Strategic voting part duex!
by boxer4hrc, Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 10:49:44 AM EST
Get a grip.
February is a tough month for Clinton. I warned you that the calendar favored Obama. He's having a remarkable string of wins and deserves credit for it. But how many large states has he won? Illinois. It's not enough. We're not going to win South Carolina in November, nor Nebraska; but maybe Missouri, which Obama won by a very narrow margin. Clinton has won New York, California, Massachusetts against the entire Kennedy clan, plus quite a few very red states. Texas and Ohio are coming up and that's where she's focused right now, doing satellite interviews all day why many of you, let's see how to put this... ... whine.
Quit channeling Eugene Robinson. You're falling into the trap they hope you stay in, especially with the polling coming out today showing Obama ahead nationally. Don't trust polls.
If you listen to some Republicans, you'll see that this Obamamania has got them licking their chops. Pat Buchanan on "Morning Joe" made the point of all points yesterday. Obama has made a huge mistake in this campaign. He has not defined himself. That makes him incredibly vulnerable as a general election candidate. Never mind I don't see a national strategy for him to win. Again, Idaho won't do it, even as impressive as his rallies have been. He deserves a lot of credit for the inspiration he's delivering, but there is no beef. In a general election, it simply will not be enough.
One Republican showed himself today, which I think is instructive to everyone. Robert Bluey voted for Obama. Bluey director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
It's partly for this reason that I decided to cast my vote for Barack Obama today. Although national polls give Obama a small advantage over John McCain in the general election, I firmly believe that McCain would handily defeat the inexperienced Obama. Secondly, I fear what the Clinton attack machine would do to McCain. Their ferocity would be worse than George W. Bush's ugly attacks in 2000. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows how much I dislike negative campaigning, and a Clinton-McCain matchup would be just that.
Because my vote for Obama will likely be ridiculed by many friends on the right, I want to explain exactly why I chose to cross party lines to back the Democrat senator from Illinois.
1) Electability. According to Real Clear Politics, McCain would beat Clinton by 1.2 percentage points. McCain, however, loses to Obama by 3.7 percentage points using the same polling average. Despite what these polls indicate today, I predict the numbers would flip once Democrats pick a nominee.
As Clinton pollster Mark Penn told Chris Cillizza, "The Republican attack machine redefines the Democratic candidate." Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Clinton, there's nothing left to define. But in the case of Obama, there are millions of Americans who know little about him or his far-left views. His lack of experience makes him even more vulnerable. It is for this reason that I would give McCain the edge in a head-to-head matchup with Obama. I'm not so sure the same is true against Hillary. ... ..
The wingnuts are floating trial attack balloons aimed at Obama. So far they're pitiful. But since Obama hasn't defined himself, you can bet they'll get busy doing it for him. They're saving their big guns in case Democrats make the mistake and give him the nod.






