If you count yourself among those who are just itching to take a hammer to John McCain's clay-footed image of straight-talkin' maver-ickyness, but aren't quite sure where to begin, I can empathize. After all, when it comes to avenues of political attack, the McCain campaign offers what Fmr. Secretary of Defense Donald Rrrumsfeld would call "a target-rich environment".
There's his temper, his coziness with the lobbyists he so loves to publicly disdain, his
crazy, war-mongering foreign policy, the list goes on. I understand that it can be hard to decide which one to choose first, but perhaps I can offer a
suggestion:
NBC/WSJ Poll: Bush a liability for McCain
A new poll says Bush — not Wright or Bill Clinton — is voters' main concern
By Mark Murray
Deputy political director
NBC News
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright could hurt his presidential hopes. So could his comment about “bitter” small-town America
clinging to guns and religion. And Americans might question Sen. Hillary Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness. But according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the bigger problem appears to be John McCain's ties to President Bush. In the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.
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Let us pass over Murray's annoying insertion of GOP talking points into his lede, and focus for a moment on the figures. ¿Forty-three percent? That's a rather large group of pipples to have holding a negative view of McCain, especially considering that the general election hasn't even started. That number grows to sixty-one percent if you add in the respondents who think McCain's close ties to Bush are a moderate, but not their major, concern about McCain.
McCain's albatross problem gets thrown into sharper relief when Murray relates some numbers on Sens. Clinton and Obama.
By comparison: 36 percent have major concerns that Clinton seems to change her position on some issues (like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband signed but which she now opposes)
34 percent say they’re bothered by Obama’s “bitter” remarks
32 percent have a major problem with the Illinois senator’s past associations with Wright and the 1960s radical William Ayers
27 percent have serious concerns that Bill Clinton would have too much influence on U.S. policy decisions if his wife is elected
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After all the crap that has been spewed at, towards, and about Hillary Clinton for the last seventeen years, that thirty-six percent is a bit underwhelming to be regarded as a possible angle to reduce Clinton's vote totals. It seems voters just don't see her as that much of a flip-flopper.
I suppose with the Clinton Rules of Journamalism in force that figure could get up as high as forty percent. But considering the constantly reinforced media narrative of Clinton as being an unlikeable and divisive figure, I'd have to think they'd report something more damaging to her if they had it. So,
thirty-six percent? That's all you've got?
As for the claim about Obama's chances being hurt by the Wright flap and his comments about those who have lost hope in this country's political system, only 32% are even bothered by them. Come on pipples, we're talking Bush dead-enders here.
It gets even sillier when, in the first paragraph of his article, Murray contends that "...Americans might question Hillary Clinton's honesty.", because the poll sample (pdf) linked from the article shows only
thirty-one percent feel that way. The same number of respondents who felt that John McCain "changes his positions on things". So, 31% think McCain's a flip-flopper, but Murray puts Clinton and Obama's negatives, with the same ranking, up front. Pffft, water-carrier.
Forty-three percent, however, is a pretty big bump to clear, and it's not like Bush is going away anytime soon. The closer we come to election day, the heavier that albatross will get.
Which reminds me:
Post this picture everywhere. Post it on jour blog, post it in comment sections of online newspapers and magazines, and post it in open threads all over the web. Ay, go print up copies of the picture, and put them up everywhere. Shops, malls, gas-stations, telephone poles, everywhere.
That sounds like a good start, no?
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