Vulnerable
“If current survey trends continue, Obama will finish with less than 50 percent in the polls. Even discounting the Nader vote (some people never learn), the undecided voters could tip the race either way. How will they break?” Dick Morris writes in the Hill newspaper.
“At the beginning of this contest, Obama effectively made the case that the election was a referendum on [President] Bush’s performance in office. Painting a vote for McCain as a desire for ’four more years of the same failed policies,’ he made the most of Bush’s dismal approval rating. Had he been able to keep the focus on Bush, he would likely have inherited most of the undecided vote.
“But as Obama surged into a more or less permanent lead in October, animated by the financial crisis, he has assumed many of the characteristics of an incumbent. Every voter asks himself one question before he or she casts a ballot: Do I want to vote for Obama? His uniqueness, charisma and assertive program have so dominated the dialogue that the election is now a referendum on Obama,” Mr. Morris said.
“As Obama has oscillated, moving somewhat above or somewhat below 50 percent in all the October polls, his election likely hangs in the balance. If he falls short of 50 percent in these circumstances, a majority of the voters can be said to have rejected him. Likely a disproportionate number of the undecideds will vote for McCain. … The question is not so much how large his lead is over the Republican, but whether or not he is topping 50 percent. As long as the polling leaves him below that mark, he is vulnerable and could well lose.”
Next contest
“The 2008 elections haven’t even ended yet and already the first contest of 2009 is well under way. Sources tell Real Clear Politics that several prominent GOPers have already begun jockeying for position to run for chair of the Republican National Committee,” Reid Wilson writes at www.realclearpolitics.com.
“But candidates may have a tougher time getting through what may be a crowded field than they expected. Two sources say current RNC chairman Mike Duncan has held discussions about the possibility of seeking a second term when members vote in January, with one source saying Duncan has already made phone calls to some RNC members.
“Others, including South Carolina party chairman Katon Dawson, former Tennessee party chief Chip Saltsman and Michigan party head Saul Anuzis, are all said to be contemplating a bid for an upgrade to the national office. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported Tuesday that Texas Republican Party chairwoman Tina Benkiser has started making phone calls to gauge support.”
Gripping drama
“Whether it was the hard times, serious national mood or a superb cast, 2008 will go down as a year of great political theater,” Sandy Grady writes in USA Today.
“At this stage in past elections, we’ve all heard pseudo-sophisticates gripe, ’This is so endless and boring; wake me when it’s over.’ Or jaded malcontents grumble, ’Out of 300 million people, couldn’t we get better candidates than these bums?’
“Not this time,” the writer said.
“As someone who covered presidential campaigns for three decades, traveling with candidates and interviewing voters, the 2008 election has crackled with the highest level of intensity in my memory.
“Whether Republican nominee John McCain will defy the doomsday pollsters or Democratic candidate Barack Obama will launch a historic landslide win, the political season that began in Iowa and New Hampshire has been a vivid show of diverse actors, weird plots, dumbfounded pundits. Only hindsight will tell whether 2008 was a game-changing election in the way that Roosevelt-Hoover in 1932 led to the New Deal, Kennedy-Nixon in 1960 intensified the Cold War, or Reagan-Carter in 1980 began a Republican dominance.
“But there’s no doubt that millions have felt a heightened sense of importance: This time it really matters. One clear reason is the gloom of impending crisis, two wars, the global economy and U.S. stock market in belly-churning tumble, and 85 percent of Americans saying we’re on the ’wrong track.’”
End of the tour
Mark Williams flew home to Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday after spending the last two weeks on a bus crossing the country from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., on his “Stop Obama Tour.”
In between, his Our Country Deserves Better PAC tour bus made between 35 and 40 stops “We lost count,” he said in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, before arriving Wednesday morning for a press conference at the National Press Club to make the case that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is “woefully inadequate to be president of the United States.”
Mr. Williams, a radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist, said his PAC has spent $100,000 on television ads in the swing state of Nevada and $500,000 in blue-leaning Michigan on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain. He explained the Michigan ad buy by noting that both campaigns had vacated Michigan. “We had the playing field to ourselves,” he said.
He screened the political action committee’s newest ad, finished just hours before, to the gathering of supporters and reporters at the National Press Club.
Titled “Dictators Mock Obama’s Ignorance,” the satirical 30-second spot features actors portraying Cuba’s Fidel Castro, North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and other despots representing “the League of Rogue Nations” sitting around a conference table and laughing as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes a phone call from a President Obama offering to meet with them with “no preconditions” at “a time and place of your choosing.”
“We’ll get back to you,” the faux Iranian president answers, concluding the spot, which is also set to air nationally on the Fox News Channel. The ad can be seen at https://www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com/.
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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