No so fast Obama it ain’t over till the last vote is counted..

 

 Obama is up in the polls, he just got Colin Powell’s endorsement  (I think this matters very little but as i say since this is the biggest job interview in the world, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have him as a reference) democratic registration is through the roof, John McCain and his campaign are stumbling and fumbling their way through this campaign while the country is hungering, begging for change.

Across the country, democrats in congressional and senate races can see the finish line and if the polls are to be believed it is there’s to lose BUT losing is still a real possibility.

Obama has so far mounted and effective defense to Mccain and Republican attacks but the American public is still unsure and ‘uncomfortable’  with an Obama presidency (in past posts i’ve explained some of these reasons) and there is a very real possibility come election day that some voters who have not openly voiced their concerns with pollsters will cast their vote for Mccain. In addition, the youth vote which has propelled and fuelled the Obama campaign may not turn out en masse thus handing victory to Mccain and the Republicans by default once again.

The Obama campaign and democrats shouldn’t, and I hope they’ve learned their lesson after 2000 and 2004, send out the invitations to the inaugural balls just yet. It ain’t over till the last vote is counted and every voter and possible voter matters in this election and I believe that for the first in almost twenty years voters are really paying attention so one little slip up by Obama in the next 15 days could usher in the end of his campaign.

And With John Mccain and his team searching for a narrow victory scenario  you know that they aren’t taking anything for granted and that they will utilize every weapon in their arsenal to win and democrats always seem to have a hard time doing the same and should Obama and democrats become complacent and start to believe it’s a done deal they would’ve have created an opening and path for a John Mccain victory.

At the moment John Mccain, thinks that tying Obama to a socialist ideology  ( I will discuss socialism at length in an upcoming post)while appealling to white working class men and women like ’Joe the Plumber’ with his tax cut rhetoric and sharp jabs by running mate Sarah Palin will consolidate many of these low information voters behind him. And the constant signals they both transmit to voters that Obama isn’t and could never be one them (we all know why just look at him wink wink) regardless of where you stand on the right or the left is an effective often practiced divide and rule political strategy. I don’t know if it will work in this election but we cannot dismiss the fact that is has before.

However, I hope that Obama and his team anticipated these tactics and mount a quick and effective defense to them while at the same time reinforcing Obama’s real working class roots while highlighting his intellectual capabilities and ability to lead and inspire us to be better.

Democrats must recognize that they are still votes to be captured and that nothing, NOTHING should be taken for granted over the next two weeks and they do so at their own peril.

Mccain should’ve practiced the Karl Rove fundamentals

Now, I’m not willing to say that Obama has it in the bag even though all the polls have him up nationally, there are still three weeks left to this campaign and anything could happen.

Obama is still capable of making a catastrophic misstep and those white working class voters who are still on the sidelines could suddenly jump off and throw their full support behind John Mccain. I don’t think either of these things will happen but they are a possibility.

In the last week, I’ve tried to watch John Mccain’s campaign objectively, (yes, I have..lol) and all I have to say is that his campaign is undisciplined and his messages lack direction and consistency.

One day his campaign is attacking Obama’s character and his past associations vigorously. The next day he’s attacking his record. The next day he’s telling his supporters, he’s not an arab but he’s a decent and good family man. The next day he’s talking about his economic plans.

Now, if  I were a rational, intelligent, Republican leaning independent voter I wouldn’t know which message to listen too. But I do know the message that Obama is an Arab, marxist terrorist with plans to enslave white people would NOT be an effective or persuasive enough argument to get my vote.

And this is and continues to be John Mccain’s problem. His messages are inconsistent and imprecise.
And with only three weeks left to the general election this is a failing strategy.

Yes, the current unfavorable political climate, economic conditions and an unconventional opponent should have caused the Mccain camp to adjust their strategy but not so much so to cause their campaign to appear in disarray and desperate.

Karl Rove and his team would never have allowed this to happen.

For all the reasons we liberals hate Karl Rove we must admit he maintained, practiced and demanded message discipline from the candidate and their supporters and when he found a weakness in his opponents he zeroed in on it, concentrated his resources and exploited it effectively to the benefit of his candidate.

Mccain and his team, and the Republican party in general at the moment, lack these capabilities and although it didn’t work in 2006 it can be argued that it might have worked this time around even with all the obstacles.

Mccain has been trying to replicate some of the plays from past Republican play books and they just aren’t working however,  I do believe if they had practiced the ‘Karl Rove fundamentals 101′ from the very beginning we might be seeing entirely different poll results but we’ll just have to wait a few more days to see if their missteps and misfires were disastrous.