McCain sure does seem happy with Democratic developments

April 23, 2008

I tend to think it’s pretty obvious that prolonging the Democratic nomination fight is an awful development, which is why I find it odd when I find items arguing the opposite. In the Wall Street Journal today, for example, Gerald Seib argues, “Toughness and resilience are important attributes, and that is what a long campaign instills in a candidate…. [T]here is an intangible benefit to fighting through all the primaries: Like two-a-day practices at a football training camp, the process develops a kind of toughness that is beneficial.”

Sure, this argument had merit when we heard it after the New Hampshire primary, nearly four months ago. But after 16 months of campaigning, does anyone seriously question the “resilience” of either Democratic candidate? Aren’t Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, after 16 months of campaigning, “tough” enough?

Indeed, if the underlying premise of Seib’s argument is true, why aren’t there more questions about John McCain’s “toughness and resilience”? After all, he won the Republican nomination over a month ago, and barely had to break a sweat doing so. Those selfish Republican voters apparently denied their nominee the “intangible benefits” associated with “fighting through all the primaries.”

I can’t imagine why McCain doesn’t seem especially bothered by this.

In fact, it’s worth noting that McCain actually appears quite pleased with recent developments.

Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign is content to let Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fight on.

The prospect for an even longer Democratic battle resulted from Clinton’s defeat of Obama in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, meaning the contest is likely to last at least another two weeks until May 6, when North Carolina and Indiana vote.

As top McCain adviser Mark Salter said, Democrats should “take their time — don’t rush.”

Bill Kristol added some words for advice for the Clinton campaign this morning: “Fight on!”

I’m going to assume this isn’t some kind of reverse-psychological ploy. McCain and his allies really do want to see the Democratic race continue.

The Reuters report added:

Republican strategists believe McCain has benefited from having won his party’s nomination in March, giving him time to raise much-needed cash and lay the groundwork for his general election campaign, even though the Democratic battle has dominated U.S. headlines.

The Clinton-Obama battle has meant the Democrats have not yet trained all their fire on McCain, a 71-year-old Arizona senator who is seeking to keep the White House in Republican control for a third straight term, a task made even more difficult with the U.S. economy ailing.

“During this period the Democrat interest groups have not been able to focus on McCain,” said Republican strategist Scott Reed. “They’re still focused on struggling with their internal fight.”

McCain himself sounded unsure as to whether the long Democratic fight has helped or hurt him, but in talking to reporters on Tuesday, he made clear he has been watching the show closely.

“In fact I saw one of the cable shows last night — I don’t know why I watch! — that said that this is really good for the Democratic Party, that they are registering more voters, that it’s getting more interest, that they’re raising more money. I don’t have a view on that. But I know that there are very different opinions on it,” he said.

This really isn’t complicated. If you’re a consultant/strategist at the RNC right now, are you worried that a prolonged Democratic process is going to help Dems with voter registration and battle testing, or are you doing the Happy Dance that the Clinton/Obama fight is going to continue for the foreseeable future?

It seems pretty obvious to me.

I really don’t think it matters. McCain is the darling of the media, and the powers that be have decided he will be President. Throw in some Diebold voting machines, and there you have it.

After all, the rapacious, greedy, big business elites have been given a free ride from Bu$h over the last 8 years, why would they kill their cash cow?

Cynical you call me? You’re goddamned right I am cynical.

  • I’m with citizen_pain on this. At the beginning of this election cycle, after Iowa, and then South Carolina, I was very optimistic about our prospects. Now, I am discouraged. The infighting has weakened Obama and exposed Hillary as the self-centered win-at-all-costs megalomaniac she truly is. Meanwhile, whenever any scandal about McCain breaks in the media (if it breaks at all) will last for one day, and then miraculously vanish. The media loves McCain, and has essentially anointed him. At this point, as I stated on a thread yesterday, I would actually rather see Hillary get the nomination, and have her be the one who loses to McCain this fall. Obama still has a future ahead of him, and can unite the party by knocking McCain out of office in 2012, the way Bill Clinton knocked Bush Sr. out in 1992. This is Hillary’s one shot at being president. Obama has more time and more opportunity, so I’d hate to see him jump the gun too early.

  • Caped Composer: Are you kidding? If voters can’t see the difference between wars, unregulated semi-monopolies, and secretive power grabs vs preachers, charity board members and arugula, why would they four years from now.

  • The WSJ is a mouthpiece for the special interests of Ruppert Murdock.
    It is quite well known that anything that is good for the McSame “express” is in Rupe’s best interest.

  • McCain loves this because every day that the focus is on Hillary/Obama, it’s one less day that the focus will be on how little his policies differ from Bush policies and how f*cked up the economy is, etc.

    There’s no opportunity for the “It’s the economy, stupid” agenda to be put into place because Hillary/Obama is sucking all the air out of the room.

    Homer

  • Awful development or not, them’s the rules. As an Obama supporter, I don’ t mind following the rules and schedule–my guy’s winning. If it was winner-take-all like the Republicans have, we’d already have Hillary as the nominee and the last candidate who didn’t vote for the Iraq invasion would be out. It may be slow, but this system has let the non-establishment candidate get a lead and keep it.

    And who gives a crap what Republicans think anyway? As far as I’m concerned, the Republican attacks on Obama will be worse than what Hillary is dishing out, so the later that phase starts, the better off he’ll be.

  • For all those suffering angst, form this picture in your mind:

    Obama standing next to McCain before and after the debate.

    Three times.

    Honestly, I think that’s all it is going to take.

  • Isn’t this the place where liberals observe repeatedly that McCain has been so wrong for so long?

