As everyone knows, McCain has been campaigning hard in favor of the war. He has been garnering support for what many see to be his steadfastness.
In politics, the sublime is judo. To take your enemies greatest strength and use it against him. McCain is leaving himself very open to a potentially devastating attack, from which there can be no recovery.
How is this done you ask? Allow me to explain.
The first criteria to look at is public opinion polls.
According the Washington Post/ABC News poll on 3/2/08,(there are better out there I know, but this one is fine for these purposes) 63% of Americans think the War in Iraq was not worth fighting.
It has been right around that area for sometime. With the dearth of news it doesnt look like there will ever be any massive swing of support for this war.
While some think that the lack of coverage on the war, and its seeming disappearance is totally bad thing, in terms of winning the White House and Congress, it is not. It means that the American public has made up its mind, all the evidence is in, and opinions are settled in veritable concrete. No Surge, No Super Surge, No Double Secret Probation Surge is going to change that.
The next thing to look at is, of course, the Economy.
According to a recent Reuters and Zogby International Poll 71% percent of Americans feel the US is in a recession.
That is not a good thing. Recession makes people angry. Most Americans dislike the war in Iraq but, Hey, flip the channel, turn the page. Tell them their houses are losing value, their retirement stocks are going down the shitter, their jobs may be at risk and throw the entire future into flux and what you have is people looking for some scalps.
Now here is the Judo Part.
http://www.cnn.com/...
Yea. You see it?
We need to drive this point home. Drive it, reinforce it, write it on the sides of walls, talking point it to death. Make sure that when people say "Iraq" the next word out of their mouths is "Recession"
This is the Republican Bear Trap and from it, there is no escape. What are they going to say? "The War is actually good for the economy". Oh mother, please let them say that. KBR? Halliburton? Blackwater?
Now I realize that this is probably precisely what Democrats are going to do anyway... .but in these hours of uncertainty, rest easy that we have the haymaker waiting for when the real campaign starts.
Remember Folks. Its Guns or Butter this election.
The Iraq War costs $5,000 an hour.
The total cost for 5 years will be over 3,000,000,000,000 dollars.
Think about that....
Ask people: "So, what did the $5,000 you personally owe for this war BUY anyway?"
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/...
How much infrastructure went unbuilt? How much research went unfunded? What if we had put a fraction of that money to alternative fuels?
Why are you still reading this... Get out there and make that connection!