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Yay! After sleeping through the first two debates, Sen. McCain seems to actually care about this race again. But that’s to be expected; McCain only comes alive when he’s ten points down. How the man managed to win so many races for statewide office throughout his career will remain a mystery, at least to me.
Whatever the case, the bottom line is that McCain needed a total knock out in order to change the dynamics of the race, which means that tonight’s performance was probably too little too late. But I do think that McCain showed us what could’ve been if he had run a sane campaign upon clinching the nomination in February of this year.
McCain did something interesting tonight. He convincingly connected our government’s fiscal madness with our country’s economic problems. Because neither Barack Obama nor anyone else can claim to be a better spending hawk than John McCain, the Arizonan actually started to win over Ohio undecideds when he passionately talked about the need to do something about our massive government outlays that threaten to bankrupt the country. This is exactly the tack that Ross Perot took in 1992 when he was leading both Bush 41 AND Bill Clinton in the summer of that year.
But McCain wasn’t able to close the deal on the economy with voters because he just didn’t know how to connect all the dots. Ultimately, he would’ve had to thread health care, education, growth, and spending all into one economic patchwork quilt and explain to the American people how each relates to one another and how his Administration would lead to a better deal for Americans on all of these things than would an Obama Administration. But because McCain doesn’t understand economic issues beyond the notion that deficits and debt are bad, he was unable to do this. And that allowed Obama to mount a comeback by once again sounding like he knows what he’s talking about on health care, even if he doesn’t.
Plus, McCain’s pro-environment, pro-stem cell research lines were great mechanisms to show voters that he’s not your father’s Republican nominee. But once again, this was a theme that he needed to develop earlier and more often.
I can’t help but think that a McCain who was economically inventive, intensely interested in economic and domestic issues, who didn’t run a gimmick-of-the-week campaign, and who was about eight years younger would’ve won this year. But that candidate just didn’t exist. Still, it’s scary how beatable Obama was, even in a year where things were this bad for the GOP. The whole thing is much like 1968, when every Democrat in the country hated every other Democrat in the country, but Nixon just limped over the finish line because ultimately Americans just didn’t want him to be president.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
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200,000 Ohio voters have records discrepancies… As per drudge.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
A draw? Joe the Plumber won!
October 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
A Draw = DaveG? … scroll, confirm … next.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Obama is beatable – McCain is in striking distance. Its not over until the fat lady sings.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
DaveG:
Reagan was down 6 in the Gallup poll at this point of the race, against Mondale.
Your defeatism is premature.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
#4:
The fat lady had been practicing too much, but she now has laryngitis until Nov 4th
October 15th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
The whole keys to these debates now is the narrative and factcheck-type stuff that continues on the web into the water coolers onto the newspapers and commented on the Sunday News Shows.
I think there is a lot of stuff that will be brought up about both men with Obama hopefully getting the worst of it.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
200,000 questionable ballots in Ohio.
Added bonus: “Vote From Home ‘08″ caught committing voter fraud from somebody else’s.
Posted by: Moe Lane
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 06:38PM CDT
7 Comments
All of this H/T AoSHQ, by the way. Anyway, in reverse order: Michelle Malkin has the details about the Vote from Home idiots, a bunch of whom took the time to get absentee ballots that they didn’t have a right to have while engaging in voter registration fraud in Ohio.
Yes, I think that being caught committing actual voter fraud pretty much eliminates any hope that you might have of getting the benefit of the doubt about being involved in voter registration fraud. I also would like to note that these are Democrats, Obama supporters, and now potential suspects in a felony case. Funny how that happens a lot when we start talking about voter shenanigans, yesno? McCain is right they are trying to steal this election!!
October 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/15/politics/horserace/entry4525171.shtml
October 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
#5, that was against Carter not Mondale.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Chr#st, Dave.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
HILARIOUS CNN POLL:
DEMS-40
GOP-30
IND-30
58-31 for Obama…. Hilarious Polls out..
October 15th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
CNN giving their slanted poll results again oversampling Dems and Independants as usual.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
You guys ever notice all these polls give Obama huge wins, but the tracking polls NEVER back it up.
We’ll see who truly won in 2-4 days.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
A Republican has not won an insta-poll since they were introduced. It has been demonstrated that a much higher % of Dems watch these things than do Republicans.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
#13
First of all, that’s really not that far off the real numbers. Second, even if you re-weight them, Obama still has a big lead. In the debate thread, people ridiculed me for saying Obama was winning. Looks like the snap polls back me up.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Why does Big S such so much at life?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Suck
October 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Big S is the sort of person who lives to run into weddings and say “I OBJECT!!!”
