The Mason-Dixon poll has McCain up 6 in GA. Zogby has McCain moving from 12 to 5 down over several days.
On David Brooks’ column today: I think he’s right to criticize McCain for not having a "progressive conservative" domestic policy. Mac didn’t even explain his good health care plan and was obsessive on earmarks, which didn’t impress anyone. But I gotta add that McCain has never been known for his interest in or eloquence on economic policy. Not only that, David, when he was at Berry in April, said the election would turn on whether Americans could get comfortable enough with the idea of Obama as president. If so, he would surge at the end and probably win easily. That projected surge, everyone knows, occured relatively early with the first debate and, of course, the very scary economic semi-collapse. The amazing thing, in a way, is that McCain hasn’t collapsed altogether, which should give Republicans some hope and fear for the next nine days. I don’t think the battle of the health care plans would have helped Mac all that much. The trouble is that his plan is on the "ownership society" model, which isn’t so popular when people feel threatened by economic forces way beyond their control. One more rant: Brooks has been all over the map on Palin; he praises her for achieving "debating parity" with Biden one week and then calls her a "cancer" the next. Now he says she’s a conventional Republican, which is a lot different from a cancer.
I think people would have had less fear about an "ownership society" if McCain had been a little more eloquent in defense of a free society and in explaining how and why the society that Obama claims to protect you and secure your fortune will, in fact, feel a lot more like oppression than security. He tried with his talk of fines in Obama's plan. But it was always too vague and I was never clear that he actually understood it. In the end, I think McCain's campaign suffered from a series of brilliant but unfulfilled inspirations. No follow through.
Ok, one more thing I don't like abou the new password system is that it seems to be impossible to comment by blackberry....
Nevertheless, I think there have been some signs of life for Mac given increased concern over Obama's taxing and spending proposals (it's very hard for anyone to believe his absurd claims about relief to the middle class) and some success highlighting the scariness of total democratic control....Biden's almost incomprehensible lack of rhetorical discipline provides some help here and there too (but probably not much)
The battle of the health care plans happened. It happened in Obama' attack commercials and it happened in the debates. And McCain lost big time because he was not willing to take the time to explain and sell his plan.
McCain might not be very interested in or eloquent on domestic policy but being convincing on domestic policy was an indispensable requirment for winning. Either McCain was going to rise to the occasion and become an effective voice for populist conservative policy reforms or he wasn't. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised but it is still a shame.
Fair enough that McCain's plan was on an "ownership society" model at a time when people were scared and their ownership stakes in their homes and stocks were taking a hit. But that made it all the more important to sell the plan in terms of lower costs and more security.
I'm hoping that me, and many others like me, wouldn't feel at all comfortable with Obama and his liberal elitist socialists in the White House. We conservatives could win if McCain really hammers home his economic plans, but LAYS THEM OUT IN DETAIL!! Tell us exactly what he's going to do--get a spine and call a spade a spade! Show some spunk in the few speeches you have yet to make!