July 23, 2008
Obama : McCain :: Reagan : Carter (David Keene)
As I write this, John McCain and his campaign seem to have escaped the potential damage that might have been done to them by Barack Obama’s Magical Mystery Tour of the Middle East.
The visits to Iraq and Afghanistan and the meetings with officials in both places, as well as the appealing snapshots of the candidate mingling with our troops, yukking it up with the Jordanian king and dropping by Israel on the way to Berlin were designed, one assumes, not just to show that the man from Illinois knows where these places are, but to demonstrate that he knows what he is talking about when he discusses international issues and to get American voters comfortable with picturing him not as a candidate, but as someone they can envision as president.
It can be argued that his campaign went a bit overboard in presenting their man as if he is already president, but the fact is that this election resembles nothing so much as the 1980 race between Carter and Reagan — with Obama as Reagan. By the summer of that year, voters were so down on Carter and the Democrats that they desperately wanted to send them packing, but weren’t sure they could afford to do so.
Carter actually led in most polls through the summer and into the early fall because voters didn’t know if they could actually vote for Reagan, who’d been framed by his opponents as a bomb-throwing lunatic who might plunge us into war if he ever got near the button. By fall, however, as the results of the debates and the opportunity to take Reagan’s measure had settled in, voters finally got comfortable with the idea of him in the Oval Office. When that happened, the bottom fell out, Carter was gone and a lot of Democratic senators and congressmen got sent packing along with him.
This year is shaping up the same way, only this time it’s the Republicans voters want to fire. And this time, it’s the Democratic nominee they are not quite sure they can put in the Oval Office.
I would maintain that Obama has a higher mountain to scale than did Reagan, but the challenge is the same. If at any point between now and Election Day voters decide they can actually trust him as president, they’ll give him the job and the close race today’s polls seem to be predicting will turn into a Democratic landslide.
That could have happened this week, but it didn’t. Obama didn’t get much of a “bounce” in the polls when he wrapped up the Democratic nomination, and it doesn’t appear that he got much as a result of his whirlwind foreign tour. McCain’s people can count themselves lucky, and Obama’s have to be worried, because if a successful tour — complete with adoring crowds, foreign leaders ready to accept him as president and press coverage that any candidate would kill for — hasn’t made a difference, they have to be wondering what will.
What this tour and its lack of resonance demonstrated is that this race is all about Obama and that thus far he hasn’t been able to do what he has to do if he wants the sort of victory he’s hoping for in November.
Keene is chairman of The American Conservative Union, whose website can be accessed here.
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Sometimes when you have nothing to offer, and nothing to add, and nothing to give, combined with the fact that you knew nothing to begin with, why, you're Barack Obama.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — July 23, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
Allow me to paraphrase this psycho babble.
Yes siree folks… the GOP is in deep doo doo, reminiscent of Carter vs Reagan. I need to figure the GOP's obsession with Carter, but I digress..
You see folks, Obama is Reagan but Carter, the incumbent who eventually lost and was leading in each poll, is actually McCain. Never mind that Obama is actually leading in the polls–but why let something like actual facts muckle my reverie? Further, my allegorical references are symbolic in nature and need not pass any intellectual/logical threshold.
Like Reagan If Obama can convince voters that he is a viable CIC, we will get our rear ends handed to us! In fact it should have happened this week and polls say so!
Wait did you say the week isnt over and the polls have yet to be released?..Don't worry about that in fact. Phew!!! we escaped a big one fellow GOpers! lucky us!!
I beg to differ when you state that the "tour and its lack of resonance demonstrated" that Obama is doomed. Your entire post is a rambling rant and an exercise in cognitive dissonance.
Comment by Theard — July 23, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
McCain is Reagan complete with the fake caring for the masses.It is hard to say who is more of a hypocrite.Reagan the democrat Union Leader who turned into the republican union buster because he was wiley enough to sniff the way the winds were blowing because of the Iran Hostage Crisis or McCain the son of an Admiral and an oil company heiress that has lied his way into getting some fools to beleive he is a straight talker.He is for private school vouchers because he was a child of privelege that attended an episcopalian private school.He left his first wife for another heiress and has been guilty of felonious acts as a senator (remember the Keating 5 ?taking a 200K bribe for a vote IS a felony) and has added little to the senate in the way of any productive legislation.He voted to rubber stamp Bush 95% of the time.That is the straight talk.He also derailed Bill Frist's agenda with his gang of 14 .Now I happen to like that part of the 109th Congress but why did McCain slit his own leader's throat?Because he is a power hungry child of privelge who never grew up.He is a bully.Are you aware that he killed 137 sailors in his last plane accident?He was removed from his command because he was a failure as a leader and assigned a desk job.Why ?Because he was the son of an admiral that's why.Now onto to Reagan and what he did to Carter's energy agenda.I remeber him laughing about taking the solar panels off the White House.He also along with all of you great so called leaders made fun of Carter wearing a sweater because he turned the heat down in the White House.Is that funny now?What about the air traffic controllers union that he busted and fired all of the employees?He was warned that if it was not replenished in a methidical way that the air traffic controller would all age at the same time.Did he listen ?Carter was so right .
Read this and tell me who was right.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html
Notice the date?
I'll take Carter anyday over a B actor with a social climber like Reagan with an assault on the middle class he came from agenda that sadly worked.
