There are too many numbers to possibly keep up with tonight, so I won't have anything to say until tomorrow about the general picture of things. But over at CNN's Political Ticker, Bill Schneider highlighted a few exit poll numbers from the Republican primaries that I think are worth commenting on now.McCain is winning votes from anti-war Republicans. Mr. "100 years," Mr. "The surge is working" is somehow convincing antiwar Republicans to vote for him. And that's not the only poll he's surprisingly winning. Republicans who think abortion should be legal are voting for McCain.
To sum up, two of McCain's strongest perceived attributes -- at least in the primary -- that he's "strong" on Iraq and that he's consistently been "pro-life," are not resonating.
There is a direct parallel between these numbers and the feeling I get when I talk to people about McCain. I frequently hear people -- Democrats included -- talk about how he "wouldn't be that bad," or he's different from the other Republicans, or even that they would welcome a McCain presidency.
This ridiculous notions -- the idea that McCain is the man for antiwar voters, that McCain will protect a woman's right to choose -- are entirely the fault of the media. It's quite incredible how he has been built as a middle of the road candidate.
Seeing these numbers, I can only hope that a general election will finally force the media to look at his record and expose him as the advocate for war and anti-choice candidate that he is.
Update: This is exactly what I'm talking about.
2 comments:
From what I understand, pro-lifers have always been suspicious of McCain. That suspicion may stem from the media portrayal of him as a moderate maverick, or it may come from the fact that he so zealously promoted campaign finance report, which most interest groups (but for some reason the pro-life ones in particular) vehemently oppose. He was moderate on stem cells, too, I think.
Ask yourself, though, who else would a pro-choice Republican vote for, now that Giulliani's out of the race? Romney may have flip-flopped on the issue, but I think his flip came when he ran for governor, and now he's flopped back to his more natural position. Ron Paul and Huckabee have both been outspoken opponents of abortion rights. McCain may be or claim to be pro-life, but pro-lifers hate him. So the logical conclusion is that he's the most acceptable of the four remaining Republicans. If abortion rights were your main concern, I think it's pretty reasonable to say that McCain is the best of the Republicans. But you'd certainly prefer any Democrat.
It's the trend of Republicans who oppose the war supporting McCain that's more puzzling. Clearly Paul and Huckabee are "left" of McCain on that issue. Maybe they just think McCain is the most qualified on foreign policy and it was unqualified people who started the war to begin with.
The point is, Republicans who oppose the war and Republicans who support abortion rights are likely to be "Moderate Republicans." McCain is the most moderate Republican of the bunch (is that assuming too much?), so it shouldn't be surprising that those demographics support him over other Republicans.
Post a Comment