Polls show McCain cutting into Obama's lead (News Feature)
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By Mike McCarthy Aug 20, 2008, 19:45 GMT
Other features coming soon.
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Obama without his script (abridged)
Judging by his reaction to the Georgia-Russia crisis, Obama's make-believe presidency isn't ready for prime time.
The Obama campaign has for months pursued the odd strategy of having the junior senator from Illinois act as if he were already kinda-sorta president of the United States. In June, it tried sticking a quasi-presidential seal on his lectern. Then in July, he conducted what seemed like official state visits with foreign leaders and delivered something like a 'prenaugural' address in Berlin, inviting comparisons to JFK and Reagan.
It's an understandable ploy. More than most candidates, Barack Obama needs to appear like a plausible commander in chief because he's not only inexperienced (during the last Summer Olympics he was still an Illinois state legislator), he's novel. The name, the skin color, the cosmopolitan upbringing: Fair or not, all of these things give Obama the aura of otherness that is both part of his charm and a potential handicap.
If the would-be president can seem plausibly presidential, voting for him might not seem like such a crapshoot. It all makes sense, even if it fosters an air of presumptuousness.
(David Letterman recently offered a list of the top 10 signs Obama is overconfident. Among them: 'Asked guy at Staples, 'Which chair will work best in an oval-shaped office?' '; 'Having head measured for Mt. Rushmore;' and 'Offered McCain a job in gift shop at the Obama Presidential Library.')
Now fate has given Obama a chance to be presidential rather than pretend. Taking advantage of the Olympic distraction in Beijing, the Russians invaded South Ossetia, a territory on the north side of Georgia, a democratic U.S. ally. Out of the blocks, the Russians bombed civilians, rolled tanks across an internationally recognized border and threatened to launch an all-out, destabilizing war. Now it looks as if their army has cut Georgia in two.
Moreover, Russian bombs reportedly targeted the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia on its way to the Mediterranean -- the only oil pipeline in Central Asia not under Russian control. Russia is tightening its chokehold on oil and gas at precisely the moment energy costs have become the paramount domestic issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.
Obama's response?
First, late Thursday evening, he gave a conventional written statement calling for calm, U.N. action and 'restraint' from both sides -- followed an hour later by a slightly stronger condemnation of Russian aggression and a call for a cease-fire.
The invasion of Georgia elicited a wan written communique instead of the sort of exciting rhetoric we've come to expect from his make-believe presidency. But he did make it in front of the cameras the next day for a rally celebrating his vacation in Hawaii. He promised 'to go body surfing at some undisclosed location.'
During Obama's make-believe presidency, we've heard about bold action, about the courage to talk to dictators. When faced with a real '3 a.m. moment,' Obama -- who boasts about 200 foreign policy advisors, broken into 10 subgroups -- proclaims, 'I'm going to get some shave ice.'....
www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg12-2008aug12,0,67 42318.column
By the way, since Russia has a veto in the security council, Obamas fall back on the UN further reveals him to be completely clueless.
Obama's slide in the polls reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the giant cockroach lying in an alley is talking to a bum saying: 'I had it all: great job, great car, money, success, beautiful wife. Then one day someone shouted, 'Hey! He's just a big cockroach!''.
NObama '08
McCain Surging on eve of Democratic Convention
Rick Moran
There's no other way to put it; John McCain's support has increased over the last fortnight while Barack Obama's has decreased. That's the conclusion of several recent polls as well as the judgment of political observers on the ground in some key battleground states.
Recent national polls show McCain even with Obama. Key states like Ohio and Florida show McCain lengthening narrow leads. More significantly, the polls show McCain gaining on Obama in key demographic groups that the Democrat needs to win. And the RealClearPolitics.com electoral college count favors McCain for the first time.
There are several factors involved in McCain's rise, not the least of which is the candidate's own dogged determination. After a very rough spring which saw his campaign disorganized and ineffective, McCain retooled his operation back in June and it is now percolating along quite nicely. The campaign boasts a media operation that rivals Obama's if not in size then certainly in effectiveness. And McCain is smartly relying on the party for a much of his state ground game which saves him money. [...]
It is the candidate himself who deserves most of the praise for hanging close in a race many believed was a lost cause. We forget at our peril that John McCain has proved before that he has absolutely no quit in him. You don't survive the horrors of 5 years in captivity to a brutal regime and not have something special inside that drives you to overcome the odds and achieve success.
More prosaically, there are probably two big factors that worked against Obama and allowed McCain to claw his way in to the race. The first was Obama's European trip - a disaster in retrospect that served to convince people that Obama was arrogant and cared more about looking good overseas than what was going on at home.
The second factor has almost certainly been the Russian attack on Georgia where McCain's immediate gut instincts proved to be far superior to Obama's spineless moralizing. By a 2-1 margin, the American people believe McCain would be better at handling the Russians.
www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/08/mccain_surging_on_eve_of_democ.htm l
h**p://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1927197620080820?feedType=RSS&f eedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
McCain leads Obama among likely U.S. voters by 46 percent to 41 percent, wiping out Obama's solid 7-point advantage in July and taking his first lead in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll.
one-way obama can pull this out; his VP pick. He's certainly not qualified for the job therefore he better pick a VP who is!