October 15th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Obama supporters are going to be in a world of pain on November 5. All along, the media was priming them for an Obama landslide.
And then America comes back to its senses. It begins tonight.
The McCain surge. We have 20 days to make up lost ground in Virginia and Colorado.
We can do this.
Joe the Plumber just saved McCain’s campaign.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
#17, 18
Heh.
I might such at life, but I’m not so firmly entrenched in the conservative echo chamber that I can’t see a losing debate strategy.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
[...] DaveG: Yay! After sleeping through the first two debates, Sen. McCain seems to actually care about this race again. But that’s to be expected; McCain only comes alive when he’s ten points down. How the man managed to win so many races for statewide office throughout his career will remain a mystery, at least to me. [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
The MSM is so in the tank for Obama with bogus polls its unreal, I will only trust Rassmussen and the standard Gallup model of the past.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
McCain needs to talk about everything for the rest of the election about how it will affect “Joe the plumber”. This idea is from over at Townhall, but I think it is spot on.
They need all their ads to focus on this average Joe
How will mine and Obama’s healthcare (tax, education, energy, etc.) plans affect Joe (his small business, his family, his security etc.)?\
Please let McCain run with this plan and please defend your healthcare plan coherently, call Obama our for his lies on healthcare and taxes and use Wright, Ayers and Rezko to call into question Obama’s judgement. Show an ad with those extremists and then directly connect the dots to question Obama’s judgement.
Do an economic 3AM ad. Economic crisis who do you want at the helm?
Obama – got us into this mess with Freddie and Fannie, thinks government is the answer, most liberal socialist proposals in history, largest tax increases in history, 94 votes for higher taxes, most liberal Senator in Washington, no experience, rubber stamp Pelosi and Reid.
McCain – cosponsored legislation for reform that Obama and his liberal Senate collegues blocked, proven tax cutter, plan for fixing the economy, etc.
Please McCain do this and you have a chance.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
i think regardless, its clear obama will be a 4-and-out president at best for him. petraeus, romney, gingrich, jindal would all crush him in debates.
frankly, he is well spoken, but he is not deeply intelligent. its the greatest trick of his campaign. petraeus is so much smarter its scary.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I checked CO’s current breakdown and its about +4 Republican over Dems and about the same 3 of Inds and I was looking at the breakdown of some CO polls that had Obama well ahead and they actually had the same or a few more Dems in the sample with no weighting. Its unreal what they are trying to do.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
The instapolls are ridiculaous because anyone can delete their cookies and vote over and over and over again and apparently Obama supporters have all the time in the world.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I highly doubt Petraeus will run for POTUS.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
obama better hope not, because he can’t beat petraeus
October 15th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
#29
If Petraeus did run against Obama (assuming Obama wins), would he do so in the general election or the Dem primary? I don’t think we know the answer to that.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
#30.
I’m one of those who think Petraeus is a Democrat, so if he does run, it will be 2016, when Obama finishes his second term and Biden calls it quits.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
24 – I thought it was Joe “Sixpack” Plumber?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I’m glad we chose McCain because he was the “only one capable of beating Hillary”…turns out he’s the only one capable of losing to Barry.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
This was a Gamechanger folks! McCain looked energetic, virile and vibrant. The polls will be tied next week.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
You got it right, Pruce!
GameChanger #2 is that McCain will finally open the floodgates on political ads.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
This debate may have just won McCain Pennsylvania! Not to mention Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
McCain was energetic and certainly hammered home the tax message. Where McCain lost the debate was on histrionics and mood. At times he grunted and huffed and sounded like he had gas. And when he took notes it sounded like he was writing with a rock. He interrupted Obama a few times unnecessarily. In contrast, Obama was his preternaturally cool self. And the irony is that McCain seemed most angry during the discussion of the tone of the campaign and Obama and Scheiffer were goading McCain and he foolishly took the bait.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I didn’t bother to read this. Looking at the headline and who wrote it was enough.
If DaveG says it was a draw, then McCain must have won big.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
#37, I’m glad McCain got mad and looked mad…he should be…I am…he is my representative and I only wish he was angrier…I wish he said it did matter, in every facet, that Obama palled around with a terrorist…he was angry that Obama gave $800,000 to Acorn to get out the vote…that his campaign has used thugish attempts to silence the media and that he lies over and over and over again. Get angry…stand up and fight!!!