McCain will not win .Americans have been lied to for far too long and this time people like me will make sure the truth comes out.
Comment by LindainCt — July 23, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
"..John McCain and his campaign seem to have escaped the potential damage that might have been done to them…" Sorry, but your post is awfully bias. Why are you drawing conclusion on something that is halfway done, that is Obama's trip. Obama doesn't need to look as a CIC as McCain. All he needs is to close the gap to a single digit in the polls. As many are reporting, except the GOPers, he has been looking very presidential, no gaffes (while McCain is on a gaffe tour). I do agree with you on one point, if it was the one you were trying to make, that is if within a month after the tour Obama is not making some gains in the polls as regard to the Commander In Chief threshold, that would be a problem.
Comment by Charly b. — July 23, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
My post is biased but it is honest as well.I have watched some of our most ppressing national issues be conceived and developed by manipulative leaders with a hidden agenda for far too long.I love this nation and am tired of settling for sloppy seconds because we have a large portion of the electorate that gets sweet talked into buying into bumper sticker policies.In reality most Americans have voted against their own best interests for some time now.Did you take the time to actually read the link I posted? I have watched politics and politician my entire life.I am tired of bar stool politics that MARKET a candidate .I want to elect a leader.If Obama was a repub right now and McCain a dem I would still want Obama.I have crossed the aisle in the voting booth several times in my life.If I sound biased it is because I am .I am biased against poor leadership based on rhetoric not facts.Now fact check everything I posted in my prior posts please and read that link.Then tell me I am dishonest.I assure you that you can't.Isn't that what we want?
Comment by LindainCt — July 23, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
Part of Obama's problem is that he's a one-man gaffe machine, especially on this trip. If you thought he couldn't sound as stupid as when he said the US had 57 states, check out his interview with Couric. He's still against the surge even though he admits it has worked and saved lives, and his plan for Afghanistan is…a surge.
Obama is a complete moron. Adoring Germans won't change that.
Comment by Rob — July 24, 2008 @ 8:49 am
Like the rest of his campaign, NObama is skipping around the Middle East living the fantasy that he is already the President. He's visiting troops and meeting with top Commanders and he's visiting World Leaders. We can be sure that behind closed doors he's saying to them "When I become President, I'll …" Big assumption there Barack, you may be leading in the polls recently, but polls don't mean much, votes do. Just ask Gore and Kerry.
Comment by John Simmons — July 24, 2008 @ 10:07 am
It's a pleasure to see old Europe endorsing Obama, I am sure it would play well in most American households. That powerless, spineless, immoral Europe that's willing to avoid (actually delay) confrontation with evil at all costs. West Europeans like him because he represents their "values", desire to be liked at any cost, desire to appease arab dictators in exchange for cheap oil, because just like them Obama does not have a core set of beliefs when he'd put his life on the line for his country. Comparing Obama to Reagan is like comparing Ted Kennedy to General Petreaus.
Comment by Misha — July 24, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
It's good to see Misha McVeigh put Ted Kennedy in a categorie with Patreus. Geez, what a neocon kook. You're getting a bit confused there Misha. Time to get away?
Comment by Lester — July 24, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
I keep hearing of these highly educated, sophisticated supporters of Obama, i.e. folks like Lester, Mike Coleman, etc. Analyzing the depths of their posts here, one can only imagine the non-sophisticated supporters of Obama…
Comment by Misha — July 24, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
I keep hearing of these highly educated, sophisticated supporters of Obama, i.e. folks like Lester, Mike Coleman, etc. Analyzing the depths of their posts here, one can only imagine the non-sophisticated supporters of Obama…
Unfortunately misha, the quality of the punditry here has been in steady decline, and with it, the conservative responses.
Regular posters such as myself no longer see the challenging discourse that we've come to expect here, so we ridicule them..and if we misspelle or forgot to properly congugate verbs..so what? until the hill raises the level of discourse why bother?
Comment by Theard — July 25, 2008 @ 1:51 am
Misha,
The only Arab dictators have been appeased .Your absolutely correct about that and it has been done for oil and yes ,Misha ,money.
That is why on September 12th the Saudi Family known as the House of Bin Laden was flown out of our nation when Americans were grounded and we paid tax dollars for our FBI to guard the Saudi Arabia Embassy.By the way did you know the name of the nation is officially Arabia?The Saudi title is in deference to thr ruling royal family.Are you aware of how they treat people other than the ruling class there?Read about the Caryle Group and the oil deal that has been made with Kudistan in Iraq.See who is profiting from the oil by dealing with the dictators in the Arab region.Look at the deals being made in Dubai as well.Follow the money Misha.After you do come back and address this issue with some real facts not the right wing rhetoric you have posted here.You are posting on a vast source of knowledge called the internet.Use it to culture an argument based on facts.We will all be better off if you do.
Comment by LindainCt — July 29, 2008 @ 10:04 am
Look up and see who Richard Pearle is Misha.Then tell us what you think about this oil deal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121729971113092303.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
Comment by LindainCt — July 29, 2008 @ 10:39 am
[…] Add to that David Keene, Carolyn Lochhead, EJ Dionne, mybarackobama.com and a host of others. So, with apologies, here is a viable alternate future Wikipedia entry: […]
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