A preview of the Democratic campaign against John McCain

I have aluded to this in an earlier post, but as I was coming into work this morning, I was reminded of it by a Democratic super delegate talking on NPR’s Morning Edition.  They were talking about Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the nomination and how long it would likely take before the nominee was known.  Somehow, they circled around to John McCain and the first thing they mentioned was how John McCain would basically be four more years of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

To be honest, I really liked President Bush and the way he handled the 9/11 crisis.  He struck me as an open and honest man, a “human” President, if you will.  As time progressed after 9/11 and the war in Iraq got into full swing, I have come to realize, he certainly isn’t perfect.  There were a lot of things that were handled very badly, especially to do with Iraq.  I still believe President Bush is a good man, but I have come to believe that he is a good man who surrounded himself with bad people and people who gave him bad advice. Vice-President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield were two of the worst.  They have both shown a complete disregard for the military and their ability and knowledge to carry on the war in Iraq and to wage the war against global terrorism.

As this political campaign moves closer to the general election in November, it is clear that a lot of American people want the war in Iraq to be over and they want President Bush and his people out of office. If there isn’t a majority wanting this, then it is a very vocal minority and they are made louder by our liberal media.  We need to face the facts.  President Bush is not a well liked man. A lot of our citizens despise him and a lot of Republican candidates are very aware of this fact.  That is why you see so many of them distancing themselves from him.  That brings us to John McCain.

McCain has been very outspoken about staying the course in Iraq and not leaving until the job is finished. I understand his viewpoint on this and agree with it, simply because I believe it would be a big mistake to leave Iraq before we have accomplished what we set out to do.  That being said, I believe a lot of American people do not see it that way.  Right now, they are looking at John McCain and seeing how he has stood beside President Bush and agreed with him on Iraq.  Admittedly, McCain has issues on which he disagrees with the President, but that is not what is being brought to light by the media. Right now, he is being portrayed as being “four more years of Bush”, and when the general election campaign gets into full gear, I believe the Democrats are going to come out swinging with this same issue. There will be a lot of people who will cast their vote against John McCain for this reason only.  Couple that with the fact that a lot of conservatives do not trust McCain when it comes to social issues and because of McCain-Fiengold, and John McCain is facing a giant, uphill battle to win the White House.

I have heard a lot of talk about John McCain and how he will win the election because of different reasons.  Some of them have to do with his gender and his race, that he will win because of a percieved “white man” syndrome.  The people who have told me this simply believe the majority of Americans will vote for John McCain over Barack Obama because he is white and Obama is black.  I am afraid these people are underestimating the hatred that is felt for President Bush and the war in Iraq and I am afraid that hatred is going to carry the election in November.  I hope I am wrong.

That’s my take!

Larry