Good lord...
The Karl Rove second-stringers now running the McCain campaign launch a couple of truly inane "character attacks" on Barack Obama and the bedwetters and handwringers are out in force...
"We're DOOMED! It's Bush-Kerry all over again!"
A couple of key points:
- Barack Obama is not John Kerry
- John McCain is not George Bush
Oh, but here's the really big one:
Other than that, the situations are exactly alike!
(more)
Let's take these one at a time...
Obama is not Kerry
Obvious, I know. But Obama is a superior candidate to Kerry in almost every respect (save for "experience"). In addition, I will take Obama's campaign team over Kerry's tired, Beltway line-up any day. Kerry was a weak candidate. Does anyone here think Obama's campaign skills are weaker than Kerry's?
McCain is not Bush
McCain is old. He is set in his ways. He doesn't take direction. He is not about to have any handler slap him around the way Rove slapped around Bush in both of his races. ("Just shut the fuck up and say what I tell you to say! Nothing more!") Bush was and is the perfect puppet. He says what he is supposed to say. He just doesn't want to have to do any work. He's a lazy turd. He doesn't care about impressing people. McCain can't shut up. He doesn't know when to shut up. He's the Republican version of Joe Biden, except that McCain is completely and totally out-of-touch.
2008 is NOT 2004
This is the biggie. In 2004, Americans were still concerned with national security. Rove and company flogged 9-11, day-in, day-out. Views of the Iraq war were just beginning to turn. Now, a large majority of Americans want us out.
But the real difference is the economy. The focus of voters has switched from national security in 2004 to personal financial security in 2008.
And on this front, John McCain is completely clueless. He spouts tired, old 1950s Republican bromides about taxes and trade. But he's got nuthin'.
Not a damn thing.
And this fact is becoming increasingly apparent to more and more Americans. In fact, the more McCain speaks about the economy, the more obvious it becomes that he and his motley crew of Rovian disciples have nothing to add in terms of solutions. So we can expect these Rovian dead-enders to trot out gay marriage or religion in schools or Obama's nefarious associations with 1970s Weathermen next.
But here's the thing... When people are nervous -- or downright scared -- of how they're going to pay their mortgages or car payments or put their kids through college or buy gas or food or medicine, the crap the McCain campaign is throwing out mocks their concerns. It's trivia. Inanities. Silliness at a time that demands seriousness and real solutions. Of which McCain has none.
My prediction is that McCain will inexorably decline over the course of the fall. People are scared right now, not of terrorists, but for their own economic well-being. They want someone who understands that our government needs to quit wasting money on worthless wars and start pouring resources back into our economy to give folks jobs.
And McCain ain't that guy, no matter how much insulting, inane bullshit his campaign throws at Obama.
So, sorry for the insulting title. But, really, this is not 2004. Obama is not Kerry. And McCain is not Bush (even though he will continue with Bush's destructive policies, from war to the environment to tax breaks for the rich).
It's a different time.