McCain and Obama’s To-Do List for the Debate
John McCain always likes being the underdog, he has told us. That’s good — because he’s not leading the presidential race. Depending on your favorite poll he’s either behind or essentially tied. And we are in the midst of a financial meltdown which most voters blame on his Republican Party.
That makes the first presidential debate — whenever and wherever it occurs — critical. Although the topic is foreign policy, it is probable that the current financial crisis will come up. And McCain is unlikely to have a better opportunity to make his argument to the American people that only he is ready to lead in troubling times.
McCain needs to do several things.
First, he must finally convince voters why the surge matters and why it should be the prism by which they evaluate the candidates. Iraq has receded from the headlines and Barack Obama has sufficiently fudged up his position. Recently he seemed to concede that the surge had after all succeeded beyond anyone’s “wildest dreams” — except McCain’s, presumably. If the issue is simply “I was right; he was wrong” the voters may not be moved.
But McCain’s argument is more fundamental: Obama never did and still doesn’t understand the gravity of a potential defeat to al-Qaeda. McCain will claim that Obama was unable and unwilling to give General David Petraeus the support needed to achieve victory. Call it a failure of will or a failure of imagination, but Obama proved, McCain will argue, that he won’t do what is necessary in the war on terror. Obama’s statement this summer that he would not even in retrospect have supported the surge epitomizes the extent to which his national security judgment is compromised by fidelity to his left-wing base. In short, McCain needs to argue that Obama can’t be trusted to complete the job in Iraq and to pursue victory elsewhere.
Next, McCain would do well to remind voters of Obama’s troubling performance this summer when Russia invaded Georgia. Obama’s initial tour de force of moral equivalence was followed by a series of statements which seemed to place excessive and unrealistic faith in the UN Security Council, where Russia holds a veto. Again, McCain’s message must be that in the face of imminent danger Obama blinks.
“It may be McCain’s last chance to change the dynamics of the race and Obama’s last point of vulnerability.”
Good article, Jennifer, but them you went and spoiled it with that WHOPPER of hyperbole.
Let’s face facts here…of which the MSM still refuses to do…
Obama has A LOT of points of “vulnerability”…this first debate is just a taste of things to come before the election.
The biggest one that I’m seeing on the horizon is his DUAL CITIZENSHIP with both Kenya and Indonesia, and the Philip Berg lawsuit that continues even though the Obama camp and the DNC entered a motion at the last possible moment to try and get it dismissed. (Gee, you’d think just providing an original signed “vault” birth certificate would do THAT…so what are they hiding???)
NOW, surprise, surprise, it is admitted today (finally!) by Annenberg-backed Factcheck.org, and also put up on Obama’s Fight-the-Smears website, that YES…Obama WAS a DUAL Citizen…since Barack Sr. was a British Subject under the British Nationality Act of 1948 and that same act governed Barack Obama Sr.’s children. Sure…they then say it lapsed because he neither swore an oath to Kenya, or ever renounced his U.S. citizenship…but the fact is HE LIED ABOUT THIS and WITHHELD these facts!
One can argue that THIS FACT ALONE makes him ineligible to be President as a dual citizen is no longer considered “Natural Born” under Article II of the constitution.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg for his SECOND DUAL CITIZENSHIP, when Lolo Soetoro adopted him, AGAIN makes him ineligible! And THAT is the basis for Philip Berg’s lawsuit, and the TRUE FACTS that Obama so desperately wants to hide! Because, if and when these facts come out (October Surprise, anyone?)…it will be revealed that Obama went to Pakistan as an ADULT at age 20 to visit his mother…on an INDONESIAN PASSPORT!
So he hides the facts about Kenya, and only is forthcoming to try and head off any rumors…but in fact makes things WORSE, because they show a trend of conciousness of GUILT. WE KNOW they are hiding something…simply by the fact they refuse to answer the charges with proof that they are WRONG!
Obama (and the DNC) are DESPERATE for this lawsuit to go away…but Berg is no dummy. He ALSO named the Federal Election Committee as a defendent…so this thing has legs!
