Why McCain's Current Stragegy is Doomed

Anyone who's paid any attention to my recent political musings has probably picked up on my rather vocal disapproval of John McCain. The media has covered him with breathless anticipation, looking past faults to create a story about McCain that people would buy- the underdog anti-Bush social liberal that has enjoyed more coverage than any other candidates combined this race. Insiders say the press under-covered McCains gaffes so they could make a good story about him.

See here for the full story on McCain's coverage- not only is this a revealing story about McCain, but it means the press has a reason to cover him, and probably has material on him which could come out as soon as he's fighting Democrats on his left instead of Republicans on his right.

That's essentially why McCain is doomed- unless he changes course. Right now, he's attacking the right-wing pundits who are essential to getting people to vote come November- he's painting himself as a "true conservative", which nobody should be buying, and other than that, the only real strategy he has is that he'd be better than Hillary.

First of all, this looks faulty as an Obama victory looks surer and surer- although Hillary leads with superdelegates at the moment (by some counts), Obama has the momentum, and the policy-illiterate vote. Hillary's only chance seems to be Texas, where the latino community was supposed to give her support- yet Obama's been cutting into that demographic by most recent polls. That, and in Texas, you could very well see people coming out of the woodworks, going into the polls to make sure Hillary doesn't win the Lone Star state.

Even now, one of McCain's aides says he'll quit if Obama wins the nomination- which is interesting as most of McCain's campaign seems to be predicated on capitalizing on anti-Hillary sentiment. I've seen ads with a Hilary head floating in a crystal ball, saying "Don't like this future? Click here!" and redirecting to a McCain campaign site. What's going to happen if there's no Hillary to run against?

The scariest thing is that if the last two elections are any indication, hate doesn't win elections. It raises funds, makes articles, but at the end of the day, if your only stand is against the other opponent, you just don't win. Kerry raised a lot of money off of anti-Bush sentiment and got a lot of coverage for it. But he lost the election because nobody knew what he stood for, and sometimes, hate just isn't enough of an incentive for people to go out and vote on election day. Unless McCain comes up with something fast, I'm afraid the Republican party will end up with the same fate.

His other strategy- painting himself as a "true conservative", should be transparently false to everyone- I'll just run down the laundry list of reasons McCain can never call himself a "true conservative" by any measure. Although some may agree with some of these things, they inherently go against what Republicans stand for.

Besides Immigration (amnesty) and Campaign Finance, McCain is weak on conservative judges (Alito was "too conservative" for him), tax cuts (which McCain denounced as favoring of the rich too heavily even though they focused on lower/middle class, but now says it was because they "weren't associated with spending cuts"), he wants to shut down Guantanamo, he denounced the Swift Boat vets, opposes ANWR, wants to promote socialist policy for global warming, denounced Evangelical leaders (before speaking at their university), denounced "big business" as bad for America, supports stem cells (against the party line), and opposes a federal anti-gay marriage amendment (which is part of the party platform)... the list goes on.

So what does McCain stand for? His stance on Iraq (despite its appeal to the party base) will prevent him from being able to make the bipartisan claim he'll need to beat Obama, as all the anti-war sentiment will all flow to his timetable which calls for a total pull-out regardless of how the situation on the ground actually goes. The opinion of the uneducated anti-war product of the drugged-up hippie era still trumps all recent (but limited) news that the surge is working- Al Quaeda is being defeated, violence is down up to 80% and the troops on the ground see a major positive change. But public opinion doesn't seem to have shifted at all in light of these developments.

This leaves McCain without a real base, platform or appeal. As any shift in appeal to appeal to the base will only be cosmetic and won't convince pundits like Rush Limbaugh, McCain needs a real solid makeover before he can capture any voters. Besides his phoney baloney "straight talk" and being a "maverick" on the issues, McCain doesn't have much for voters to coalesce around. Hillary has tax-and-spend socialism, Obama has nebulous "change"... McCain has no winning strategy other than not being a Democrat. Unless something changes, this November there won't be any real reason for many Republicans to get up and vote.

There's no such thing as a free condom- Published version!

Although it was somewhat edited in the final version, I have now published my first article in the Tulane Hullabaloo. Feel free to leave comments.

There's no such thing as a free condom

You know you've seen them somewhere. At my dorm, I don't have to go past the lobby to see free condoms pushed at me, offering me the chance to live out my sexual desires without consequence.

A condom promises to exempt you from consequence. At the health center, you see numerous pamphlets about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and next to them a big bowl of condoms. The message is clear- if you want sex without the consequences, just get a condom and have some nice, safe sex. This way, you don't have to worry about hooking up with that questionable guy or girl- you get all the pleasure and none of the fallout.

It's time we all saw the truth- there's no such thing as a free condom.

On Obama: Dollars and Sense Beats Change Any Day

I saw Barack Obama speak today. I shook his hand. I clapped for a few
of his points. But I am not impressed. In fact, I'm scared for our
nation as a whole.

The sheer lack of policy substance and realism in his speech today was astonishing for someone so completely presumptuous about his own victory. Yet even more frightening was the enthusiasm with which our college educated university, interspersed with community members and city leaders, took all he said at face value.

Apparently, to those who don't know any better, voting for Barack means that once he's elected, he'll come out with his magic fairy wand and will sprinkle fairy dust over all the land, and peace and goodness will reign.

Yet at the heart of the rhetoric, there are a few really interesting inconsistencies. First of all, everyone's heard the Obama quote almost Dr Seuss-esque one vote two vote red state blue state not existing, and yet Obama is the senator with the most liberal voting record in the entire Senate, even edging out Clinton herself.