Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 4:40:15 PM
It is interesting that crossover Democrats and the MSM helped to nominate McCain, as in so doing they may have actually helped make the eventual Obama defeat worse.
Now, let us be clear about one thing, the left definitely had a part in McCain's nomination. He was hardly the front runner in Republican circles. However, he received the most friendly coverage of any Republican in the MSM, maybe the only positive coverage of any candidate. Add to that the fact that his early primary wins were in states with
open primaries, and the role of the Democrats and liberal MSM is pretty clear. I make no statement about their motives, whether they nominated him as the weakest opposition or as the candidate they preferred does not matter, what does matter for my purposes is that the left definitely had a hand in the McCain nomination.
Yes, McCain had a rough start, with many conservatives saying they would sit out the race rather than vote for him. In fact there are quite a few still saying the same. However, more and more, I hear people who have realized that with McCain they will at least have some voice, while with Obama they will have none. And McCain has made some
tentative steps in the direction of appealing to conservatives. He may have made
some mistakes, but he is recovering and
slowly moving rightward again. There is still a considerable opposition, but it has certainly grown smaller in recent weeks.
So, some are asking, where is the irony? I am getting to that.
To all appearances, McCain is arguably the worst possible choice for a Republican nominee. His nomination created dissent in the party, he is far from conservative in his views, and his efforts to appeal to the press tends to upset conservatives. However, his "maverick" persona actually helps him in one crucial area. Cross over votes.
Thanks to Obama's commitment to proving himself an elitist, and well as an inability to stay away from racial rhetoric despite his "postracial" image, Obama is steadily driving away the blue collar segment of the Democrat party. In a normal election this wouldn't matter. Come the general election they would either sit out the election, or close ranks, hold their noses and vote Demcorat. But McCain's "maverick" and "populist" rhetoric, abhorrent as it is to Republicans, allows him to appeal to these voters in a way Romney, Hunter, or Huckabee could not. He has pushed enough traditional labor-left policies and mouthed enough anti-business platitudes to make him a viable candidate for cross over votes. And Obama seems committed to giving him as many as he can handle.
The question remains if McCain can both unify the Republicans and keep his appeal to the Demcorat cross over voters, but I think the answer is yes. Even if McCain pulls hard to the right to win Republicans back, his image is already ingrained in the minds of the blue collar voters. He would have to do a lot to make himself less appealing than Obama. Of course, the Democrats could always pull the rug out form under him, at least in this regard, by nominating Clinton. But they seem unwilling to do so.
So, strange as it may seem, by forcing on Republicans the nominee they wanted the least, the Democrats may have handed a huge number of crossover votes to the Republicans as well.