McCain: Mayors & Governors Do Not Have National Security Experience! Then why did he give us Sarah Paliin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzhFDQIgGSg

Looks like I got a little visit from our libertarian brigade. RDB, Mark, I think we and some other cooler heads ought to get together and have ourselves a little chat when this whole shooting match is over with.

RDB-Agreed, he couldn’t be running from Bush any faster if the current president were chasing him down with a knife. This calls to mind something interesting though; occasionally you’ll hear one of the not so shrill conservative pundits remark on the fact that McCain ISN’T like Bush, but that begs the question: Really, especially over the course of the past two years, McCain has been very much like Bush in policies, yet selling him as though he isn’t is applauded. If he really is like Bush, shouldn’t these same conservative pundits withdraw their support for him?

Why do this?

It’s about winning. For some it may be as a result of actually believing their own ideology so much that they still can’t find faults in it. But I think for a vast majority it is simply about winning, there is not conscious thought to actual governance.

Mark: THANKS! I saw you left a comment a few weeks back and I’m really sorry for not replying. You know I don’t usually get into the comments section that much, though, and when you drop a full blown essay on me, well… Sorry! And to add on to our discussion, you bring up the fact that not all Republicans are the modern three legged stool types, and that’s why after this election I really want to focus my energy on the liberal/libertarian coalition. I won’t get into detail here because I’m very busy at the office today and I still wanted to post two more posts today, post the next chapter to my book at my personal blog, AND I have to work on another project for the gaming blog I contribute to. I’m in the final stages of that project, and that one is supposed to pay me some money, so I’m eager to get things ready to go!

So, I’ve got a full plate, but I think you are definitely right, if we are to see political success and a return to responsible governance, we absolutely MUST start working on Republicans who may be disillusioned with where the neoconservatives and social conservatives have taken their party.

Gail. I think it does fit in nicely. I don’t think it is a message that Obama can reasonably employ, though. I think Obama can definitely hit hard against the attacks that have been leveled at him, but he also did at one point say that McCain would be better than Bush. Plus, he is trying to actually follow through with running a more distinguished campaign, so I think this message of McCain worse than Bush has to be one that really grows from the grassroots, and the surrogates.

Fat: Sometimes I feel like one of the few left bloggers that still has faith in the idea that Obama knows exactly what he is doing, nor do I EVER overestimate the attention span of the public, though one should not underestimate the ability of the media to carry water for one candidate or the other.

In any case, I think we are largely in agreement here, for Obama, my one suggestion might be to simply tweak the message a bit, not change the whole thing. It is about policy, and that is what Obama uses to tie everything together. Thankfully, he seems to have telegraphed that he is going to be hitting a little harder from now on, so we’ll have to see how that works.

The meme that McCain/Palin would be worse than Bush/Cheney (or is it Cheney/Bush? I can never remember) has an added advantage that it is very difficult for McCain to rebut. What does he say? “I’m no worse than Bush?”