Posted by
Steve on Thursday, January 24, 2008 2:12:20 PM
The polling results from polls in Florida look promising. They show that John McCain has not changed in his polling numbers. Mitt Romney has gained enough to be in the lead and Rudy Giuliani has lost support. All in all this is a good result. If this holds for the vote on Saturday, it will be a knockout for Rudy Giuliani and probably Mike Huckabee as he is trailing badly in 4th place. That would mean that Super Tuesday would be between Mitt Romney and John McCain with almost all Republican voters on that day. That bodes well for Romney and poorly for McCain.
The other development is that McCain has had to leave Florida and go fund raising. That means that he is in the same money crunch that Giuliani and Huckabee are. Romney is rolling in Florida full bore. He does not have a money crunch. He could use more donations and I received a request to donate just today. But, Romney’s staff is not going without pay during this time. Every other Republican, except for McCain, has had to have staff work without pay for the Florida primary. If things are this bad for the contenders for the Republican nomination, what are they going to do for the general election?
On the Democrat side, Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama are hitting each other over the head with accusations. Mrs. Clinton claims that he has or has not done something. He claims that Mrs. Clinton or her husband is not telling the truth. Barack is now learning what everyone on the Republican side learned in the 1990’s, the Clinton’s will say or do anything to get or keep power. That is really true for this campaign cycle. The worst of it is Bill Clinton. He is shooting off his mouth about almost everything. He does not seem to care about the truth in the least little bit. He accuses Barack of playing the gender and race cards. Barack has not played the race card and is not playing the race card. In that way Bill Clinton puts the idea in play by denying that he is putting it in play. If their opponent responds to it at all, they then have their opponent playing the race or gender card. If the opponent does not respond, then the story gets printed just how the Clinton’s want it printed and the opponent is screwed. The opponent cannot win no matter what they do.
According to Dick Morris, the Clinton’s are trying to deflect criticism from Mrs. Clinton to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is trying to make himself obnoxious. He is doing a great job. Of course, he has had years of practice. As a result, he is taking a lot of heat from talk radio and conservatives. This has resulted in a reduction of negative articles about Mrs. Clinton. They also got Barack Obama to react to their tag team attack on his character. His negative reaction to their attack will hurt him in obtaining the nomination. When he was keeping his message positive and he did not react, he was riding high. By reacting angrily, he is playing into their hands. He is also showing that he is not ready for prime time. Republicans can expect more of the same in the general election.
What does all this mean? It points to Mitt Romney representing the Republican Party in November. It also points to Mrs. Bill Clinton representing the Democrat party. That will be a barn burner. Mitt is by far smarter than both the Clinton’s put together. The problem is that he is also honest and true. Those are not good qualities when playing ball with the Clinton’s. You want someone who will dust it up with the Clinton’s and give them more than they give you. He has to come across as charming and positive in every situation. If he does that, he will be the next President of the United States. If he gets surly and sour, he will go down in flames. The Clinton’s play dirty and will say and do anything to get or keep power. He will have to remind himself of that every day from the day he secures the nomination, until Election Day.