Dan

Calabrese

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May 22, 2008

How McCain Can Win Hillary’s Voters, and Defeat Jimmy Obama

Barack Obama is so amazing, he gets closer to clinching the Democratic presidential nomination every time Hillary Clinton creams him in a primary – as she did on Tuesday in Kentucky.

It’s too late, of course, for these huge wins in predominantly white, working-class states to help Hillary. But if John McCain is paying attention, Hillary may be doing him the favor of all favors – with a huge assist from Obama himself, of course. Obama’s recent policy statements, viewed in the context of demographic trends in Democratic primaries, point the way to a McCain victory.

White working-class voters, as well as older voters, have gone for Hillary in huge numbers. That’s why she’s won states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia so handily. If Michigan’s primary had been a real contest, the result may very well have been the same.

Let’s look at three of those states. Ohio’s 20 electoral votes barely went for President Bush in 2004. Pennsylvania’s 21 and Michigan’s 17 went for John Kerry. If McCain holds Ohio in the red category and manages to steal either Pennsylvania or Michigan, he probably wins the election. If he holds Ohio and steals both Pennsylvania and Michigan, McCain wins without a doubt.

Here’s how he can do it:

Obama has recently made two astoundingly wrongheaded statements. First, he opined that Iran is not really much of a threat to the United States. Second, he said the following to a group of environmentalists in Oregon: “We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world's energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we'll be fine. Don't worry about us.”

So, to recap, Islamic radicals who openly vow the destruction of Israel and are aggressively pursuing the development of nuclear weapons are not much of a threat. And American prosperity is no longer possible because “other countries” won’t accept it.

The Democrats are about to nominate Jimmy Obama.

Remember when Obama’s campaign slogan was “Yes, We Can!”? Apparently that didn’t refer to the continuation of the American dream in any practical sense. We can’t. Other countries say so. Presumably, then, “Yes, We Can!” refers to allowing apocalyptic-minded nutcases to gain control of the most dangerous weapons in the world. In fact, Obama is even willing to go personally meet with these lunatics – without pre-conditions.

Why will the world’s thugs need Jimmy Carter anymore? Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il won’t need to settle for a disrespected former president from a generation ago when they can get an audience with the current occupant of the White House.

If McCain hammers these two themes, he will win enough of Hillary’s voters to win the White House:

1. We can drive SUVs, eat the food we want and heat our homes to our hearts’ content, if we unleash America’s ability to create wealth, make wise use of its resources and empower individuals to improve their own lives. It has nothing to do with “other countries.” We have to do some things better and smarter, but there is no reason in the world that America has to resign itself to austerity, and certainly not because other countries aren’t going to “say OK.” Good grief. Remember when John Kerry said he wanted to submit America’s foreign policy decisions to other countries in the form of a “global test”? Remember how that went over? Obama wants to do the same thing with our domestic policies!
2. America has to take serious threats seriously, and not give away its strategic positioning or its international prestige to thugs who don’t deserve it. Obama tried to justify his statement by citing history he clearly does not understand. Kennedy met with Khrushchev, he said, and Reagan met with Gorbachev. As many commentators have pointed out, Kennedy didn’t meet with Castro and Reagan didn’t meet with Khomeini. Not every rival is the same as every other rival. Obama obviously does not understand this. McCain needs to pound him on it, repeatedly and mercilessly. Most likely, Obama will try to deflect the issue by whining that his patriotism is being questioned, or some such thing. Good. That means McCain is scoring points. Plenty of the voters who supported Hillary in the battleground states, especially the older ones, will understand the lessons of history far better than Obama does.

What McCain does not need to do is focus on Rev. Wright, Michelle Obama’s “never proud of my country” comment, flag pins, etc. The voters already know about all this. They don’t need to be reminded. What they want to know is if these things are indicative of more troubling policy inclinations on Obama’s part. The two themes outlined above should create enough doubt to throw a significant chunk of this demographic group to McCain, and that should be enough to bring Pennsylvania and Michigan (and possibly even New Jersey, with 15 electoral votes) into McCain’s corner – and with them, the presidency.

Contrary to the way some want to portray him, Barack Obama is not Louis Farrakhan redux. He is Jimmy Carter Jr. He is calling for foreign policy weakness and domestic austerity. If McCain focuses on these two themes, he’ll get the swing voters he needs to win.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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