Nancy Pelosi did a good job explaining some of the issues where John McCain opposed popular initiatives like the minimum wage and health care for children, but overall the speech wasn’t very impressive.
The best thing to come from the speech was an indication that the Democrats are serious about going after McCain and drawing distinctions on policy. They need to keep repeating this theme, and hope that others speakers deliver the message more forcefully.
Due to the large Mormon population in several Western states, it raises the question of whether adding Mitt Romney to the ticket would help McCain hold these states.
Romney performed well in many Western states during the GOP primaries, but his faith proved to be a big liability among the evangelical Christians who make up the base of the Republican Party. Many are deeply suspicious of Mormons, forcing Romney to give a speech explaining his beliefs in an effort to quell their concerns.
For the general election, the West, especially the Southwest, rises in strategic significance for both candidates, and Mormons are gaining more attention given their wide dispersion across the region. Although church members are heavily concentrated in Utah, where they make up more than 70 percent of the population, according to church figures, they also top 7 percent of Nevada’s population and 2 percent of Colorado’s, enough to tilt a tight race.
Romney should give McCain a boost in the Mormon community, though McCain should already be doing well with those voters.
As Janey Napolitano points out, the Hispanic community is much more important.
“Obviously, if he picks Romney, it makes a strong play for the Mormon vote, but I don’t know that that decides the West,” said Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, an immensely popular Democrat in McCain’s home state. In an interview, Napolitano said Romney’s reputation for changing his position on issues will not play well with Western voters, who she said tend to like independent pragmatists.
What matters more, Napolitano said, are Latinos, who constitute more than 38 percent of the voters in New Mexico and about 27 percent in Arizona. She argued that McCain’s disavowal of his own failed attempt at immigration reform will cut into his support with this more powerful voting bloc.
Romney was outspoken on the immigration issue, and this would further alienate Hispanic voters. Thus, he could be a net negative in those states.
The Joe Biden pick complicates things for John McCain as he considers his choice for a running mate. Bill Kristol points out some of the drawbacks of selecting Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney.
The two leading G.O.P. prospects have been Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. But with Biden’s foreign policy experience as a contrast, could McCain assure voters that the young Pawlenty is ready to take over, if need be, as commander in chief? Also, Biden is a strong and experienced debater. Pawlenty is unproven. If he is the choice, there will be many anxious Republicans in the run-up to the vice presidential debate in St. Louis on Oct. 2.
Romney might match up better against Biden in debate. But it’s clear that the Obama-Biden campaign is moving aggressively to embrace a traditional Democratic populist economic message. Such a message will have appeal this year — especially, one supposes, against a doubly multimansioned G.O.P. ticket of McCain and Romney.
It’s hard to imagine Pawlenty going up against Biden. Also, Pawlenty made comments last month basically praising Barack Obama’s positive message and arguing that the GOP needs to move away from negative campaigning. Those words will present problems for McCain. Kristol also states the obvious – Romney’s wealth will reinforce the populaist message from the Democrats, and Romney’s history of being involved with companies that laid off thousands of workers won’t help.
Kristol goes on to argue for Joe Lieberman, the ultimate neocon. This would be a gift to the Obama camapign, as there would be a revolt among pro-life conservatives if Lieberman is added to the ticket. McCain has already trashed his image as a “moderate” as he’s embraced his far-right positions on abortion, judges and taxes. Adding Leiberman would confuse that message and undermine all the progress he’s made getting Republicans to come home and support his candidacy. Let’s hope he listens to Kristol.
The more John McCain speaks, the more he gets into trouble. His command of the issues is terrible, and his recollection of his own positions is sometimes even worse.
His campaign has been “clarifying” McCain’s stated positions on a regular basis. The latest involves water rights in Colorado, which could spell trouble for McCain in an important swing state.
Arizona Sen. John McCain’s call for renegotiating how much water some Western states can pull from the Colorado River has a set off quite a stir in Colorado, an up-for-grabs swing state that next week plays host to the Democratic National Convention.
“Over my cold, dead, political carcass,” said Republican Bob Schaffer, who is running against Democratic Rep. Mark Udall to replace retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, offering a sentiment widely shared in Colorado and across ideological lines.
In the arid West, water is an explosive issue. Political fortunes have been lost because of it, and ranchers occasionally shot and killed. As a local saying has it, “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.”
McCain, a proud Westerner, triggered the latest round of fighting when he told The Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain last Friday that “the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties” — which was widely understood in Colorado as a process that would end up redistributing more of the river’s “liquid gold” downstream.
The Republican was forced to backtrack Wednesday, writing a letter to Allard saying, “Let me be clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact.”
But the issue is not likely to go away soon. Democrats Udall, Gov. Bill Ritter and Sen. Ken Salazar are expected to blast McCain in a press conference today. In an interview Wednesday, Salazar said McCain’s remarks showed that he didn’t understand the issue’s importance. “There’s nothing more fundamental to the West than water.”
He may have just handed Colorado to Obama.
The McCain campaign can’t help itself. Every time McCain screws up or the Obama campaign attacks, the McCain campaign pulls the POW card. They’re doing it so much that they’re starting to look like Rudy Giuliani and 9/11.
John Aravosis predicted that the McCain campaign would play the card as soon as the housing issue came up. Of course he was right.
Ben Smith has now started running with the story that the McCain campaign is playing the “POW card” a little too much.
Eric Kleefeld notices that McCain aides referred back to McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in defending him from the mockery over his houses.
This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” says spokesman Rogers.
It does seem like they’re flirting with Giuliani/9/11 territory here, in which at subject that seems utterly immune to humor, used as a first resort, suddenly becomes a running joke among your political enemies and your late night comic friends.
Just wait till the late-night comedians start running with this one.
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