This morning on MSNBC anchor Alex Witt spoke with Pat Buchanan and Democratic strategist Peter Fenn about the campaign thus far and a new Newsweek poll which shows Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a dead heat nationwide, but with a large number of undecided voters. The poll also shows the reality of this year’s race — Democrats are happy with their candidates, while the GOP is deeply fractured and unhappy with their choices.
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Despite some of the back and forth issues between Clinton and Obama this primary season, the Democratic Party is in a unique and enviable position. 84% of Democrats in this Newsweek poll say they are satisfied with their candidate being the nominee for president, while the base of the GOP absolutely loathes their front runner, John McCain. Peter Fenn brings up a scathing article in the current issue of The American Conservative which says McCain is unfit to serve as the Commander in Chief. Even Pat Buchanan, who notes the Superdelegate issue could be a problem for the party, can’t deny the divide, acknowledging the Democrats are looking good compared to his party.
Buchanan:”But there’s no doubt the Democratic party is far more united than that crowd I usually hang out with.”
Pam Spaulding looks at the election cycle that breaks all the rules and has the establishment in knots.
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Campaigns/Elections, Democratic Party, Election 08, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Republican Party
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I love watching the MSM telling everybody how McCain can beat Hillary or Obama. The fact McCain wants us in Iraq for a hundred years is enough for voters to reject him. The splintering of Repukes is downright entertaining. I really want to see if Coulter campaigns for Hillary or Dobson to sit out of the election. Will they hold up to their end of the bargain or is it just bullshit?
You think the GOP is fractured now?
I guarantee you on Nov 4, 2008 the GOP will be battered, tattered, and shattered.
There is going to be a MAJOR ASS WHUMPIN no matter who the Dems nominate, Hillary or Barack.
People in this country are hurtin fer certain and are done with Republican conservative rule.
Stick a fork in em, the GOP is done for at least a generation, maybe longer.
The liberals in this country should be loving it. Either way, they get a liberal in the White House come Jan 09.
Paul @ 3:
Shouldn’t you put quotes around liberal? We get a “liberal”???
Yeah. Right.
We need to Unite against McCain and stop eating our own. Hear me Randi, Stephanie?;-)
Don’t count your chocolate bunnies, before they poop any jelly beans.
Over confidence can depress voter turn-out as much and lack of confidence.
Very good article!
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....2/08/6923/
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....2/08/6923/
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....2/08/6923/
Why do people say ‘liberal’ like it is a dirty word? If it wasn’t for so-called ‘liberals’ we would have no regulations for clean air, no safety standards and no government watch dog agencies. Quite frankly I would rather hang out with a ‘liberal’ than a back-water ignorant old red boy Republican any day of the week.
It seems that some in the media are trying to push the idea that if Hillary gets the nod, Obama voters won’t vote for her and vice versa. I think they are wrong. I know as a Obama supporter, I will happily vote for Hillary.
Don’t let the media keep stirring this pot until lots of people believe it’s true. Rumors like this can take on a real life if they are not shot down repeatedly. We do not want to divide our party. Let the repubs divide theirs and lets keep ours together, no matter who gets the nomination. We all know either of ours will be better than the best of theirs.
Still say I think republican ticket will be McCain / Romney ‘08.
I know, Romney said he wouldn’t be VP. But Romney’s changed his position before/ (One thing to say you were wrong on an issue, but going from one ideology to another? Now that’s flip-flopping.) Romney has made it clear he’s willing to take one for the party. And Cheney has made the office of VP almost as strong as the presidency. I think that gives some foundation to my guess he’ll be VP on the republican ticket.
Now for McCain to accept him I think we’ll need to see him getting dismal turn out by Republicans in the next few primaries. If he starts getting as many votes as Huckabee (and perhaps even Ron Paul) up to April 23rd, I think the RNC can convince him to add Romney to his platform.
If republican voting goes this way then I’d expect an announcement a bit before the Republican convention. Then a week of stoking the CPAC troops about how now the country is sa-aved so they’ll forget their current animosity towards McCain.
Yes I am still talking out the top of my head. Just getting tired of nodding how this “fractured” GOP seems to be part of the RNC plan. And want to move on to the question of what happens next.
Regarding the American Conservative. Their foreign policy views line up with Ron Paul/Pat Buchanan. Raimondo has been pushing Paul for 5 years, and is the editorial director at antiwar.com, so that article is hardly shocking. I also happen to agree with the contents of his foreign policy analysys, as would most people who freequent this site, though I don’t like him on issues concerning the welfare state. Anyway, it’s not representative of the base of the republican party, unless you consider Paul the base. If he were, this world would be better off (I’d still vote for Obama over Paul, given the chance, but because of the nature of her militarism, I’d take Paul over Clinton)
Thing Fish @ 10:
Mormons are not well received in the south so I’m not sure about Romney, He is quite flippity- floppity too.
they didn’t interview me. and I’m not happy if Hillary gets the nod. you people are delusional or too young to remember just how great it was under Clinton.