And when the TRUE FACTS are become known…it will be a HUGE DISGRACE for the Democratic Party leaders and…a HUGE black-eye for the MSM who simply failed to follow up on this story.
http://obamacrimes.com/
http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/
“Second, he needs to explain himself on the surge. “I didn’t believe General Petraeus when he said it would work” or “I still wouldn’t have done it despite the results” are not going to cut it. And after cleaning that up …”
Whoa, Nelly. That’s a mighty huge segue you’re foisting upon us. If you really think that Obama needs to “clean that up” in order to succeed in the debate then you’ve pretty much written him off. His buddies in the MSM have presented him numerous opportunities to “clean it up,” only to be met with more of “nobody thought it would work,” “it only worked because of the Iraqis,” and “I apparently don’t care that it worked because even knowing that I still would have preferred to have ignominiously ran with our tail between our legs and abandoned our peace and freedom loving Iraqi allies to the murderous thugs not unlike what my ideological forefathers did to the South Vietnamese.”
your candidate (McLoser) and his pathetic excuse for a running mate are crashing and burning. the truth won’t change just because you don’t like it!!
Anonymous: Great job at spreading mis-information and going completely off-topic. Do you have any links from factcheck.org or fight-the-smears where it is admitted that he is a citizen of Kenya? No because you’re a lying troll. The man was born in Hawaii, which means he’s a natural born citizen. End of story.
Back on topic, here’s my short list for McCain at tonight’s debate:
#1: show up.
McCain is in his normal position of underdog, but what has he ever won from that position? I will conceed that he did come back and take the nomination, but really was there anyone else that could have won it this year? The smart ones stayed out and the rest were weak at best on the national stage. The Republicans as a whole are on the ropes because they allowed themselves to become greedy and corrupt. They have spent the time up to 2006 lining their pockets just like the Democrats they pretend to hate but emulated at every turn.
There are some who are today standing up for the American people, but they are being villified by the everyone for wanting to protect the taxpayers they work for. The debates will change very few minds and in the end when the vast majority of the public step behind the curtain they are going to vote for something different. People won’t vote because of a position put forth in a debate, they will vote like its a high school class president. They will vote for the one that promises the most regardless if he can deliver and who is part of the popular group (that isn’t Republicans by the way).
Spout all the wishful thinking you want, but it will come down to how many people can’t stomach the Republicans and how many people think the Democrats will do a better job. The real answer is that neither McCain or Obama is a good choice, but at least McCain won’t have the backing of the worst Congress in history.
McCain needs to turn national security to financial security and expose the dems for who got us in the financial crisis, name names and trying to pull off a bill supporting ACORN with the profits from tax payer bailout. Not to mention a ban on oil shale drilling hidden in there.
McCain getting back into the debate is a purely political move, like everything else he does… it’s not that he wants to inform Americans or demonstrate his know-how, he just thought thought not showing up to the debates would make him look bad
Oh, and tomw, don’t forget to tell Anonymous that one cannot have dual citizenship with Kenya and the US:
The Kenyan Constitution prohibits dual citizenship for adults. Kenya recognizes dual citizenship for children, but Kenya’s Constitution specifies that at age 21, Kenyan citizens who possesses citizenship in more than one country automatically lose their Kenyan citizenship unless they formally renounce any non-Kenyan citizenship and swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya.
Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.
He didn’t lie because for the past 26 years, any hypothesis of dual citizenship was not in play.
And I didn’t realize you were so racist against Obama for being Kenyan. Sh*t, at least he was born in Hawaii whereas JohnnyPOWMac was born in Panama (yeah, I know, US Territory, but still, not even born on American soil).
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At least, finally, JohnnyPOWMac, fresh from a nap, will join Obama on the stage to face questions by Jim Lehrer.
And I better hear about Keating Five, Jim!
I would say about this “anonymous” issue that it should either be dealt with quickly or else we could be in a bad situation. The liberals denouncing it out of hand and not responding to it point by point could be a major constitutional crisis. It’s easy – just release his real birth certificate….
That shouldn’t be too difficult. Then this whole “nonsense” goes away. Why is it being avoided?
Watch this video and pass it along to every voter you know
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH–o
In 1961 Obama was born a British citizen through his father who was a British citizen. In 1963 Kenyan citizenship was created when Kenya became an independent country. People who became Kenyan did not renounce their British citizenship because British citizens may be of dual nationality. It also does not matter what nationality was adopted by Obama’s father in 1963 because Obama became a British citizen at birth in 1961. It would not be legally possible for his father to take away his son’s citizenship without his consent and there is no evidence that Obama himself has ever renounced his British citizenship. He may have shrugged off his Kenyan citizenship at age 21 but this does not apply to his British citizenship. There is documentary evidence that his stepfather adopted him and registered him as Indonesian to enable him to attend school in Indonesia. This again would not negate his British citizenship because as British he would be able to hold dual citizenship. The only nationality he has a dubious claim on (until he releases his birth certificate to the courts) is American citizenship. This needs to be sorted before November or you are in a terrible tangle!