Battle of the Dueling Irrelevant Polls: Straight Talk is ahead!
Posted by: Neocon in 2008 Race, Democrats, Hillary, Iraq, McCain, Obama, RepublicansYou have to take any polls this far out with a grain of salt, but why not trumpet it when our tepid cranky old man Republican nominee is shown to be beating the empty youthful candidate of hope? Especially after Obama made such a big deal about polls showing him beating John McCain at the debate last night.
The findings underscore the difficulties ahead for Democrats as they hope to retake the White House during a time of war, with voters giving McCain far higher marks when it comes to experience, fighting terrorism and dealing with the situation in Iraq.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have made ending America’s involvement in the war a centerpiece of their campaigns. And even though a clear majority of those polled said the war was not worth waging, about half of registered voters said McCain — a Vietnam vet who has supported the Bush administration’s military strategy — was better able to deal with Iraq.
That’s a pretty strong statement. With all the bluster that the left has been blowing about the Iraq war, about how the Congress thinks the American people demand change, it really means something that voters trust the man who unequivocally wants to remain in Iraq over both Obama and Clinton by double digits on that issue. Here’s how it shakes out.
Clearly McCain has to do more to show that he can be the candidate of change, and I hope that he has the stomach for it. Luckily Johnny has at least six months to get some fire in his belly and illustrate that he’s the only one who has crossed the aisle substantively in bipartisan efforts, something that could help win him the election despite how it has made conservatives grit our teeth.
We’ve seen how quick McCain is to take the ‘high road’, scolding Republicans but not Democrats. However, we’ve also seen during the primary season that Obama won’t have any qualms about making unfair attacks on old Straight Talk. Obama continuously distorts McCain’s statement that he wouldn’t be against American troops being in Iraq for 100 years.
Here’s the original McCain 100 years in Iraq quote, in response to an unhappy question about how Bush is talking about being in Iraq for fifty years, if you need a refresher:
“Make it a hundred… We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans .. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. That’s fine with me, I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Queada is training and equipping and recruiting and motivating people every single day.”
Now here’s an example of the lying spin Obama has been putting on it:
“When it comes to foreign policy, John McCain says he wants to fight a 100-year war—a hundred years, as long as it takes,” channeling outrage from the crowd. “That is not designed to make us safer,” he continued, shifting the crowd to cheers. “That is simply stubbornness. That is designed to try to make a bad decision look better.”
There is no way you could get the context wrong by reading/listening to McCain’s quotation, yet Barack Obama has been running this thing out there at every venue he can, including the Democrat debate last night. That’s just a small taste of what’s to come. If McCain is going to win, he’ll have to get over himself.
Articles came out recently touting that McCain was ‘clarifying’ and ‘defending’ his 100 years in Iraq statement. Here’s an example:
“My friends, the war will be over soon. The war for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years. But it’ll be handled by the Iraqis not by us. And then we decide what kind of security arrangement we want to have with the Iraqis,” McCain told a town hall meeting in the Buckeye State this morning.
Yet if you read the original quote, there’s no clarification present in the second. He’s saying the same exact thing. If it weren’t for Obama being underhanded about it, there wouldn’t be a problem. Predictably, liberal groups linked to Soros are jumping on this to lie about McCain’s position as well.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has more on how the data is skewed to help Democrats.
QandO reminds us that all the polls said we’d be seeing a Rudy/Hillary race right now.
