Redstate

"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill

The Reverend Wright videos first surfaced in March. Obama tried to defuse the controversy with his now-famous speech on race, but not everybody was buying. And then, of course, Reverend Wright himself came forward in late April to speak on his own behalf before the national media--and that caused Obama to throw him under the bus. Prior to March, Obama had gotten a virtual free pass from an adoring media.

The challenge for McCain is how to keep that controversy alive (so the public doesn't lose interest), while still not making it appear like a totally racist attack.

What I would do, is put Wright's words in the context of the things said and done by Obama's advisers (many of whom are white). I would call attention to such Obama advisers as Sarah Sewall, Robert Malley, etc., to paint Obama as someone who associates primarily with the hard left. I would make the point that Obama's spiritual mentor for 20 years doesn't have a lot of good things to say about Israel, and neither do any of his advisers. Gee, what a coincidence.

Finally, I would paint Obama as an opportunist: If he can cavalierly toss his church--his church--of twenty years under the bus whenever it's politically expedient, who else and what else would he toss under that bus if expediency demanded it? Israel? What would Obama go the distance to defend against all comers? Where does Obama ever draw a line in the sand? Anywhere?

and you could be on the money. But my guess is that it was much more complex given the magnitude of the subsequent losses. Wright may have alerted a slumbering electorate to the fact that voters knew precious little about Obama other than he was a good orator, heavy on rhetoric and light on substance. His tawdry associations, Wright among them, drove home the point that little had been reported on Obama the person.

In addition, we learned from Wright that Obama responded poorly yet predictably when confronted with controversy. Obama gave a lecture rather than an apology in his now-discredited "race speech." As you pointed out, that homily unraveled in rather short order. This may indicate a poorly run campaign or a poor candidate when off message.

Let us assume, then, it was Wright in the sense that began the closer scrutiny of Obama and the subsequent meltdown of his campaign when put under pressure. The media and its Democratic allies will do little or nothing to highlight Obama's left-wing associations and radical viewpoints. The question is whether McCain will. The media and its Democratic allies, whether in a debate format or coverage, will do little or nothing to see how Obama responds to tough questions of any nature. The question, again, is whether McCain will fill the void.

Another factor may be Clinton ran a better campaign in the last few months.

Again, it may not have been Wright at all or in and of itself, so it would be nice to hear other possible explanations. What Crank has documented is that the Obama campaign fell apart halfway through the primary process, and it would be nice to know why.

"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill

Those are states where you have to reach well beyond the GOP base to win.

"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill

With around 9 Mil people in NJ now and only 3.5M voting in 2004 theres a good shot the people not voting are deeper republicans who felt the idea of voting in NJ is useless and better to just stay home (we also have a large number of people who will waste a vote on Nader if he gives it another go) If Dick Zimmer can run a good race he'll help pull people from the woodwork and maybe pull some jewish votes over to McCain.

You're right, McCain must reach out to his party's base. But how? Even picking a conservative as running mate won't mollify them.

McCain can't flip-flop on major issues just to mollify the base. That destroys his main appeal as a straight shooter and as someone who stands his ground.

McCain is already pro-life, pro-Israel, against earmarks and pork, and for winning in Iraq. If that's not enough for the base, then what is?

What does the base want McCain to do? Start talking like Tancredo and drive all the Hispanic voters into Obama's camp?

I honestly don't know what would satisfy the base except to turn McCain into somebody he's not--a Tancredo clone or a Bush clone.

In the States where this can help him win lets hope he pushes these issues as oppose to the immigration route, he may want to show he is both left and right, but he needs to pick where he is stronger and where right will help him more.

I'm sure he has the smartest minds behind him, sure he droped Karl but no doubt he's helping someone get McCain in, but will McCain shoot off topic and seem too middle of the road for some.

With McCain, Obama, and Nader we had it good, but now Barr will surely equal what Nader has.