I hate to agree with McCain EVER, but what Change has Clinton ever brought to this country?
It has to be Obama or this country doesn’t move ahead….
repugs are full of shit. They are making it appear that the dems are going to win by default (because they hate mccain) not because under chimpy’s rule everything went south and he’s a dummy warmongering crook.
It’s a wonder anyone in their right mind would claim to be a repug.
—-Firefox: I don’t have a scroll bar (bottom nor side) and the right side is cutted off.—-
well i am not FUCKING satisfied with our candidates!!!!!
they SUCK!!!
change my ass!!! they will feed at the military industrial congressional mediatainment big pharma buffet FOREVER!!!!!
and we will become a third world nation with our overclass LORDS ruling us with bread and the boob tube!!!
YAY!!!
Conservatives are conservatives because they are not able to think for themselves. They’ll come around and tow the party line come November, especially if Hillary is our candidate.
Paul will be factored into the equation sooner or later. He is a force and they will eventually have to acknowledge that. Like it or not. Many will be forced to hold their collective noses to develop the repug ballot offering.
Paul @ 3:
James @ 11:
well said
Buchanan:”But there’s no doubt the Democratic party is far more united than that crowd I usually hang out with.”
What unites the crowd Buchanan hangs with are the bibles in their hands and white sheets over their heads.
Are the Democrats satisfied with their candidates are showing support because they are not Republicans? Since Edwards bowed out I’m supporting Obama because he’s not Hillary and would give a potted plant an 84% approval rating if it were running against a Republican.
Uh, click on the ‘base of the GOP’ link and tell me what those two are holding? Is it what I think it is?
Yikes!
Watching this Washington caucus unfold live and candidly is so fascinating. The CNN reporter is on the phone with CNN HQ to ask whether they want to air a live interview with Governor Gregoire when she stops by the caucus site in about 20 minutes. She just said “She’s for Obama, that’s the only problem.
She then said “AM I LIVE NOW???”
Digg this:
http://www.digg.com/2008_us_el.....ting_Obama
I don’t think Obama can get elected THIS YEAR. His “vision thing” is great, but he has no real GOVERNING experience.
The Republicans (and media conglomerates) are scared TO DEATH of Hillary in the White House… and will do, and say, ANYTHING to help Obama win the nod from the Democratic Party. IF that happens, they will SWIFT-BOAT Obama over his lack of experience, over his name, over his religion… and lack of religion, and whatever else you can think of.
Huckabee took Kansas and everyone knows McCain will be the GOP candidate, but they are still voting Huckabee… what does that tell ya?
I love Air Hockey
IdahoMoe @ 12:
I think a Morman would be better recieved than, woman (especially Hillary) or a black man (even Keyes).
This is the calm before the storm.
If the Democratic Party goes to a brokered convention in which the superdelegates decide the nominee, then the party will crash upon itself and McCain will win going away. Against John McCain, Democrats need the Independents to turn out. They’re not going to turn out, along with the youth, if the nominee isn’t selected by the voters and only the voters.
CowboyBob in Austin @ 24:
You really believe what you just wrote?
Mister Anderson @ 28:
I believe the swift boat portion of what he wrote.
In the end, Republicans will unite behind McCain. Just as most Democrats will unite behind either Obama or Clinton. Primaries are always the time when activists try to push their parties to address the issues that they care about. For example, hard right Republican activist Richard A. Viguerie has been threatening to leave the party for about the last 25 years, but every campaign season he falls back into line only to return again to attack the party for being too moderate.
The worst thing Democrats can do right now is to get cocky and underestimate the Republican party or the gullibility of your average voter to fall for their demagoguery and dirty tricks. Remember, Republicans enjoy the advantage of almost complete synthesis with the Corporate Media. The average person believes the PR constructed image of McCain as a “straight talking, authentic, moderate maverick.” Polls already show that beating McCain in a general election will be an uphill battle, especially for Clinton.
Ruthless People @ 29:
True. The swift-boating will never stop. It’s ingrained in the Republican playbook now; it’s been shown to work. Reality is, though, the ‘pubs would use it no matter who the Democratic nominee was.
Unlike Kerry, Obama has shown a propensity to hit back head-on (for example, he took on Bill Clinton–which I saw as a good sign).
The fact is, McCain has given Democrats MILES of videotaped missteps they can run campaign ads on: “Bomb, bomb Iran;” “I don’t know much about the economy;” staying in Iraq for “a hundred” years; his flip-flop in 2000 about abortion. Really, who is he?
Repugnicants won’t like a Democrat no matter what, but McCain has SAID so many things they won’t like, either. He’s a ready-made advertisement for a Democratic presidency, if the Dems just dig a little bit.
Are all of you morons or something?
