McCain looses 'Joe the plumber'

This is not a big deal, but tells the story about how poorly the McCain campaign is being run. Constantly jumping from one message to another. Constantly in reaction mode and never proactive. Joe the Plumber is now the third person on the McCain ticket and his fame is being extended a few minutes. Yet for some reason, the people running the Republican campaign cannot even coordinate an appearance properly. Not a reason to vote for or against McCain, but you would think with five days to go that the campaign could at least get its act together. Palin and McCain aides fighting amongst themselves in the media. For a decade Hillary was one of the most disliked figures in Republican circles yet during the McCain campaign there were ads that promoted Hillary Clinton and attacked Obama for not selecting her as VP. It would be fair to say that the whole purpose of selecting Palin was to appeal to those upset Clinton supporters following the primaries. A few weeks later, it appears that economic credentials are not present on the Republican ticket at a time when the economy is the top issue. Political opportunism has backfired. All the Republican surrogates seem to have disappeared. Gaffes are taking place everywhere. Palin seemed to suggest that only states that vote Republican are pro-American. The whole campaign has been a complete gong show. In the final weeks where is Mitt Romney? Mike Huckabee? Fred Thompson? Rudy Giuliani? Where is George W. Bush? Donald Rumsfeld? Dick Cheney? Joe Lieberman? Obama is out there with Colin Powell, Warren Buffet, Al Gore and Bill Clinton. John McCain has "Joe the Plumber". Would you not rather have someone like Romney talking about the economic crisis? If you haven't demonstrated that you can put together a compotent campaign, why should anyone have confidence you can run the United States of America?

All the blue states have been given up on. McCain is now desparate to hold red states that in some cases haven't voted Democratic in decades. Even his home state of Arizona is becoming a battleground state because of a surge in Obama support among Hispanic voters. Ironic given how much of a price he paid for his amnesty bill. Obama supporters are enthusiastic, excited and are turning out new voters as we speak. McCain supporters are looking at the polls, see the writing on the wall and were never that enthusiastic or excited to begin with. Stopping the democrats from unchecked power is really the only remaining hope left. The electoral college map and state polls show that mathmatically it is almost impossible for McCain to win.

When you look at the George W. Bush fiscal record and the fact that McCain represents more of the same failed policies; one has to wonder if there is a Conservative option in this race. Under the Republicans spending is up to record levels, the national debt has doubled, unemployment has increased and John McCain opposes Barack Obama's middle class tax cut in favour of continuing the Bush tax cut that he once opposed. The economy has been mismanaged into a likely recession - if not worse. Banks are failing. Corporate welfare is soaring. Home values are collapsing. The volatile stock market is threatening retirement investments and savings. The middle class is far worse off today than 8 years ago. Incomes are falling or staying the same. A massive wealth transfer has taken place to oil producing nations, many of them enemies of the United States. Huge trade deficits are growing. China is loaning Americans money to fight a war in Iraq. George W. Bush has not once balanced the budget. America's standing in the world has drastically fallen. I am not at all sure how that is a conservative record. I see it as a disaster with change more than justified. McCain does not represent change.

The best thing that could happen to the Republican Party on Tuesday would be a complete blow out. They need to lose the White House, Senate and Congress. Once that occurs, Obama and the Democrats can deal with the financial crisis over the next four years. Republicans can use the time to rebuild the Reagan coalition and come back with a platform that appeals to all Conservatives, independents and moderate Democrats - not just their base. Republicans have to go back to their roots. Corruption needs to be cleaned out. Anyone associated with the Bush presidency needs to be fired and not allowed near Washington again. They have to find conservatism again. Maybe in four years this can happen and the Republican party will be credible again. In the short term, the state of the Republican Party in America is in no better shape than the Liberal party in Canada.

Reagan asked Americans if they were better off today than four years ago. The overwhelming majority of Americans can not say they are. When you screw up this badly, someone must be held accountable. Republicans do not deserve another term in power.

In terms of Canada, it will be nice to not be compared to Bush in future campaigns from Harper's perspective. Given our oil reserves, I would not be afraid to open up NAFTA but American should know that we will have some grievences to and not all of the renegotiation would be to their advantage. Free trade has been good for both sides and there is no chance the agreement will be torn up. Obama gave us a "heads up" on that issue during the primaries.

The focus of the remaining Republicans, most of whom call themselves independents should be rebuilding the Reagan coalition. Here is what can happen in America when the ideas of conservatism appeal to a broad base. Until that coalition is rebuilt, the Republican party will not have much influence in American politics going forward. Obama will pick up somewhere around 370 electoral college votes on Tuesday and the Republicans being tossed from power will be well deserved. When you tell people who disagree with you that they do not fit in as a conservative, you find yourselves getting your asses handed to you at election time when they vote for someone else or stay home. There is no doubt we are going to see that happen on Tuesday and the question is how will Republicans respond. Will they blame the media? Will they look in the mirror, realize they messed up America and take responsibility? Will they get the message their views are not mainstream and they need to broden the tent? If they do not return to the conservative roots in the next few years; get use to seeing President Obama for a long time.
-Darryl