    He’s NOT an able tactician.

    He thinks airing all the Democratic dirt early and saving HIS for October is a good thing.

    You’re worried that John McCain thinks his battles are going well?
    What’s the matter with you people?

    Even if Clinton bows out gracefully grudgingly, I would think keeping the anti-McCain powder dry until the convention and let it seep out a little each week would make more sense that heaping it all on now when the populace isn’t really listening.

    McCain’s easy win is not his friend.

  • The prolonged fight for the candidacy doesn’t have to be such a monumental f***-up. It is that because of Hillary’s negative campaigning. Imagine if the debates were nothing but Obama and Hillary each talking about what they would do to beat McCain, as opposed to why/how their competitor can’t or won’t. Imagine if they were able to spend time building up their own platforms instead of Hillary trying to tear Obama down and Obama having to waste his energy defending his rep from her dopey smears. Hell, were Hillary to become the nominee, I’d have felt better about her had she spent more time proving her bona fides than trying to disprove Barack’s.

    And it can still become a more positive race. I understand that Barack has already said he has no intention to go negative against Hillary, despite the abundance of crapola he could swing at her. I’d like to see that go one step farther. With some of that war chest of his that he can use for primaries, I’d like him to buy ad time i the remaining primary states where he essentially says:

    “From now on, I’m going out of my way to not even discuss Hillary Clinton anymore, not positively and certainly not negatively. My supporters have made it very clear to me that our energy is better spent denying John McCain the Presidency, and from now on, I’ll be investing all my time and money and energy into doing just that. I encourage my supporters to get the word out about McCain’s inceased willingness to stay in iraq for 100 years, his eagerness to keep this country at the status quo. I urge everyone to see that his economic plans are, indeed, the plans of a man who has no knowledge of or interest in the economy. I urge everyone who thinks he’s plain folk like them to wonder why the media isn’t asking his multimillionaire heiress wife to release her taxes the way Michelle & Bill Clinton did theirs. And during my efforts to prove John McCain is not the right person to lead this country in the next four years, if the Clinton Campaign decides to attack me personally, spread half-truths or flat-out lies, disparage my reputation, assassinate my character, so be it. At this point, quite frankly, we all have bigger fish to fry. Her time will be better spent trying to prove she is a superior candidate, not that I am an inferior candidate. And were she to continue going negative, to continue engaging in the same sort of political process that everyone claims to be sick and tired of seeing every four years, ask yourselves this: Do you want to reward that sort of bad behavior with your vote?

  • I wish Obama would simply ignor HC and everything she says and focus the race ONLY on McCain. If he started behaving like the presumptive nominee, maybe it would just become the reality and HC would be this mosquito buzzing around in the background like Ron Paul.

  • In response to Danp @ #3, the reason the public will be more receptive in four years is . . . the disaster will not be imminent, but rather, upon us. Nobody was looking down the road during the roaring 20’s, even as the impending Depression loomed larger and larger. It took actually being in midst of the Depression for the public to embrace an agent of change, FDR.

  • The situation is the creation of the MSM. We’ve had primary races where the candidate is not decided by April many times. Our current MSM chooses to portray it as disastrous. Hilly and Barack should both be more unified against McSame. In fact they both do mightily critcize McSame’s aberrant policies, but the MSM has decided on their own scenario – the curious failing of the Democrats to disembowel each other.I find McSame’s free ride on a teflon sled totally outrageous.

  • “This is Hillary’s one shot at being president”

    Too bad for her, but this may be OUR last chance to save our democracy. We can’t afford another Republican in the White House for four more years, and I’m not at all sure that Clinton could beat McCain. Anyway, Hillary is a right-leaning centrist, and with her most recent saber rattling, she doesn’t sound any different to me than the Republicans.

  • If Hillary Clinton steals the Democratic nomination from Obama, I will not vote for her or John McCain. I feel strongly about voting because people died so that we could have the right to vote; however, I cannot in good conscience vote for Clinton or McCain. Early during the primary season, I was okay with Clinton or Obama winning; however, the prolonged fight, increased negativity, and dirty tactics have soured my opinion of Hillary Clinton.

    I don’t trust her now, so how can I trust her as president? I’m a registered Democrat. I used to be an Independent until I realized in Florida you had to belong to a particular party to participate in primaries. Her kitchen sink strategy and determination to muddy Barack Obama beyond repair for the General Election is too much.

    If Clinton “steals” the nomination and you plan on staying home or writing Obama’s name in on the ballot, please sign this guestbook so that the media, pundits, voters, and superdelegates realize that the media spin and polling is not always accurate and can be skewed.

    -Ceci Bell of Florida
    http://gbook.dvercity.net/

  • This really isn’t complicated. If you’re a consultant/strategist at the RNC right now, are you worried that a prolonged Democratic process is going to help Dems with voter registration and battle testing, or are you doing the Happy Dance that the Clinton/Obama fight is going to continue for the foreseeable future?

    It seems pretty obvious to me.

    Liberal (progressive) media just continues to crack me up…and I’M A LIBERAL (PROGRESSIVE)!

    Whenever Barack Obama does poorly there’s a drumbeat like this one. My questions to you are these:

    What do you have to fear from the biggest infusion of democracy to our political process in recent history?

    Why are you so insecure about Barack Obama? Because you are insecure. It shows every time Hillary Clinton wins an important primary.

    The drumbeat didn’t work in January, it didn’t work in March. It sure isn’t going to work now. Frankly, I’m interested in seeing exactly what Obama is made of in the remaining contests. Hillary Clinton has proved her mettle. Obama hasn’t, not by any serious definition of the term.

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