How many times are you going to fall for the radical right’s rope a dope crap?
This is WAAAAAYYYY too organized, from the top to the bottom, and doesn’t match up with the voting patterns.
This is talking points.
This is strategy.
This is simply the same old Fred Phelps strategy on a larger scale.
For those not in the know, if you are a radical right winger, like Fallwell (may he rot in Hell), or even Huckabee now (the other day), you simply call old Freddie and cut a deal for him to come protest you, in order to make you look a bit more mainstream.
Same old tricks. This is just on a larger scale. The radical right has been pushing the idea of McCain for the past decade and a half, and yet now, they all abandon him? I for one don’t buy this, and am chalking it up as a strategic move to make his candidacy look more mainstream, BECAUSE AMERICA IS SICK AND FUCKING TIRED OF RADICAL JIHADIST CHRISTIAN ASSHOLES WHO WANT TO START ARMAGEDDON, even though the entire Republican Party is composed of such people from the top to the bottom.
Don’t fall for the rope-a-dope. Just like Ali kicked Foreman’s ass in Zaire, the RADICAL JIHADIST CHRISTIAN ASSHOLES WHO WANT TO START ARMAGEDDON also can still kick our ass if we fall for their bullshit pretending not to support the man promising to give them ARMAGEDDON.
I might add, that this is the same man who sold America down the drain in Hanoi, and became Ho Chi Minh’s go-to guy whenever he needed a happy faced POW to put in front of the foreign media and whom would gladly badmouth America to the enemy. McCain is a TRAITOR! McCain was Ho Chi Minh’s sock puppet! Uncle Ho would shove his arm up McCain’s ass, and McCain would sing any song they wanted him to sing to the foreign press!
Anyhow, don’t let the Traitorous Christians who want to replace America with a Christo-Fascist Iran-like government fool you one bit. THESE PEOPLE LOVE MCCAIN BECAUSE HE’LL GIVE THEM ARMAGEDDON!
EnderW @ 32:
And ARMAGEDDON means the end of the United States Government, and the beginning of Christo-Fascist Theocracy!
Here’s the deal… First of all where is Karl Rove when the GOP clearly appears to need some dirty tricks?
Second, It will be Jeb riding into the GOP convention on a big white horse to save all their collective asses. The big white horse will have been trained by Karl, (W can’t do it as he’s afraid of horses). Think about the Bush brand all dressed up by Karl, without the taint of W’s failures, it’s a love fest waiting to happen in hate land… Can you say Terri Shiavo? Stay tuned for Huck-a-buck or Mitt as willing VP choices serving the House of Bush.
Curiously, McCain will still hug and love W forever and ever, amen; no matter how many times he’s stung. McCain is a tortured POW again, a “Prisoner of W”.
Both Democratic candidates will face a firestorm of attacks by the Corporate Media that will attempt to define them in the most unfavorable light as soft on terrorism and inflate every perceived misstep real and manufactured (mostly manufactured). If you don’t think so, you have lost sight of the last several election cycles which were Democrats to lose only. False PR constructions were employed to ridicule Al Gore and John Kerry to make them appear inauthentic and George Bush as a straight-talking everyman that you could have a beer with. It did not matter that these images had nothing to do with reality, the public bought it because The Big Lie routine was repeated over and over again in the media while policy positions and facts were shunted aside by horse race coverage.
George @ 34:
Can answer the first, Rove’s on FOX (surprise, surprise).
Wowsers, McCain just offered Secretary of State to Henry Kissinger!
that crowd I usually hang out with
He can’t even bring himself to say it.
“Republican” has become synonymous with “fucking idiot.”
Well if you buy the “DEMS LOVE THEIR CANDIDATES” meme don’t listen to that screeching banshee, Lynn Samuels, I have to wonder how she keeps a radio program even on Sirius!!! In fact there are several on the LEFT channel that are beyond annoying…YEGODS…if it weren’t for Wait, Wait…and Prairie Home Companion and some good jazz I’d sell off the Sirius…we got it for AAR and then they jumped to XM…but that station has undergon a lowering of the bar as well…sorry, Rachel…
Again, who says the Bush crowd is just going to agreeably walk away in a year?
Ruthless People @ 29:
Swift-boating will be a ongoing Republican tactic no matter they nominee. But if the Clinton campaign is the strongest political machine in at least 40 years and they can’t knock them out, how is John McCain going to fair any better being that the Republican party hates him more than they hate Obama? We already know he’s Black. We already know his middle name. Democrats and Independents don’t vote on religion, even if Obama was a muslim, so that’s a NON-FACTOR.
HRC has far more negatives than Obama for the right to attack. And in a head-to-head, McCain can draw Independents away from her. And depending on how this nomination is settled, many Independents and youth may either sit out the national or vote for McCain to spite the Democratic party.
I’m registered as a Independent because I’m not going to be blindly loyal t