A Contrast in Campaigns; McCain Moves Left, Obama Moves Right

Cross posted at Grizzly Groundswell

 Something that I have found interesting in the early general election strategies of both Barack Obama and John McCain is how each of the candidates have tried to pander to the right and left respectively. I understand that during the primary seasons candidates play to their base and during the general election the candidates try to move to the center, but this election year it seems to be even more in evidence. Instead of moving to the center both candidates seem to be going beyond center.

 I will start with Barack Obama’s latest attempt to move to the center. He is reaching out to “values voters” in his latest ad.

 “America is a country of strong families and strong values,” says a political ad that began airing in 18 states over the weekend. The candidate then goes on to say how he helped move people off the welfare rolls and fought for tax cuts.

  Family values, strong families, welfare reform, and tax cuts? Wow, is this a move to the right by Obama or what? All of these issues are foreign to Democrats who want to replace the traditional family with big government entitlements. Who needs a father when the government is there to provide for you instead?

 Obama and family values? Barack Obama is the man who thinks teaching sex education to kindergarten age children is acceptable. He is also the man who said that he would not want his daughter “punished” with a baby. And he is also the man who condones infantiside with his refusal to vote on saving the lives of living, breathing babies who were birthed during an abortion attempt. He couldn’t even be bothered to vote on the issue. His reason for not wanting to vote to save these babies?

it would essentially bar abortions, because the Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute.”

 That has to be the most horrid statement I have ever heard, certainly from a presidential candidate. He didn’t want the baby to be called a baby because you couldn’t kill it if you actually called it what it was.

 The values that Obama is trying to connect with  is straight out of the Republican playbook and the most liberal candidate for president in the history of America is now spouting this as his position. Yeah right.

  Barack Obama knows that there is no way in hell that any far leftist will ever abandon him so he is free to expound on family values, welfare reform, and lower taxes without fearing repercussions from his constituents. He knows that he can pretend he is for lower taxes and family values and he won’t lose his base because they know the truth.

Now on to the Republican’s joke of a candidate John McCain. John McCain is making what would normally be considered a radical left hand turn by almost any other Republican candidate, however we are talking about McCain here so it is more of a veer to the left.

 John McCain is trying to pander to the far left .

presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is focusing on climate change and “energy security”

“The next president of the United States must be willing to break with the energy policies not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America,” McCain says in the ad, followed by these words across the screen: “End the federal moratorium on drilling,” “Clean technologies” and “Energy Security.”

 John McCain has flip flopped on the Bush tax cuts and claims he now supports them, this is bullshit. How can John McCain possibly be for lower taxes when he is in favor of “going green” which is nothing but an attempt to install what I believe will be the largest tax increase on the American people in history? How can he be for smaller government when all that “going green” will accomplish is bigger government with more restrictions? 

John McCain is trying to play to the far left eonviro-nazis. He feels that he needs to pander to the left wing in order to gain the votes that he needs to become president. There is one problem with this tactic though, in my opinion. He is pushing away any remaining conservatives who will hold their nose and vote for him.

 While Obama can pander to the right and not worry about losing his base I don’t believe that McCain has the same luxury. John McCain is on thin ice with conservatives who still want to vote for him not because they like him but because Obama is such an unacceptable option to them. This may push them away. 

 As I wrote earlier it is nothing new for candidates to move to the center in a general election, but this seems different. Both candidates have moved beyond center, and it is still early in this contest.

 It is going to be interesting to see how far each candidate will move to either the left or right in an effort to win votes.

If the early examples are any barometer we could be in for an interesting election.

Unfortunately, we are fucked no matter who wins.