| Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia said it clearly on the Sunday morning talk circuit. If Obama wins his state, it is on to victory for him for the Presidential campaign of 2008. In this typically red state, the polls indicate a dead heat with some giving Barack Obama a slight lead. More significantly, the numbers pile up even better for Obama in the national polls. In just about every scenario, John McCain will have to run the table and win all of the toss-up states in a clean sweep if he is to beat Obama. Some prognosticators are now suggesting that Obama will win in a landslide victory. There is much dissension in the McCain/Palin camp. What are the candidates focusing on as they make their way into this final stretch of this campaign? Senator Obama has continued to push his 50-state strategy forcing McCain to play defense in states that were supposed to go automatically Republican. Obama called on his supporters to remain vigilant, vote early and not be over confident. He has gotten the response that he wanted across the nation as news video documents the fact that hundreds of thousands of voters, many of whom are Black, Latino and youthful, waited in lines for up to five hours to cast their ballots in this historic election. He has also continued to stay above the fray in not responding to the onslaught of vicious attacks on his personal character. Senator McCain and Governor Sara Palin have continued to hammer away at Barack on lack of experience, that he can’t be trusted in a crisis, his economic and taxation policies and personal character issues. They have chastised that he has arrogantly begun to measure the size of the curtains in the White House before the votes have been cast and counted. Palin quipped that Obama has begun to “cut-down the nets before the basketball game has ended.” Ads have been run, speeches have been made suggesting that Obama is “un-American,” and that he “palls around with domestic terrorists.” While these tactics and speeches have served the limited purpose of exciting their Republican base, it has not worked with the broader electorate as indicated by an increasing deficit in the polling. The electorate is more interested in discussions about real problems and real solutions. The McCain/Palin campaign has been forced to play defense in states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado and Missouri that were supposed to be an automatic win. McCain has viewed with alarm the fact that in formerly solid red states like South Carolina and Georgia, polls are indicating that Obama has closed the gap to within 5 to 6 percentage points. They continue to complain about being outspent by the Obama fund-raising juggernaut. They also continue to complain about the negative publicity that seems to follow Governor Palin wherever she goes. Last week, it was the outcome of the “Troopergate” investigation. This past week, it is the $150,000 spent in two months on her wardrobe. In her editorial, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd exposed the duplicity in McCain, Palin and the Republican National Committee’s attack on Senator Obama as an elitist: “The Republicans’ attempt to make the case that Barack Obama is hoity-toity and they’re hoi polloi has fallen under the sheer weight of the stunning numbers: The McCains own 13 cars, eight homes and access to a corporate jet, and Cindy had her Marie Antoinette moment at the convention. Vanity Fair calculated that her outfit cost $300,000, with three-carat diamond earrings worth $280,000, an Oscar de la Renta dress valued at $3,000, a Chanel white ceramic watch clocking in at $4,500 and a four-strand pearl necklace worth between $11,000 and $25,000. While presenting herself as an I’m-just-like-you hockey mom frugal enough to put the Alaska state plane up for sale on eBay, Palin made her big speech at the convention wearing a $2,500 cream silk Valentino jacket that the McCain staff had gotten her at Saks.” The strategy of trying to paint a picture of Obama as an elitist also flies in the face of their attempts to now paint him as a “socialist” who wants to spread “Joe-the-plumbers” wealth around with his so-called tax policies. To even offer such a critique in the midst of the largest Republican-led nationalization of the banks, finance and the insurance industry, is absurd. This is yet another example of the erratic and contradictory messages from the McCain campaign. Senator Obama prefers helping the lower and middle classes, while McCain prefers tax relief for the wealthy — or socialism for the corporate structure. Senator McCain also interestingly see’s no consistency with Obama’s policies as he himself has called for a $33 Billion bailout to buy out bad mortgages from the banks. With the stakes being so high and time running out as Election Day approaches, sharp divisions are now emerging in the Republican ranks. Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania has now suggested that McCain will probably not win his state attributing his eventual loss to the fact that McCain utilized poor judgment in the selection of Governor Sara Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate. Republican stalwart Billy Kristol, in a piece in the New York Times, has called for the firing of the campaign staff. In an article in the Washington Post, David Frum, former speechwriter for President Bush, has raised concerns that the Republicans are now poised to lose further down the ticket in Senatorial and Congressional races. On the stump, McCain and Palin are now warning their supporters about the dangers of having “one-party” rule led by Obama, Pelosi and Reed. As Obama departed from his Obama Express Plane after his late night arrival to meet with his ailing grandmother in Hawaii, a huge sense of pride and achievement welled up in the chests and hearts of his supporters around the world as we all began to sense a historic victory that none of us thought we would ever see in our lifetime was near and in sight. Obama understands that we should not wallow in that for too long and too deep because much work needs to be done and must be accomplished in the days ahead. Senator Obama and his supporters must continue to remain vigilant and focused. His campaiagn should expect an escalation in the attacks from the “personality” and not “policies” approach by the opposition. Obama is right to ask his followers to continue to get to the polls early in order to avoid what will probably be the longest lines ever on Election Day with record numbers voting. He should also continue to put the focus on those states and communities where it appears that there is some chicanery going on at the polling sites. Why is it that incidences of voting machines breaking down and running out of ballots always seem to take place in communities and districts dominated by students, people of color and other Obama supporters? In many states, given the unpopularity of the Republican brand, efforts have been undertaken that make it harder, if not impossible, for voters to vote a straight Democratic ticket. Efforts must be undertaken to inform the electorate of the identity of Democratic candidates further down the ticket. Obama has to continue to insist that the antics that marred the elections of 2000 and 2004 will not be repeated again so as to undermine what appears to be his clear path to victory. |
A clear path to victory
