The American Spectator

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Willy Dalton /p> p> FRAIDY CAT br> Re: W. James Antle III's The Safe Talk Express : /p> p>If McCain can't take on Obama over his weaknesses then he is a pretty poor candidate -- he looks like he won the nomination and now doesn't have a clue what to do with it. McCain builds his campaign around his character and his leadership (although he has to go back 40 years to do that), yet he is too weak to talk about fundamental weaknesses in his opponent. It makes him look weak and incoherent -- just what does this guy stand for, other than he was in Vietnam 40 years ago and he likes liberals? It isn't much to base a campaign on, especially if he expects conservatives to start blowing his trumpet, which looks pretty unlikely anyway. Politics is not a passive contest, it is constantly changing and candidates who don't react, who can't make a case against their opponent and in favor of themselves and who don't define themselves well end up having others do it for them. They lose. Al Gore never could say what he was on about, and John Kerry tried to pass himself off as an experienced, tested leader who could defend the country until the swiftboat veterans put an end to that nonsense. Gore and Kerry both got beaten by a candidate who wasn't very good either but who made fewer mistakes and McCain looks like he is going the same way. br> -- Christopher Holland br> Canberra, Australia /p>

W. James Antle III's article was a classic example of style over substance thinking. The type of thinking that led to the conservative crackup that empowered Democrats and leaves one asking how many conservatives have been hoodwinked by the "magical mystery tour?"

For instance why would any conservative have sympathy for mealy mouthed liberal Barrack H. Obama or misgivings about Hillary's audacity to throw the kitchen sink at him? Potential Hillary "slayer" or not he's still a doctrinaire leftist. Shouldn't we relish the donnybrook that is this year's Democrat primary season and hope for more Democrat blood in the political waters?

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