What do you think? Would he lose 90-10 or more?

Oh, I can see Shaun grabbing this very useful photograph starting this thread, and doing some kind of Alfred E. Newman incompetence thread based on it, exploiting Bush's ineptitude. It's low-hanging juicy fruit if there ever were such a thing here.

“even if Obama loses to McCain his coattails are likely to be very long”

Agree completely! I had written years ago that Hillary Clinton should have run early at least once, “burned' (consumed; spent) one early campaign so that even if she didn't win, she got nation-wide exposure. Look at what Obama will already have achieved even if he were to lose. (I believe he will win.)

Sorry reality had to intrude into your utopian Obama landslide…

Ever wonder why McCain just doesn't look worried? Ever know the GOP to give up a fight?

I guess talking about pointless campaign ads from a pointless campaign is just more fun rather than talking about the national debt, the budget deficit, current accounts, and long term budget obligations.

Bush (or Rove, or whomever) didn't exactly run a “50+1″ campaign in either 2000 or 2004. They ran a 269+1 campaign. Bush won by a few thousand Florida votes in 2000, and a few thousand more Ohio votes in 2004. That, I think, is McCain's strategy this time around as well.

Thanks to an anticipated monetary advantage, Obama's strategy is to make it as difficult as possible for McCain to figure out which state will make the difference. And in the mean time he's shoring up the down-ticket in places that were erstwhile hopeless. That seems to me something that is going under most peoples' radar. Dean started the 50 state process, and Obama is piling on.

My prediction is this: even if Obama loses to McCain his coattails are likely to be very long. Whether or not Obama wins, I think his machine will result in significant gains for the Dems in not only the federal Senate and House races, but also at the state level. It would not surprise me at all to see the GOP taking it on the chin all the way down the ticket this year — even if Obama loses.

Here's another thought (that I've touched on in previous comments on other threads here): it's hard to know what to wish for in terms of the 2008 presidential race. IMO, the next couple of years minimum are going to be difficult, and there isn't much either candidate will be able to do about it. It wouldn't be their fault, it just is as it is. But that's unlikely to be how people are going to react to it. And the 2010 elections on the state level are particularly key, because they are key to determining how seats are redistricted.

So if you're a Dem you might be inclined to worry about peaking too early. And if you're a Rep you might be inclined to worry about your party getting crushed for a very long time. Given all that, it's hard to know who to root for, eh? Lol!

I recommend googling “Barack Obama” and checking every single hit you find and then coming to a conclusion about the man.

Then do the same with McCain.

Leave no stone unturned with the two candidates and then make a decision!

Don't be lefty-cyber-nose-pickers about this. Separate basic trust from what's hip (and hyped). Ignore play-pen-blogging techno-conceit and just ask yourself if you would feel confident with McCain as President, or better about him than with Obama, and why or why not? (Are they _subtantial_ reasons why or why not?)

The more Obama cries “racist!” when criticisms of him are not even remotely looking like a race issue, the less people take him seriously the next time. And what's worse, if when every single time he is criticized, he screams “Racist!!”, people are going to wonder how to handle him if he makes it to the ballot, let alone the Whitehouse. How can we have a president who is untouchable because he's taking advantage of the color of his skin to deflect any and all criticism of himself? How can Congress keep an eye on him when every time anyone says “hey Obama, your shoe is untied”, he screams “Racist!”

The Boy Who Cried Racist…..lol…

I kind of chuckle when I think of privileged Barack Obama raised in Hawaii by a white family (of which he is a member) and going to elite schools…and screaming “racist” whenever it's convenient. He is so clearly capitalizing on the darkness of his skin that the word “racist” applies more to him than anyone I know.

He is most adamantly insisting that we pay attention to the color of people's skin and not what makes them up as individuals when he strives to deflect inspection of who he is, by using skin color to guilt people into letting the inquiry drop.

His behavior is most shameful. What a jackass he is being..

If somehow he does manage to become president, he's going to be terrible for the democratic party. His hypersensitivity to criticism is a reflection of his innate immaturity. It's as if he hasn't figured out that being the president is a hard job that is subject to extreme scrutiny. How will we elect more dems to Congress with our “leader” curling into the fetal position each time someone steps on his big toe?

Every day I see more and more liabilities connected to this man. It's hard for me to believe I once supported him. It's been a learning experience.

If you think about it, that's a very deep vein. And it's not just his unfamiliarity with computers or the intertubes either. It's his serial gaffes about nations that don't exist anymore, lack of nuance about the nature of terrorist groups (and has to have someone else explain it to him), continuing to criticize Obama for advocating things that are already unfolding (surgical strikes against AQ in Pakistan, good guys talking to bad guys all over the place, “timelines” — or if you prefer “time horizons”), failure to realize the economic potential represented by renewable energy and energy efficiency (and instead mostly pushing things that worked in the past), denying he said things right after he said them (as if he doesn't realize that everything is captured on video as opposed to a reporter's notebook), and now adopting a 50+1 strategy despite the fact that the demographics have obviously changed.

Even if McCain remained McCain 2000, or even McCain 2006, it would be a pretty deep vein. Now it's even deeper.