By Jack Lee
Maybe I put too much faith in the voters to see what I see, but I strongly disagree with the pundits about Obama’s widespread support. If you look at straw polling, which I admit is not very scientific, it is still a clue how people think and in every major straw poll on the internet that I’ve seen John McCain is up by a 2 to 1 margin or more! Some of these polls have over 600,000 votes, so how could that be if Obama is supposed to be running slightly
ahead in those scientific polls? That’s a huge gap! I can see how straw polls on the net could be skewed because it targets a certain type of person…they must be rich enough to afford a computer (employed) and smart enough to use it (educated). So right there means you’re going to see more McCain supporters casting votes, but a 2 to 1 margin? No, I think the straw polls are telling us something that the liberal media pundits don’t want to hear.
Now to reverse course, McCain’s pick for VP (Sarah Palin) probably won’t catapult him into the White House by grabbing up all the disappointed Hillary supporters. Hillary’s supporters are for the most part die-hard democrats. Palin is not in their camp, not even close, and it’s kinda silly to think they’re going to cross over because of gender alone. But, the more we learn about Mrs. Palin, as a Mom with kids, living in the real world, dealing with every day real family issues, the more endearing she may become to them and she will get some cross over votes.
Gov. Palin’s entry now is like the proverbial double edge sword, she has about as many negatives as she has positives. Even some of my very conservative Republican friends are a bit nervous about her because she is so unknown and lacks the traditional levels of experience for this high office. However, the novelty of being a female VP candidate has attracted a lot of media attention and thats good. It’s also inspired and re-energized many in the GOP because of it’s historic symbolism. Remember the GOP is the party that got women the vote and this wasn’t easy. They began lobbying for their right to vote in 1848 and it took 74 years before the Sufferage Act became the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
Obama’s choice for VP was dull by comparison to McCain’s. Old Joe Biden has spent 40 years in Congress and he’s made three failed bids for the Presidency. Biden has foreign policy experience and he’s politically astute, we can’t take that away from him. But, is 40 years of being a liberal democrat the kind of quality experience American’s are looking for? Then again how important is the VP choice? A Vice President is mostly a figure head position unless something happens to the President. I won’t speculate what could happen to either, I think you know the obvious risks.
One thing is for sure, this won’t be a dull race and regrettably it probably won’t be all that clean either. Both sides have shown the ability to go negative and throw buckets of mud when it suits them.
My guess is unless something major derails McCain in the next 60 days, he and Palin are on track to be in the White House next year.