The Pollster is a GOP(Graft Obfuscation Perfidy) supporter(read:Paid Hack). It is not an unbiased site.
Smart money shouldn’t be on Obama
“Well, uh, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or, uh, a scientific perspective, uh, answering that question with specificity, uh, you know, is, is, uh, above my pay grade.” - Sen. Barack Obama, on “When does a baby get human rights?”
In 1948, they had Harry Truman and “The buck stops here!”
In 2008, they’ve got Barack Obama and it’s “above my pay grade.”
This is definitely not your grandfather’s Democratic Party.
Certainly not mine. My grandfather, Ray Futrell, was a lifelong FDR Democrat, the kind who would proudly rather vote for a wife-beating, syphilitic drunkard than for a Republican. In fact, he would find the previous sentence entirely redundant.
My grandfather helped push Patton’s tanks across Europe, and one reason for my grandfather’s unshakable party loyalty was his belief that Harry Truman saved his life by dropping the A-bombs on Japan.
If Truman hadn’t made the call - if he’d demurred that such a profound life-and-death decision was “above my pay grade” - my grandfather believed that he and untold thousands of Americans would have died invading the Japanese mainland.
I miss my grandfather, but I’m also glad that he isn’t around to witness the tragic descent of his beloved Democratic Party.
Watching Obama with the Rev. Rick Warren this past weekend, answering questions - or, more accurately, not answering - about his most basic beliefs was simply embarrassing.
Obama supports partial-birth abortion and voted against the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act.” When he got the invitation to an evangelical forum hosted by a pro-life pastor, he had to know that issues regarding life and the law were going to come up.
And his prepared answer to the most fundamental question about public policy and abortion (“is the fetus a human being?”) is that it’s “above my pay grade?”
On the very top of the list of statements about our nation’s laws that should never be spoken by a guy whose job it is to sit next to the Big, Red Button is “That’s above my pay grade.”
With all due respect, Sen. Obama, being president is above your pay grade. And the voters are starting to figure that out.
Politico.com reported yesterday that 75 percent of Americans believe that John McCain can “handle the job of commander in chief.” Only 50 percent feel the same about Obama. A whopping 42 percent told pollsters they believe Obama is simply not up to the task.
Who can blame them? Obama wants the difficult duty of taking on Iran and North Korea, but he can’t even handle Rick Warren or the Clintons - the latter having commandeered Obama’s own convention in Denver next week and forced their way into a pro-Hillary roll call. Having been routed by the Clintonistas, Obama wants a chance to lead against al-Qaeda? Please...
...McCain is winning in the RealClearPolitics electoral college map.
Realclearpolitics.com yesterday had John McCain ahead of Barack Obama by 274 to 264 electoral votes, counting leaners. RCP has Obama carrying just two Bush '04 states, Iowa and New Mexico, with 12 electoral votes. McCain's lead in two other Bush '04 states, Virginia and Colorado, with 20 electoral votes.
Two national polls showed McCain ahead. The Battleground poll, conducted by Republican pollster Ed Goeas and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and sponsored by George Washington University, has McCain ahead by a statistically insignificant 47 percent to 46 percent. Obama's favorable/unfavorable rating has gone from 59 percent to 28 percent in July 2007 to 57 percent to 39 percent now. That's almost identical to McCain's 57 percent to 36 percent fav/unfavs. Offshore drilling is supported by 72 percent, oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by 58 percent.
The other Reuters/Zogby poll shows McCain ahead by 46 percent to 41 percent, in contrast to Obama's 47 percent to 40 percent lead in Zogby's July poll. Interestingly, it shows McCain ahead on managing the economy by 49 percent to 40 percent—further evidence that high gas prices and Democrats' opposition to offshore and ANWR drilling have cost them dearly.
The pollster, realclearpolitics.com is a two-bit outfit. It has expanded from a two-man operation on a shoestring budget to a full-time staff of more than two-dozen employees all in 8 years. Wow, that is a BIG, REPUTABLE entity. The owner of this is McIntyre Trading, Llc, which is half owned by Forbes.com. Forbes is affilliated with the FOX Network. The Fox Network is a GOP propaganda mouthpiece.
Don't try and tell me that this piece of trash poll story is unbiased. I'm not SP4. I'm not stupid.
Does anyone know McCain was a POW?
'The pollster, realclearpolitics.com is a two-bit outfit. It has expanded from a two-man operation on a shoestring budget to a full-time staff of more than two-dozen employees all in 8 years.'
No. They are not the pollsters, they just collect the information from various sources. Regardless, when they tell you what you want to hear I would bet that they are an unimpeachable source.
'Don't try and tell me that this piece of trash poll story is unbiased. '
Better start preparing to burn your neighborhood down in protest.
So the polling is now a GOP trick? Get real...
