Number one: McCain has actually based his campaign on support of an unpopular war. Why he chose to support an incredibly unpopular president and his continuing blunder in Iraq has always been beyond me.
McCain likes to cite the surge as “working.” What it has done is stop the continuing loss of American soldiers’ lives, but it can’t bring back the 4,000 who died in this mistaken enterprise. The American public knows this and that is reflected in the fact that McCain’s charge that Obama can’t admit he was wrong about the surge doesn’t carry any weight in the polls.
Number two: The economy is bad, but McCain didn’t automatically have to be associated with it. True, he’s a Republican, and Republicans are getting blamed for the economy. But instead of distancing himself from Bush and his economic policies from the very start, McCain made the stupid statement that the fundamentals of the economy are sound. What was he thinking?
Number three: McCain tacked toward the right fringe of his party in supporting Bush on torture and in picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. It’s widely understood in politics that you move toward the center in the general election campaign. Each candidate has his base. The battle now is for independent voters. Obama understands this. He made several moves toward the center once he got the Democratic nomination.
The race of course isn’t over. But if and when Obama wins, it won’t be–and it shouldn’t be seen as–just because of the economy. It seems to me that how the candidates react to the issues is still important.
