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| Time for John McCain to turn up the heat |
| 2008-10-06 |
| ....What are McCain's options to turn this race around? From what I hear, the campaign's plans are to put John McCain back in the seat of his A-4 Skyhawk bomber and drop bomb after bomb on Obama to try to convince voters he is unfit to lead. I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed. Personal attacks won't work this late in the campaign and may backfire on McCain. He must attack Obama's policy and spending proposals. iReport.com: Do you support the recent campaign attacks? When you are fighting a brand, you must redefine the brand. "Change" means what? Is change the "Robin Hood tax policies" of traditional Democrats that shifts earned wealth from productive people and small businesses that create jobs to those who have not had the same success? Is change adding billions of new entitlement programs as promised by Obama in a time of record deficits? That is certain to make the recession deeper and last longer. Is change altering our spending priorities away from national defense and weakening our military or homeland security in a time of uncertainty both at home and abroad? With two debates left and four weeks for a national dialogue, let's find out who these guys really are and what direction they want to take this country. We are still in a war on two fronts. We are in an economic disaster. America has no faith in the political or financial leadership in this country. Democrats will still control both houses of Congress and add more House and Senate members after this election. I promise you they are not about change. They are about taxing and spending. Electing President Obama would eliminate important checks and balances on liberal Democratic power in Washington and that could be a disaster. It was a disaster when Bush and the Republicans controlled it all. It was a disaster when Clinton and the Democrats controlled it all. John McCain, your challenge is to tell us what Obama's change means! Is it just rhetoric, or if not, is it really change in a bad direction? Don't waste your time beating up on him. Challenge his ideas and promises. If you can do it effectively, you might come back from the deficit you now face. If you can't, you face the possibility of an electoral and popular defeat of landslide proportions. The good thing about ice is it melts with heat. Mr Maverick, turn up the heat! |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #8 Based on conversations I've been in the last few days, Mac can shake some people's confidence in Obama but he also has to make them feel like he has a way forward. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-10-06 20:52 |
| #7 I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed. I'm sorry Ed Rollins but Hillary is not John McCain. She was shrill and scary and leaned way to the left. John McCain is a war hero who gave five years of his life in the Hanoi Hilton while the likes of the left's darlings such as Jane Fonda were visiting North Vietnam to slam our troops thus scoring a propaganda coup for our enemy. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-10-06 17:59 |
| #6 One thing Sen. McCain understands, and that his staff understands, and that many of us do not, is timing. You have to set up your argument before you can make it. And sometimes you're constrained by other events. Mr. McCain couldn't do this particular speech while the Bailout bill was going through Congress. He had to wait. Since the bailout came through on Friday, he had to wait until today, else his broadside would have been lost on the weekend chatter and football. And his people have been working hard to get a base level of consciousness about Obama, Ayers, etc, etc into the public (very hard when the MSM is so deep in the tank for Obama that they've grown gills) -- without that, the attack sounds phony and screechy. You have to be a boxer, or a military person, or a CEO type. First you set up the battle, then you fight it. You don't just flail. Mr. McCain showed us today that he understands that. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-10-06 16:31 |
| #5 That was a whale of a speech. I'm really beginning to warm up to Sarah Palin's running mate! |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-10-06 16:06 |
| #4 McCain has now given The One only 24 hours to get answers to these questions together, and speak them with teleprompter! I noticed in the last debate, most of The One's responses had already been used, via Teleprompter -- he's had time to embed them into himself. He now has only 24 hours -- how is he going to answer this, without teleprompter. McCain didn't stop with the above --- A bit more from that same speech-- My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote -- “take off the gloves.” Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar. Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I don’t need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn’t seek advice from a Chicago politician. My opponent’s touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book. It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there’s always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2008-10-06 15:28 |
| #3 Mr Maverick, turn up the heat! UM OK, How about this? snip. Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes? This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama. Read it all:http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/mccain-blasts-obama-democrats-for-fannie-mae-meltdown/ |
| Posted by: Chinelet Borgia9776 2008-10-06 15:12 |
| #2 From Campaign Spot -- McCain in speech today McCain: 'Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in.' John McCain, today, finally starts talking about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the irresponsible leadership at both, and the Democrats' efforts to prevent serious oversight: Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes? This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama. Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place. Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didn’t he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He won’t tell you, but you deserve an answer. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2008-10-06 15:12 |
| #1 From what I hear, the campaign's plans are to put John McCain back in the seat of his A-4 Skyhawk bomber and drop bomb after bomb on Obama to try to convince voters he is unfit to lead. I think that formula will lead to failure, just as Hillary Clinton's strategy failed. By themselves, a campaign based SOLELY on Obama's past associations would probably fail. A McCain campaign SOLELY on Obama's economic policies would also fail. But a campaign of AYERS+WRIGHT+REZKO+FANNIE MAE-FREDDIE MAC CONTRIBUTIONS and Obama's tax and spend plans for the country will work to McCain's benefit. The trick is to weave them together to fill out the picture for voters - that Obama's "hope" for America is truly a nightmare scenario of economic and social disaster - a plausible future based on BO's past votes, planks, and past associations. |
| Posted by: mrp 2008-10-06 14:52 |