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Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McCain. Show all posts
McCain defends Sarah Palin

McCain defends Sarah Palin

McCain clearly defends his choice of Palin for his VP pick.

Sen. John McCain last week gave a full-throated defense of his politically risky pick of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 2008 presidential race, suggesting that he may even invite her to Arizona to help him campaign for re-election to a fifth term.

Speaking Thursday at a Phoenix news conference, McCain, R-Ariz., pushed back hard at a new book that claims his campaign's vetting of the little-known vice-presidential prospect was "so hasty and haphazard it barely merited the name." The book, "Game Change," was written by journalists John Heilemann of New York magazine and Mark Halperin of Time.

"It was thorough, and it was complete, and I am so proud that Sarah Palin agreed to be my running mate," he said in response to a question about the vetting. "And the facts are stubborn things, as Ronald Reagan used to say. The fact is that it energized our party. It gave us a very much-needed impetus, and Sarah Palin's popularity continues very strongly to this day. And the hysterical attacks from the liberal left are ample indication of the threat that she poses to the liberal left and especially the feminist, radical-left movement in this country." . . .
John Fund's list of mistakes made by the McCain Campaign

John Fund's list of mistakes made by the McCain Campaign

John Fund wrote up this list at the WSJ's Political Diary:

Most everyone will cite the candidate's sudden decision during September's financial crisis to suspend his campaign and rush to Washington, D.C., where he proved an ineffective stage manager for Congressional Republicans leery of the first bailout package.

A survey of Republican strategists and officials yielded the following runner-up contenders for worst campaign failure:

1) Sarah Palin's handling by the McCain staff was abysmal, even if all the stories about her alleged flightiness were true. She was carefully held back from media interviews, then made her debut in a shaky interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. Then it was decided to have her sit down next with CBS's Katie Couric, whose network was given freedom to edit and promote the interview in such a way as to cause her maximum embarrassment.

2) The McCain campaign never had an effective get-out-the-vote effort. When Republican National Committee officials met with McCain staffmembers in May, they were shocked that McCain aides had little interest in the RNC's vaunted voter contact list. McCain representatives assured RNC officials that the election wouldn't be won with Republicans, but with independents and moderates.

In the end, the McCain campaign stripped away funding for its get-out-the-vote efforts in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania and replaced them with high-cost TV ads. The results were not good. Mr. Obama romped to a solid 55% victory in the Keystone State.

3) John McCain himself took off the table the option of airing TV ads critical of Mr. Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Former Democratic consultants Dick Morris and Bob Beckel both agree that Mr. McCain unwisely and artificially circumscribed his campaign. "The Wright issue could have been framed as a judgment issue rather than as a racial issue," Mr. Beckel told me. "But they boxed themselves in only to discover that by comparison with 2004, there were few if any outside groups running independent ad campaigns critical of Mr. Obama's history and record." . . .
"Obama Maintains Overall Swing State Advertising Lead"

"Obama Maintains Overall Swing State Advertising Lead"

McCain waited until right before the election to use his very limited advertising budget. Yet, even still Obama had more money to spend on advertising.

Nielsen just posted an updated analysis of Presidential advertising in the seven key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia:

During the final weekend preceding the presidential election, Sen. Barack Obama ran 77% more TV ads than Sen. John McCain (5,947 vs. 3,358) in seven key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
McCain, however, showed a much larger percentage increase in TV advertising from the previous weekend (Friday October 24 thru Sunday, October 26) to this past weekend (Friday, October 31 thru Sunday, November 2). McCain bumped his TV ad units up by 76% overall in the seven battleground states Nielsen tracked, while Obama increased his advertising in those states by just 3% over the previous weekend.
To date, both McCain and Obama have advertised most heavily in Florida. Obama ran 24,834 ads in the state between October 6 and November 2, outpacing McCain’s 8,599 ads by almost 189%.
Between October 6 and November 2, Obama placed 135% more ad units (80,504 vs. 34,179) than McCain in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
(Note: this data includes national and local ads seen in these states, as well as syndicated advertising. Local cable ads are not included. Nielsen’s ad unit data shows preliminary commercial occurrences and may fluctuate from day to day, as data is updated.)
Zogby Poll Puts McCain ahead by one percentage point

Zogby Poll Puts McCain ahead by one percentage point

You can find a summary of Zogby's most recent poll here:

Half of Zogby's current national poll average was taken after Obama's infomercial ... and here are his preliminary findings.

No evidence that Obama benefited from the infomercial.
Obama's support dropped 1.1%, McCain's gained 0.8%.
The last day of polling had McCain winning 48% to 47%. Zogby cautions us to wait until tomorrow to see if McCain really has traction.
Pollster John Zogby: "Is McCain making a move? The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama today, 48% to 47%. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all. "Obama's lead among women declined, and it looks like it is occurring because McCain is solidifying the support of conservative women, which is something we saw last time McCain picked up in the polls. If McCain has a good day tomorrow, we will eliminate Obama's good day three days ago, and we could really see some tightening in this rolling average. But for now, hold on."
The Campaign and the Gun Control Issue

The Campaign and the Gun Control Issue

While Simon is a strong Obama supporter, he might be right a question that I have wondered about. In any case, it is something that I hope the voters understand themselves.

On guns, McCain misses the mark
By Roger Simon
Chief Political Columnist
Politico.com
October 29, 2008

Guns are a potent force in American politics ... But has McCain really exploited this? ... considering that the McCain/Palin ticket is now battling for its life in small town and rural America, you would think the McCain campaign would be out there talking about guns every day.


From the Washington Times.

Gun owners fret Obama White House
Voting bloc has 'deep-seated' concerns
By Jennifer Harper
Reporter
The Washington Times
October 30, 2008
Quoting Richard Pearson
Executive director
Illinois State Rifle Association
"If the economy is down, and gun sales are up, it shows you just how deep-seated the concern is out there about the situation. Most gun owners at least until recently have been misled by Senator Obama. Though he claims to be an advocate for the Second Amendment, his voting record in the Illinois Senate says otherwise. He voted for a bill that would ban nearly every hunting rifle, shotgun and target rifle owned by Illinois citizens ... His campaign has done a good job burying his take on firearms."
So why wasn't the boy's father so embarrassed that he couldn't show up at the neighbor's dorr

So why wasn't the boy's father so embarrassed that he couldn't show up at the neighbor's dorr

I wish that I had a degree in electrical engineering. It would be nice to know who is taking my yard signs.

Shawn Turschak of Chapel Hill was tired of someone stealing McCain-Palin campaign signs from his yard.

So the man with a degree in electrical engineering hooked up a third sign to a power source for an electric pet fence Monday. Turschak also put up a surveillance camera.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Tuesday, a 9-year-old boy with an Obama-Biden sign grabbed the McCain-Palin sign and got a jolt.

The boy's father, Andrew Noble, then showed up at the Turschak's door, upset his son had been shocked. Soon an Orange County sheriff's deputy also showed up at the Turschak's home.

Noble says his son just wanted to see how the sign was put together. Turschak says the boy intended to swap out the signs.

Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he doesn't plan to file charges.
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