In the most recent presidential elections (2004 and 2008) Republican presidential candidates have had nothing new and effective to run on.
In 2000, Bush took advantage of the Clinton scandal and said he would bring honor and dignity back to the White House (that's been a laugh), and added that he would have a humble foreign policy (another hearty laugh). Then he went on to add typical Republican talking points like "lower taxes," "pro-life," "free market," "balanced budget," etc. He didn't win the popular vote, but he had enough Supreme Court Justices in his pocket to steal the election.
By the 2004 election, he had indeed lowered taxes, but had run an arrogant foreign policy, increased the deficit, started an unpopular, illegal and immoral war, and shown himself to be generally incompetent. Any sensible person could see that a Democrat should have easily beaten him, just like any sensible person can see this year, with the Republican Party in tatters and Bush's popularity in the cellar, that a Democrat should easily beat John McCain.
Which is why, just like Bush in 2004, McCain and the Republicans cannot win on the issues.
However, that doesn't even slow them down. When they can't win on the issues, because they've been so incompetent and because conservative policies have been exposed as failing policies, they simply make the election about convincing the voters that their opponent is horrible, untested, liberal, elitist, arrogant, risky, un-American, exotic, unpatriotic, etc., etc.
They made Vietnam war hero John Kerry into a traitor, a medal winner who didn't deserve his medals, an elitist snob who could speak French. And it worked. The American people narrowly chose George W. Bush to continue implementing his horrible policies for four more years. They were actually fooled into choosing a man who had gone to war against a country that had not attacked us, shredded the Constitution, approved of torture, suspended Habeas Corpus, increased the wealth of the top 1% of the population, expanded the deficit, and lied to to the people, over a man who had volunteered to go to Vietnam when he could have continued his education, served for years in the Senate, and proposed policies that would have helped all Americans.
This year the supposed straight talker, the famed maverick, the promiser of a dignified campaign has decided not to debate the issues, because conservative issues are losing issues, and instead attack his opponent for being popular, accuse his opponent of wanting to lose a war, and try to portray him as disloyal to the troops. In the meantime, his supporters in talk radio and in newspaper columns are hinting that Obama is a secret, scary Muslim, a socialist, a man who is just too exotic, too arrogant, too uppity to be president. If this doesn't have racial overtones, then I don't know what does.
Republicans cannot win on the issues because their policies have all failed. The American people want something new. By every measure the American people and the country itself is much worse off today than it was during the last Democratic administration. But if McCain can only scare enough Americans to vote against the young, attractive idealist by painting him as a risky, exotic, un-American black guy, then he just might have a chance to get his sorry old bones in the oval office. If the voters are fooled again, as they were four years ago, if they have learned nothing about the Republican propaganda machine and how it distracts from the truth, then they deserve four more years of disaster.
You think things are bad now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
In 2000, Bush took advantage of the Clinton scandal and said he would bring honor and dignity back to the White House (that's been a laugh), and added that he would have a humble foreign policy (another hearty laugh). Then he went on to add typical Republican talking points like "lower taxes," "pro-life," "free market," "balanced budget," etc. He didn't win the popular vote, but he had enough Supreme Court Justices in his pocket to steal the election.
By the 2004 election, he had indeed lowered taxes, but had run an arrogant foreign policy, increased the deficit, started an unpopular, illegal and immoral war, and shown himself to be generally incompetent. Any sensible person could see that a Democrat should have easily beaten him, just like any sensible person can see this year, with the Republican Party in tatters and Bush's popularity in the cellar, that a Democrat should easily beat John McCain.
Which is why, just like Bush in 2004, McCain and the Republicans cannot win on the issues.
However, that doesn't even slow them down. When they can't win on the issues, because they've been so incompetent and because conservative policies have been exposed as failing policies, they simply make the election about convincing the voters that their opponent is horrible, untested, liberal, elitist, arrogant, risky, un-American, exotic, unpatriotic, etc., etc.
They made Vietnam war hero John Kerry into a traitor, a medal winner who didn't deserve his medals, an elitist snob who could speak French. And it worked. The American people narrowly chose George W. Bush to continue implementing his horrible policies for four more years. They were actually fooled into choosing a man who had gone to war against a country that had not attacked us, shredded the Constitution, approved of torture, suspended Habeas Corpus, increased the wealth of the top 1% of the population, expanded the deficit, and lied to to the people, over a man who had volunteered to go to Vietnam when he could have continued his education, served for years in the Senate, and proposed policies that would have helped all Americans.
This year the supposed straight talker, the famed maverick, the promiser of a dignified campaign has decided not to debate the issues, because conservative issues are losing issues, and instead attack his opponent for being popular, accuse his opponent of wanting to lose a war, and try to portray him as disloyal to the troops. In the meantime, his supporters in talk radio and in newspaper columns are hinting that Obama is a secret, scary Muslim, a socialist, a man who is just too exotic, too arrogant, too uppity to be president. If this doesn't have racial overtones, then I don't know what does.
Republicans cannot win on the issues because their policies have all failed. The American people want something new. By every measure the American people and the country itself is much worse off today than it was during the last Democratic administration. But if McCain can only scare enough Americans to vote against the young, attractive idealist by painting him as a risky, exotic, un-American black guy, then he just might have a chance to get his sorry old bones in the oval office. If the voters are fooled again, as they were four years ago, if they have learned nothing about the Republican propaganda machine and how it distracts from the truth, then they deserve four more years of disaster.
You think things are bad now? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
