The Colin ImpactFollow

Powell supposedly has a chip against the Republican party these days due to their shennanigans destroying much of his credibility and any future political aspirations. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but my money is for Obama.

Powell won't be anyone's VP. With Obama you have the racial angle plus a question of Powell's credibility due to his role in the Iraq War run-up. With McCain, you have two guys who sold out their "independent" label to become card-carrying Bushies later in their careers.

His support for Obama would be interesting if only due to the party lines thing (despite Powell's dispute with the Pubs). His support for McCain would be seen as mainly partisan despite his dispute with the Pubs. I don't see it being a major factor either way.

Most voters have no idea who Colin Powell is. They polled this recently, and apparently 33% of likely voters polled who did know who he was thought he was a white guy.

His endorsement is beyond meaningless to either candidate.

Except for the 49% of voters who are "very concerned" and 19% "somewhat concerned" that McCain would be too similiar to Bush in his presidency. Or, by breakdown, 47/20 for Independents and even 20/25 for Republican voters.

Now is where you start saying that the polls don't really matter because they don't jive with what you were saying and you bet the people would really all say XYZ if only they had responded to your imaginary poll.

Nice.

No. It's really not. But there are some who keep saying that so that if Obama doesn't win, they can blame is on racism. Expect newscasters across the country to say something like "I guess the US isn't as much past racism as we thought...", or other similar statements if (when!) he should lose.

Alternatively, it allows them to paint anyone who isn't an Obama supporter as a racist. Or at least put the idea in people's heads that voting for Obama would prove that they aren't (even if just in their own heads). That's why this idea keeps getting floated out there. The reality is that the impact of true racists in this country is so tiny as to be completely washed out in our EC system.




Yup. Exactly what the Obama camp wants you to believe. Again. Why do you think they've been putting the whole "McCain is Bush3" statement out there for the past couple months? To get people like you to actually think McCain has much at all in common with George Bush.

It's absurd. You almost could not find a viable Republican candidate more different than Bush than McCain. But you'll apparently just repeat whatever you heard on your TV I guess...



And ZERO experience. That's the key here.

I also seriously question the baggage suggestion. When someone rises in politics that far that fast, they have to owe people favors. Who helped him get that assembly spot? Who put him in they keynote speaker position in the Dem convention that sparked his national career? Guess what? Those people are going to want something back. Obama isn't "Mr. Smith goes to Washington". Not by a long shot. He came out of one of the more corrupt political environments in the country. While I suppose it's possible that a completely honest politician could happen to get all the breaks he did to get where he is, given the environment in Chicago, that would seem highly unlikely.


Obama is practically a bought and paid for face man. He gives pretty speeches, while managing to fail to grasp more then the most simplistic political issues.


Let's put it another way. In the last year or so, there have been two significant political events that represented diverting decisions between McCain and Obama. The first was the surge in Iraq. Obama opposed it and wanted to withdraw our forces. McCain supported it. Obama was wrong. McCain was right.

When gas prices spiked over $4/gallon, McCain reversed his long standing opposition on drilling offshore and presented that as a solution. We can debate the time frame or degree to which that would help, but in the minds of the voting public, this was overwhelmingly viewed as the right answer. What did Obama do? He spouted the standard nutty-left anti-corporate line about punishing the oil companies with windfall taxes. A move that even the slowest voter could see clearly would not help at all and would make things worse.


Two issues. Both times, Obama came up with the wrong answer. For any other candidate, this would be the election all on its own. IMO, he'd be a disaster as a president, if his past choices are any indicator.


And that's before his blatant lie/flipflop about gun control. Funny how he now supports a SCOTUS decision that he opposed right up until it came down. And now, magically he's apparently always believed that gun ownership was an individual right. Um... Yeah. Then why say that the gun ban in DC was constitutional?

Funny how a guy can claim to support a right but apparently thinks it's perfectly ok to pass a law infringing that right. So I guess when he says he supports freedom of speech, that still means he'll be ok with a law that makes it illegal for people to speak freely or something... Strange for a guy who's supposedly so educated.

Are you going to lecture us on Chicago politics? Because I'm looking forward to laughing while you parrot whatever you read on a blog this afternoon and pretend to be an expert

Please, do go down this road. I'm so looking forward to it.

Edited, Jul 1st 2008 8:10pm by Jophiel

So you're saying that the public now thinks that McCain is a lot like Bush. Sounds a lot like what I said. Or continue saying it and see McCain's numbers continue to fall. I mean, I get that you're saying that people only think this because of hearing the message but the point is that they are thinking this.Ah, so you have in depth knowledge of who commissioned the Gallup poll. Please share your sources.

"Why do you suppose that is...?" --gabji

Because the fix is in, that's why. Obama will become our next president because of any number of the following:
White guilt.
Racism on the part of blacks.
A liberal press intent on coronating their chosen candidate.
The economy.
Iraq.
The "historic" nature of a major national political party nominating a minority.
Bush.

I think that about sums it up.

Totem

You're probably right, Totem. I won't discount the racial elements to why folks might vote for him.

A couple other polling numbers pulled from Polling Report, regarding the "independent" McCain: A majority of those polled (46%) think that McCain will continue with Bush's policies. Only 36% currently think he's independent in his thoughts & actions (vs 50% Obama). Only 34% believe he'd stand up to special interest groups (48% Obama) and 35% believe he'd work with both parties (48% Obama).

Gbaji can continue his pollyanaa hopes that these numbers are only a reflection of what the people heard before they picked up the phone but, if I was McCain, I'd be plenty worried. McCain needs a large majority of independents to make up for the partisan identification gap and he'll never get them when people see him as more of Bush.

These two are particularly amusing, since they're consistently the top two issues people care about, yet Obama has failed miserably in terms of his decisions to date with regard to either issue.


It's just staggering when I hear people parrot the idea that Obama is strong on the economy. By what measure? What has he *ever* don't to give anyone that impression? Anyone? Bueller?...

It's not a high bar to get over to be better on the economy than the GOP. Spinning a big wheel with random economic policies on it would have performed better. When the current policies are a staggering abject failure of massive proportions, you don't have to do much to be "better".

Don't worry, though, when Obama wins you can tell us how you don't understand it because no one you know voted for him.

It's absurd. You almost could not find a viable Republican candidate more different than Bush than McCain. But you'll apparently just repeat whatever you heard on your TV I guess...
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it doesnt matter.

for me and alot others, what or who mccain is doesnt matter. what matters is that we DO NOT REWARD the republican party for possibly the worst performance from an addministraition certainly in my life time, and possibly in the history of this country.

has nothing to do with views, values, party agenda, or experience.

i know some hard right wingers want it to be, so they dont loose a friggin huge chunk of their own party who feel the same way, but thats the bottom line. you DO NOT REWARD **** poor performance. has nothing to do with "bush3". i readily admit, that in a differant enviroment MCcain would wipe the floor with either hillary or obama. MCCain is a much better man than Bush. i believe we also wouldnt have been in iraq if he won the nomination in 2000, nor would there have ever been a torture scandle.

has nothing to do with Mccain. has everything to do with making sure we DO NOT REWARD **** poor performance. even alot of republicans are sick of the republicans. and the only way to make sure the next one they offer up does a better job.....or atleast can speak the english language......is to make sure they are not rewarded for the mess they handed our country.

unfortunatly, the repubs do have an advantage because of racism. beleive what you like. i know what i see. anyone who would take the time out to vote for kerry should have no problem voting for obama. at the very least there shouldnt be a "trust" issue.