Friday, February 15, 2008

Who Really Can Beat John McCain (Pt. 2)

As it becomes clear that John McCain will be the republican nomination, democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Omaba have both emphasized that they are most able to beat McCain in a general election. Let's continue unspining the rhetoric:

Senator Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn recently wrote a memo on this subject:

  • "The GOP Attack Machine Will Redefine the Democratic Candidate; Hillary Has Withstood That Process....Hillary Clinton has withstood the full brunt of that machine and actually emerged stronger."
    • This argument is unpersuasive because: (1) The republicans have already defined Hillary as a "say anything to get elected" candidate. (2) Barack Obama has succeeded in arguing to democrats (not even republicans) that Hillary is the candidate of the past. The bottom line is that Hillary is already defined. Her campaign is based upon attacks on George Bush and an (ever evaporating) aura inevitability.
  • "Sen. McCain Will Run on National Security; Hillary Wins That Argument."
    • This argument is laughable. Hillary cannot even convince her own party that she is more competent when it comes to foreign policy than Barack Obama, who had the wisdom to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning. Hillary expects that as a women known as a dove in her husband's administration she can out position one of the most experienced foreign policy candidates in recent history.
  • "Sen. Obama's Negatives Will Rise; Hillary's Are Already Factored In."
    • Senator Clinton has tried desperately to smear Senator Obama and it has not worked. Why would we believe that John McCain will succeed in doing so, especially since he is reluctant to embrace so many of the tactics that Karl Rove employed so successfully in the past two elections?
  • "The Resiliency of Sen. Obama's Coalition Will Be Tested; Hillary's Coalition Is Stronger"
    • Again, this is laughable given the fact that exit polls clearly show that Senator Obama is chipping away at Hillary's core constituency: white women and Latinos.

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