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April 09, 2008
RNC Bullish On McCain
Politico is out with an interesting story from Jonathan Martin this evening, in which the Republican National Committee touts current polling in the presidential race. According to RNC internal polling, Arizona Senator and presumptive GOP nominee John McCain currently "holds a solid lead over both his potential general election rivals", Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Understandably, the RNC is pushing this message out in hopes of bolstering McCain's standing with the press (as if he needed that), as well as the electorate. The Republican establishment likely wants to set the race up as McCain's to lose, as the two Democrats continue to duke it out for the nomination. Again, makes sense.
GOP spin of the polling in Martin's story, however, in our opinion exaggerates McCain's prospects for the fall. The RNC poll gives him a decent lead over either Democrat -- 6 points over Obama and 11 points over Clinton. But a lead right now is hardly surprising. McCain is the presumptive nominee, has bested his Republican rivals and is yet to take the hits coming his way in the general election. Meanwhile the Democrats continue to rough each other up and their primary race goes on. To boot, while many Americans do not yet have a clear idea of who McCain is, they have vaguely positive feelings about him based (understandably) on his long military and public service. In other words, his poll numbers now are about as good as they're likely to get.
As the story notes, Democratic National Committee polling shows that while McCain is viewed favorably by the electorate, much of his support is soft, given that most Americans know little about him. Also problematic for McCain is that the public is not with him on key issues such as Iraq and the economy, distinctions that will undoubtedly be drawn by the Democratic nominee this fall.
Our favorite line in the piece came from Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who, in attempting to play up McCain's advantage while Democrats continue to fight, said that McCain can begin to define himself now and the days tick by where Democrats cannot. Nice try Ed. This argument would make sense if McCain had any resources with which to define himself to the public, but he's broke. In fact, day after day passes where John McCain loses the opportunity to define himself while Democrats stay in the forefront of public consciousness.
John McCain is at his apex in the race for the 2008 presidency. Given that there are 7 months to go before the election, don't prepare his inauguration just yet.
Posted by houtopia at April 9, 2008 10:16 PM
Comments
McCain still has to get past a Court Review of his eligibility Vs Constitution.
Children of U.S. citizens born in foreign countries are Naturalized.
The Panama Canal Zone was not Owned by the U.S. but Leased from Panama and not a U.S. Territory.
McCain was born in Colon, Republic of Panama which was never located in the Canal Zone.
Posted by: Donaldd at April 10, 2008 11:26 AM