CBS News/NY Times 08/15 - 08/19 869 RV 45 42 Obama +3
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 08/15 - 08/18 1005 RV 45 42 Obama +3
LA Times/Bloomberg 08/15 - 08/18 1248 RV 45 43 Obama +2
Reuters/Zogby 08/14 - 08/16 1089 LV 41 46 McCain +5
Gallup Tracking 08/17 - 08/19 2658 RV 45 43 Obama +2
Rasmussen Tracking 08/17 - 08/19 3000 LV 47 46 Obama +1
Quinnipiac 08/12 - 08/17 1547 LV 47 42 Obama +5
Battleground 08/10 - 08/14 1000 LV 46 47 McCain +1
The fact is that Obama is slipping hard and fast and leads overall by only 1.2% a statistical tie.
It is funny how the liberal's love the polls as long as it is going their way (Media enhanced), and conservatives have always shunned them...
Hardly a GOP trick...
the Bush Bullsh*t Brigade is out in full force today. The toilet must have backed up, again.
and the smell is atrocious!
Bush isn't running. Idiot.
Ooody - Doody man, ah`s a gud Nigga an wanna get in dat Wite Ows lahk shit off a shovel.
Den all yoo wite honkies, look out, no mow dragin ma brudders behind a truck or angin dem from da ole oak tree, it`ll be da black man oow gives da orders.
Black power, an all yoo wite trash can suck ma dick an lump it, like ma peeple ad to under yoo lot an da KKK. Ah`s gonna fix it dat we av 'Wites only' piss owses, drinkin troffs an make yoo sit at da back of busses.
Oh yeh yoo gullible honkies, yoo ain`t seen nottin yet.
Ah aim ta rename dat Wite Ows, da Black Ows, an make dose idiot pricks in da military do a war dance befow eech Presidenshal meetin.
Long live Malcolm X an dose wunnerful Black Panthers. Ole ah wont is fow yoo stupid wites to vote me in an den yood better watch owt.
..impressive posts....
I saw McCain on CNN, or CNBC, or MSNBC last night...for about one minute...and the subject:
His thirty year old divorce.
Yep, all the things they could have asked and that was the focus. Man, they really want to trot out all the issues that reeeellly matter to everyone, huh? Just another glaring reminder why I gave up television news.
McCain isn't the lily-white, without-a-clink-in-his-armor, kinda guy that the GOP professes.
'Certainly not mine. My grandfather, Ray Futrell, was a lifelong FDR Democrat, the kind who would proudly rather vote for a wife-beating, syphilitic drunkard than for a Republican. In fact, he would find the previous sentence entirely redundant.'
In pointing this out why don't you mention that this is also the group of Democrats that would rather hang a Black Man than allow him to move in the neighborhood?
'My grandfather helped push Patton’s tanks across Europe, and one reason for my grandfather’s unshakable party loyalty was his belief that Harry Truman saved his life by dropping the A-bombs on Japan.'
So?
If Truman hadn’t made the call - if he’d demurred that such a profound life-and-death decision was “above my pay grade” - my grandfather believed that he and untold thousands of Americans would have died invading the Japanese mainland.'
Only an idiot would not have made that call.
'I miss my grandfather, but I’m also glad that he isn’t around to witness the tragic descent of his beloved Democratic Party.'
I miss my grandfather also but would like to think he would have the sense to understand that electing McSame is only extending the stupidity that has surrounded us for the last 7 1/2 years.
'Watching Obama with the Rev. Rick Warren this past weekend, answering questions - or, more accurately, not answering - about his most basic beliefs was simply embarrassing.'
Right. Who cares?
'Obama supports partial-birth abortion and voted against the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act.” When he got the invitation to an evangelical forum hosted by a pro-life pastor, he had to know that issues regarding life and the law were going to come up.'
Sure he knew it was going to come up, but at least he did not spout a canned answer that was scripted by some right wing idiot.
'And his prepared answer to the most fundamental question about public policy and abortion (“is the fetus a human being?”) is that it’s “above my pay grade?”
Again, yes and your point? That is called an opinion if you cannot live with it don't vote for him.
'On the very top of the list of statements about our nation’s laws that should never be spoken by a guy whose job it is to sit next to the Big, Red Button is “That’s above my pay grade.”
I guess it is OK to allow an old incompetent fool the ability to nap on the button?
'With all due respect, Sen. Obama, being president is above your pay grade. And the voters are starting to figure that out.'
Quit acting like you have any respect for him, only makes you a liar. On the voters issue, just wait I am sorry but McSame is going to be beat like a drum on election day.
'Politico.com reported yesterday that 75 percent of Americans believe that John McCain can “handle the job of commander in chief.” Only 50 percent feel the same about Obama. A whopping 42 percent told pollsters they believe Obama is simply not up to the task.'
A whopping 42%?, where in the world is that a pertinent observation. As long as 48% believe he can, he is elected.
'Who can blame them? Obama wants the difficult duty of taking on Iran and North Korea, but he can’t even handle Rick Warren or the Clintons - the latter having commandeered Obama’s own convention in Denver next week and forced their way into a pro-Hillary roll call. Having been routed by the Clintonistas, Obama wants a chance to lead against al-Qaeda? Please...'
Better get your pea brain wrapped around that idea. It is going to happen. The next President is going to be under 70 and Black.
Some of McCain's answers at the forum almost seem scripted and only for public approval - whether or not he really believed them.
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