There can be no shortage of disappointment that John McCain is where he is in the CURRENT polls despite the state of our nation and the perception of our country in the world. The Republicans have run up a 407 billion deficit, engaged in a war without purpose which we continue to fight, unemployment is a 6.1%, millions of Americans are losing not just their jobs but their homes, gasoline is at record prices,Republicans led us to a new low in world perceptions - do I have to continue?
Many here just keep on making fun of any concern that is expressed with the Obama campaign with either rude pictures (Eternal Hope) or with censoring comments (indycam)- I had to delete a prior diary because of harassment and abuse - but the facts are that with less than two months the overall situation is difficult for our candidate.
Americans form their gut feelings on the candidates in a variety of ways with television being the greatest influence on these perceptions. Sadly many of them are superficial. George Bush who had hardly traveled abroad and despite he was/is a recovering alcoholic was judged by Americans to be the kind of guy they would rather have a beer with and the rest is history.
The media has, because of its limitations, continued to spawn versions of the McCain campaign talking points not only about him, his politics and his history but now also about Palin. To date, she is gaining strength despite having limited qualifications/experience for the job and she can continue to say bald lies with no repercussions. John McCain is still a maverick despite changing all his positions and having turned over his campaign to lobbyists and the religious right.
Is there enough money in Obama's coffers to overcome the media and can his communication skills along with Biden's undo what is building to be a coronation for McCain? I remain concerned that the switch of almost 20% by white women to McCain as reported by Newsweek is a very bad portent for our party. This group is crucial to national success for our party.
For the young writers and readers here: just go back and study what happened to all democratic candidates in the last two generations with the exception of Bill Clinton. It is a frightening scenario and just making fun of those who have lived through these efforts and losing campaigns will not create a victory. There is something fundamentally wrong in the body politic or the approach the Democratic Party takes every four years if, given our recent history, that we can't do better this late in the game. There were TWO conventions - back to back- and the story line that came out is not favorable to us.
There needs to be careful analysis of what the best options are. I am fairly sure we have not dented the McCain campaign in the nation's eye despite millions of dollars of investment in advertising and some wonderful speeches by our candidates. Why?
In closing I would like to say that Barack Obama has chosen to stay arms length away from the politics here. I would remind the readers here that it says something about how he views this wing of the party and perhaps the politics he may pursue if we are successful in getting him in office. Don't be surprised!