Tag: John McCain (page 17)

Gallup has a new analysis out on Hillary Clinton's swing state advantage over Barack Obama.

In the 20 states where Hillary Clinton has claimed victory in the 2008 Democratic primary and caucus elections (winning the popular vote), she has led John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily trial heats for the general election over the past two weeks of Gallup Poll Daily tracking by 50% to 43%. In those same states, Barack Obama is about tied with McCain among national registered voters, 45% to 46%.

In contrast, in the 28 states and the District of Columbia where Obama has won a higher share of the popular vote against Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries and caucuses, there is essentially no difference in how Obama and Clinton each fare against McCain. Both Democrats are statistically tied with him for the fall election.

....All of this speaks to Sen. Clinton's claim that her primary-state victories over Obama indicate her potential superiority in the general election.

Superdelegates, are you listening?

John McCain shows that he can twist the facts with the best of them:

"[Obama] really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time."

Granted, Obama hasn't done anything to distinguish himself on getting us out of Iraq (aside from his speech in 2002 before we went in) and his experience and knowledge are fair game, but to say he advocated surrender? That's just false.

I might add, of the three remaining candidates, McCain is by far the worst on Iraq.

I didn't hear John McCain's speech on judges yesterday, but Andrew Cohen at the Washington Post's Bench Conference and Ann Althouse provide their views.

Would McCain stack the court with right wing ideologues? Of course he would. There's no better reason, other than the war in Iraq, to make sure he doesn't win in November.

Update: 11:12 pm Comments now closed.

Fox News has a new poll out. Full poll results are here. (pdf)

Nearly half of Democrats (48 percent) think Hillary Clinton has a better chance of beating John McCain in November — 10 percentage points higher than the 38 percent who think Barack Obama can win, according to a FOX News poll released Wednesday. This represents a significant shift from March, when Democrats said Obama was the candidate more likely to beat McCain.

Democrats continue to favor Clinton as their party’s leader, albeit narrowly: 44 percent want her to win the nomination and 41 percent want Obama. Last month Clinton was preferred by 2 percentage points.

There's also an NBC/WSJ poll out taken of all voters, not just Dems. It finds Bush is a liability to McCain and Obama's "bitter" remarks cost him in favorability, as did Rev. Wright.

More...

My own view is that Hillary Clinton is the stronger candidate in November because she is more likely to bring a win in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida, she wins in the big states, and she wins with rural, blue collar and women voters. Her win in PA yesterday was a mirror of her win in Ohio.

Barack Obama simply is not connecting with these critical groups of voters.

Lanny Davis today gives his reasons. The New York Times will have this article on who can better win the swing states in tomorrow's paper -- and this one on electability.

Why do you think Hillary is stronger -- or not-- against McCain in November? The superdelegates need to know.

Here's the latest electoral map for Obama. Here's the map for Hillary. (Hat tip to My DD.)

What does John McCain really think about Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania win? Here's the memo his campaign sent out today (no link, received by e-mail.)

To: Interested Parties
From: Rick Davis
Date: April 23, 2008
Re: Pennsylvania Democratic Primary Results

The race for the Democratic Nomination will continue.

Hillary Clinton's victory in Pennsylvania last night has extended the primary to the next round of contests (Indiana and North Carolina on May 6) and has maintained the competitive nature of the race.

With her 10-point victory, we should expect her poll numbers and resources to increase in the coming days. Primary wins, especially in the 2008 election cycle, have had a direct impact on the national polling numbers for the candidates and when national polling numbers increase, so do campaign donations.

[More...]

Bump and Update: The AP reports superdelegates are not feeling bound by primary results, but more concerned about electability. And the International Herald Tribune says McCain's new strategy is to go after the toss-up states.

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There's no question that superdelegates will consider electability as a factor in deciding whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Based on this analysis by long-time Democratic party activist William Arnone, which I return to again and again for the numbers, here's what I think they need to look at:

• Who can best hold on to the 20 states the Dems won in 2004? Which candidate is more likely to put these states at risk in a battle with John McCain?

• Which candidate has the better chance of winning states that voted Republican in 2004 but are now seen as vulnerable for McCain?

• Which candidate has a better chance of getting the votes of four key constituencies that could carry the election for McCain?

Answers below: [More...]

Sen. John McCain appeared this morning on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos. You can watch the video here. Some quotes (received by e-mail from ABC News):

On Sen. Obama’s approach to the economy:

“..He obviously doesn't understand the economy, because history shows every time you have cut capital gains taxes, revenues have increased, going back to Jack Kennedy. So out of touch? Yes, they are out of touch when they want to raise taxes at the worst possible time, when we're in a recession.”

On William Ayers:

“…his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question. …Because if you're going to associate and have as a friend and serve on a board and have a guy kick off your campaign that says he's unrepentant, that he wished bombed more -- and then, the worst thing of all, that, I think, really indicates Senator Obama's attitude, is he had the incredible statement that he compared Mr.Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, with Senator Tom Coburn, Senator Coburn, a physician who goes to Oklahoma on the weekends and brings babies into life -- comparing those two -- I mean, that's not -- that's an attitude, frankly, that certainly isn't in keeping with the overall attitude.”

A new Rasmussen poll out today, taken Saturday, before Bitter-Gate dominated the news:

The new poll, which was conducted Saturday and has a 4.5 percent margin of error, shows McCain with a 53-to-38 percent lead over Obama in Florida. If Clinton is the Democratic nominee, the poll shows her edging McCain 45 percent to 44 percent in the state.

The poll's results are similar to a Quinnipiac University poll of Floridians released this month that showed McCain topping Obama 46 percent to 37 percent but losing to Clinton, 44 percent to 42 percent.

The poll finds support slipping for Obama and that his unfavorability rating is 56%.

If he doesn't stand up for the right of Floridians to have their votes counted in time to select the nominee, I suspect they won't stand up for him in November.

In the grand scheme of things, I find this funnier than I do problematic, but hey, it's election season. Cindy McCain has been outed for using Food Network recipes on John McCain's website and passing them off as "McCain Family Recipes."

• Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Salad (pdf) (I recommend adding a teaspoon or two of garlic chili sauce to the recipe so it's a real chili lime sauce)

• Passion Fruit Mousse (pdf)

• Farfelle Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms (pdf).

It's not necessary to end the primary race in order to look past it. Democratic groups are forming to launch critiques of John McCain in the general election.

Wealthy Democrats are preparing a four-month, $40 million media campaign centered on attacks on Sen. John McCain. And it will be led by David Brock, the former investigative reporter who first gained fame in the 1990s as a right-wing, anti-Clinton journalist.

The planned campaign is the product of a shakeup in the top ranks of the struggling independent Democratic groups. Brock, now best known as the ex-conservative founder of the liberal group Media Matters, last month quietly assumed the chairmanship of what's expected to be the main vehicle for independent Democratic attacks on McCain, now called Progressive Media USA.

The group aims to fill the gap left by the press corp's failure to accurately report on McCain. [More...]

The Senate Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee are holding hearings on Iraq Tuesday. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain will all be in attendance.

All will be hoping to establish their bona fides through questioning of key witesses, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocke.

Someone suggested that Obama be moved up past his seniority level in the order of questioning. Joe Biden, Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, put the kabosh on that idea.

"The biggest mistake we could make is politicizing this, looking at this in terms of political advantage," he said. "The American people are sick of this."

McCain has the advantage, as ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee: (More...)