Jockeying for Position

For connoisseurs of fine election campaigns, the presidential race of 2008 provides many interesting twists and turns, and reminds us once again how much of a blood sport politics is.

Strange as this may seem coming from a conservative, we salute Sen. Barack Obama for having the courage to stand up to the Clinton machine. Politicians from both parties can learn from his knack for projecting and stirring up enthusiasm. In contrast, Hillary Clinton's head will probably explode if she loses to him.

Gov. Huckabee's refusal to quit is a fascinating study in guerrilla politics. I still have doubts about him because of all the buttons he pressed to stir up anti-Mormon sentiment within his evangelical base, and now he's prepared to play mind games with front-runner Sen. John McCain. It would be advantageous for McCain to win Huckabee over to his side, as he absolutely, positively has to carry the southern states to have a chance at winning, but politicians don't always act in their best self-interest. A safe prediction: the big media have been treating McCain with kid gloves so far, but as soon as the Democrats settle on a standard bearer, the gloves come off!

Food for thought from talk show host and author Mark Levin: “I wanted to post a sober thought. If McCain is the Republican nominee, how will he position himself as a candidate? This weekend Obama already telegraphed the Democrat strategy by picking apart McCain’s inconsistencies on taxes and immigration. If McCain moves to the right during the general election to try to appeal to more conservatives, Obama will be able to portray him as a disingenuous flip-flopper. If McCain moves further left to try and blunt those charges, he will continue to alienate a portion of the base. What is he going to run on? If he runs on the surge, how many Democrats and Independents will that attract? Is he going to run against earmarks and for a balanced budget? I don’t think that’s going to resonate with too many voters. The Democrats will be talking about saving the poor, sick and elderly, in the tradition of FDR. McCain will be talking like Herbert Hoover. And since McCain is running on his personal story, let me suggest that neither McCain’s age nor temperament will be ignored by the Democrats. Do we ignore Obama’s age and Hillary’s temperament?... I don’t think John McCain can win in November because of his record, not ‘unfair’ criticism, talk radio, or what have you. If the issue is electability based on current polls, that’s an absurd position. Six months ago Rudy was the inevitable Republican nominee and Hillary was the inevitable Democrat nominee.”