Today compared a possible McCain administration to Teddy Roosevelt’s:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-02-18-mccain-roosevelt_N.htm
Any chance anyone has done a post on the similarities between McCain and T. Roosevelt here at R42008? I’d be curious in it.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Tony #16,
I think Dave wrote about that. Let me search for the article.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Tony,
You are quite wrong. The confederate states declared war on the US and attacked us. The negotiations you speak of were an attempt to get permission to divide the union, not to avoid war. But that is history and while I enjoy the subject the topic here is the present.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
18. Believe what you will about the greatness of Presidents, Axel G.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
The good thing about the length of these campaigns is that everything is going to be exposed about both McCain and Obama. Obama won’t be able to hide his record and positions for 9 months of campaigning. It’s something I like about our system. The perpetual campaign can be annoying, but it’s better than the Canadian system where they arbitrarily decide to have an election. Then, they have the election in 30 days. No one has time to learn about the candidates in a system like that.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Thanks Kavon for taking a look for it. I can’t find anything on Google, but some of the parallels seem quite strong …
February 20th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Oh, Kavon, don’t you understand the MN State Senate produces some of the most prodigious political figures known to man. Steve Murphy who will increase the gas tax tomorrow. Pogey, Mr. Socialism himself. And who can forget about Terri Bonoff, the 3rds next congresswoman, someone who can’t even deliver a coherent speech.
And to think, the dems have a veto proof majority.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
IR-MN #22,
I know… We are hopeless… Sigh…