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I Agree with Joe (Not the Plumber): McCain Aiming for 46%

October 15th, 2008
By ELROD

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I was ready to make a post about how McCain spent the night playing to his base. And if the CNN Republicans (Bill Bennett and Alex Castellanos) are indicative, McCain succeeded. McCain then alienated most other people.

But Joe Gandelman beat me to it.

So I’ll add this much. McCain was playing to hit 46%. He just wants to lose by less than 10 points right now. And the only way to do that is to rally the GOP base…again.



This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Debates, Newsweek Blogitics, At TMV, John McCain, 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 14 Comments

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    Do Joe Six-pack and Joe the Plumber know each other? And are they married to hockey moms?
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    Joe the Plumber is a real guy with a great German-American last name. Joe Sixpack is make-believe.
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    That's a great reply!
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    I thought CNN's David Gergen gave the fairest assessment of both candidates' performances. McCain definitely won the beginning, but began to falter when he spent too much time on Ayres and Acorn, and appeared so hurt and angry about Lewis.

    In contrast, Obama seemed as though he had not even been paying attention when the GOP plastered his face on websites and compared him to Bin Laden. I thought he should have shown a little passion and hit back about the slurs.

    McCain should realize that most Americans are not going to believe that Obama is a dangerous radical after they've watched him in three debates, and that they care more about the Dow than about a guy who was a terrorist 40 years ago. Obama is not going to make Ayres Secretary of the Dept of Education.

    Obama did very well in the last half-- I thought his answers on the education, health care and abortion were spot on, and they registered very well with the test audience at CNN.

    Bennett and Castellanos liked it because Republicans always want their candidates to come on like gangbusters and kick a**-- but that is not how the majority will perceive the final debate.
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    David Gergen has been consistently the voice of reason and fairness throughout all this mess on CNN. He also went on The Colbert Report last week sometime to talk about the negative McCain campaigning and its repercussions. I didn't get a chance to watch CNN's post-debate commentary this evening though sadly, but hopefully I'll catch some of the highlights online or over the weekend. Anderson Cooper & his debate bunch do a great job (most of them) post-debate, and Gergen in particular has stood out to me on each occasion.
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    Lotus- He's one of the last of a dying breed- his agenda is to bring people together and stop the negativity. I agree with him-- we are tearing country apart ourselves- we don't even need the terrorists to do it for us.
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    If there's a David Gergen Fan Club, sign me up! Truly we are participating in a pivotal moment in our nation's history -- there's so much going on and so many people getting out their viewpoints and getting excited (some a bit too excited to the point of overzealousness.) I think we're at the extreme end of a pendulum swing in the political, social, cultural and economic climates all.

    But the good part is getting to know the growing number of centrists, independents and moderates out there. Hopefully all this extreme partisan stuff will wear itself out and the majority of us can get down to the business of rebuilding our country, as you point out. There's just way too much to be done and too many enemies at our gate to give in to in-fighting. A house divided and all that.
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    I saw Gergen on CNN after the debate and I liked him. I also saw CNN's interview with Hillary Clinton. She seemed happy.

    I switched over to FOX to see what they were saying and their political analyst (sorry I don't know his name, but he sort of reminds me of the latino guy who won the presidency at the end of "The West Wing") seemed to think that Obama was going to win. But this political analyst on FOX couldn't give any credit to Obama... This analyst said that it was the Democrats' year, and he even said that if Ronald Reagan had been sitting in McCain's chair, Reagan would not have done any better....

    So I can't help but wonder if that will be what we see in the coming days, weeks and even months... that the GOP won't give Obama his due credit and will claim that Obama won (assuming he does) because this is an off year for Repiublicans- that everything worked against them.

    It's sad if that happens because the GOP could be a great party if they had a leader who is able to redefine the party.... But if the GOP just licks their wounds and claims that it wasn't their year, then they won't take ownership for their own failures.
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    SB- Sherrod Brown said those voting for Obama should watch the results on Fox on election night-- and enjoy their reaction if he wins.

    Lotus- I would be a charter member of the David Gergen fan club-- he reminds me of the days before partisanship was the only guiding force in the nation's capital-- and politicians and pundits behaved a little more like adults. I've been a fan of his since the '90's when he helped Bill Clinton recover from the disasterous advice he got from Dick Morris (who wanted him to keep lying about Monica).

    At some point we have to realize how detrimental it has been for D's and R's to put party ahead of country. One thing I like about Obama, is that he appears to be able to give credit to his opponents as well as his allies.


    SB- I see the GOP regrouping and returning to the conservative principles that they were never able to actually put into action. They don't work because of special interests and the fact that politicians have to bring home the bacon to show they have represented their district. It was all well and good to criticize federal spending and pork-laden bills when the Democrats were in charge before '94. Once they were in charge of both houses they did no better.

    The no new taxes pledge is really the most ridiculous-- because it ties the hands of our leadership and forces them to use deficit spending or ignore growing needs and problems.
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    But the question on all the hockey mom's minds is - Does Joe the Plumber have Six Pack abs?