Politics
Out of context: Reply #529
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- hallelujah0
Favorable/Unfavorable
CANDIDATE FAV UNFAV NO OPINION
MCCAIN 46 46 8
OBAMA 56 35 9
BIDEN 50 32 18
PALIN 42 46 12Palin's -4 and McCain's neutral does not match up with Obama's +21 and Biden's +19. In our tracker, Obama's gone from +9 to +15 with women, from 9/11 to 9/18. Neither Wall Street nor Walmart is saying "Get Palin on the phone."
That means that you can like Palin and not want her anywhere near the WH, especially as McCain looks old and tired and on the wrong side of the regulation argument. In addition, Republican George Bush's lack of leadershipis reflecting on Republican John McCain and Republican Sarah Palin.
It will take a Dem win before people understand that what's good for the Republican base does not translate into what's good for the electorate as a whole. What really happened, as one of our astute commenters noted, is that McCain went for personality (POW and Palin) and missed the opportunity to emphasize mavericky-ness and leadership. And now that consumer confidence is plunging, the lifetime deregulator (McCain) is having trouble re-inventing himself overnight (see McCain: Change You Can Believe I Came Up With Yesterday.)
And remember, McCain and his old boy's network want to put Social Security in the hands of the people managing the Wall Street debacle. Joe Conason:
This populist rhetoric sounds strange, especially when emitted by a politician whose circle of advisers include former Sen. Phil Gramm, vice president of the scandal-tainted Union Bank of Switzerland, and John Thain, chief executive of the firm formerly known as Merrill Lynch. But when facing the angry voters who have watched their savings evaporate, the conservative Republican more hopes to sound more like a liberal Democrat again.
He wants to blur the differences between himself and Barack Obama on fundamental economic philosophy. But there is one critical issue where the Arizonan has established a record that cannot be escaped so easily.
Sen. McCain wants to privatize Social Security. It is a stance he has repeatedly taken over the past 10 years in recorded votes, interviews, speeches and documents. It is also a position that he will deny in this campaign. In fact he tried to deny it at a June town hall meeting in New Hampshire, when he declared, "I'm not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be." But the contrary evidence is overwhelming.