Wolking’s World

Obama Guevara is increasingly looking like the Democrat nominee for President. Peggy Noonan has a crushing article detailing most of Clinton’s recent woes and questioning whether she is showing signs of confidence or derangement in her public attitude in the face of such impeding elements. She suggests Hillary should be honest with the voters regarding her election odds at this point, but admits that a Clinton being honest is as rare as, well, political ads so bad they are capable of incapacitating the sane (via Hot Air):

Did you make it through?

Moving on, check out this quote and try to guess who wrote it:

Political commentators from various points on the right-wing spectrum are still arguing about the McCain presidential candidacy, lecturing and scolding each other — as if their opinions are going to decide the election. They take themselves too seriously.

Bet you wouldn’t have guessed David Limbaugh, brother of Rush. He continues:

I would never consider voting for a Democratic presidential candidate just because the Republican was not optimal. But I understand why some have drawn the line at McCain’s candidacy.

Regardless, whatever the McCainiacs do, they should not underestimate the intensity of conservative angst against him, his recent record and many of his current positions. His conservative opponents are legion and they will not be appeased with glib promises.

It wouldn’t matter if Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham and every other conservative talk-show host and commentator came together and implored them to vote for McCain. A great many of them will not do so unless they are personally satisfied they are not selling their country down the river by electing John McCain.

So instead of focusing on Rush, Sean, Mark and Laura, the McCainiacs better address sincerely the concerns of the grassroots — soon. Without the base, all the moderates in the world won’t save him.

This certainly is very true, and the bold portion is pretty much where I find myself at this point. I’m waiting to see who McCain picks as his VP to figure out whether or not I can get excited about the Republican party’s fight to keep the White House in November. So, it is disheartening to read something like this:

With all this talk of “suicide voters” - conservatives who are reluctant to back John McCain - conventional wisdom has it that he has to pick a conservative as his running mate to shore up Republican support on the right.

But there’s increasing speculation in Washington and among McCain’s supporters that the Arizona maverick will instead run to the center and pick a more liberal vice presidential candidate.

The theory goes like this:

Barack Obama has become his party’s front-runner because he has expanded the Democratic Party. His big rallies draw crowds of nearly 20,000, unheard of for a primary campaign.

In 2004, President Bush beat John Kerry by expanding the GOP base in conservative areas.

This is a strategy that simply won’t work for McCain because there is a certain bloc of core, loyal and principled conservatives who will never vote for him no matter what he says now, who he picks to run with, or who the Democratic nominee might be.

Those conservatives will never forgive him for the immigration bill he wrote with Ted Kennedy and for opposing Bush’s tax cuts.

Bush’s 2004 strategy was enough to edge out a boring stiff like Kerry, but it would hardly match the mania for Obama.

So, McCain’s only option is to run hard for the middle and hope that his centrist ticket can beat the soaring rhetoric and high promises of a likeable guy like Obama with little experience and a liberal voting record.

As AllahPundit remarks:

Smart thinkin’, except for the fact that (a) it’ll only alienate more conservatives and (b) Obama’s sure to tack towards the center himself for the general knowing that, unlike Maverick, his base will be there for him anyway in November. Which leaves McCain fighting a stalemate in the middle while his rearguard troops — led by Limbaugh, who’s hinting that he won’t endorse McCain — melt away. How bad could the melting be? Strong black Democratic turnout in the south + weak evangelical Republican turnout in the south = dude.

But who could he pick? Giuliani’s a non-starter because of his abortion position. What he needs is someone appealing enough to counter Obama, socially conservative enough to get Christians to turn out, but squishy enough on foreign policy and spending to attract moderates…

Could Huckabee really be his VP choice? In my opinion and many others this would be the ticket from hell, but it looks as if there is still room left for it to materialize.

Jennifer Rubin over at Human Events has 5 ways for McCain to beat Obama: national security, the courts, Obama’s lack of substance and accomplishments, winning independents, and how the change Obama is peddling is for the worse.

I can definitely see the first two points working for McCain. I don’t, however, see how Obama’s lack of substance in this election is going to mean anything. It certainly won’t to the media, as they are fawning over him as the next JFK with a touch of the second coming of Christ thrown in. Coupled with that will be the average voter’s ignorance and stupidity–prime targets for just the feel-good rhetoric and pretty face that Obama embodies.

And in an election cycle where, as Newt Gingrich noted in his speech to CPAC, 14.6 million Democrats voted and only 8.3 millions Republicans did so on Super Tuesday, how much will a nicely split independent vote matter? Independents, for what it’s worth, seem to be breaking for Obama and against McCain anyway.

I also fail to see how the 71 year old white guy who has been in Washington more than half of Barack’s life is going to be able to compete on the matter of “change.”

We shall see how all of this shapes up, but today is definitely a downer on the election feel-o-meter.