Campaign Crawlers
‘Stand Up and Fight’
McCain and Palin rally the faithful in Pennsylvania.
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — “Fight!…Fight!…Fight!” The word punctuated John McCain’s peroration to thousands of Pennsylvanians who turned out in Hershey on a cold, drizzly morning to cheer him and running mate Sarah Palin.
“Fight for the ideals and character of a free people,” McCain urged, as he neared the end of his speech. “Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all.”
The crowd inside the Giant Center at Hershey Park was cheering so loudly as to drown out most of the Republican candidate’s words, so that all they heard was “fight!”
That was enough, however, for Republicans like Joe the Recording Engineer. Joe Trojcak owns a sound studio near Hershey and says he’s been a Republican activist since 1992. “I got tired of yelling at my TV,” explains Trojcak, 44, who worked as a volunteer at yesterday’s “Road to Victory” rally.
Small businessmen like Trojcak have become Republican heroes ever since the Oct. 12 chance encounter between Barack Obama and “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher in Ohio.
“Now, Joe didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house, and he didn’t ask to be famous,” McCain told the crowd in Hershey. “He certainly didn’t ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign. Joe’s dream is to own a small business that will create jobs, and the attacks on him are an attack on small businesses all over the country.”
In that fateful encounter with Wurzelbacher, Obama described his plan to “spread the wealth around.” McCain and Palin have been hanging those four words around the Democrat’s neck ever since.
“It doesn’t sound like too many of you are supporting Barack the Wealth Spreader,” Palin said in Hershey.
ALAS, IT NOW APPEARS there is a “spread the wealth” majority in America, if the polls are to be believed. Disbelieving polls has become an article of GOP faith in recent weeks, however. Pollsters have come to rival even the liberal media as an enemy in Republican eyes.
McCain was preaching to the converted yesterday when he slammed the pundits who “have written us off, just like they’ve done before,” and accused Obama of prematurely “measuring the drapes” in the White House.
“I guess I’m old fashioned about these things. I prefer to let the voters weigh in before presuming the outcome,” McCain said to cheers from the Pennsylvania crowd.
If the outcome were presumed from the current polls, Obama would be advised to hurry up with those drapery measurements. Six of the 10 most recent national polls show the Democrat at 50 percent or higher. The situation for the Republican ticket looks even worse in the battleground states. Obama leads by more than 4 points in Nevada, 8 points in New Mexico, 7 points in Colorado, 3 points in Florida, 6 points in Ohio, and a shocking 7 points in Virginia.
Nevertheless, many Republicans cherry-pick the polls and say they see “tightening” in the contest. Gallup says Obama’s national lead may be as small as 2 points, depending on how “likely voters” are gauged. The possibility of a McCain victory at this point would appear to depend upon a powerful anti-Obama shift among undecided voters, but even that possibility might not be enough to justify the GOP’s last-ditch effort in Pennsylvania.
No poll since April has shown McCain leading in Pennsylvania, and the last time he was tied in the Keystone State was mid-September, before the financial crisis — and McCain’s reaction to that crisis — knocked the bottom out of his poll numbers.
WITH THE HELP of Joe the Plumber, however, the Republican campaign has finally found a solid hook to hang the “tax-and-spend liberal” label on Obama, pounding home an issue that has always been the GOP’s strong suit.
About the Author
Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Joe G| 10.29.08 @ 7:55AM
He's right. Never give up or surrender. Fight to the end and we will elect McCain/Palin!
Michael Roush| 10.29.08 @ 9:19AM
Pundits are wondering how Reagan Democrats are going to vote this year. These comments are addressed Reagan Democrats, who are still undecided, with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy. Its time to play you may be an undecided Reagan Democrat if.......
1. you were at the McCain-Palin rally in Hershey yesterday because you had nothing better to do. Your high paying manufacturing job has been shipped overseas.
2. you are working at night for minimum wage and no benefits with no prospects for improving this situation because you live in a right to work state.
3. you have a brother who is working but complains that his income has been stagnant for years, yet you still believe tax cuts for the rich will cause the prosperity to trickle down.
4. you listen to Obama's tax plan and still worry that your wealth will be "redistributed."
5. you think government should stay out of people's business unless that business is their sex life (euphemistically referred to as reproductive rights, sexual orientation etc,)
6. you have this vague feeling that the GOP walk hasn't matched the GOP talk for years but the specifics elude you. You are what the pundits call a LIV - a Low Information Voter.
7. you want to mate with Sarah Palin (Donny Deutsch's phrase). Nevertheless, you are a true blue values voter.
8. you think Fox News really is "fair and balanced."
9. you waste gas driving nearly everywhere because there is no money to repair the bridge that is two blocks from your house. Yet you support rebuilding Iraq.
10. you support abstinence only education because it obviously works in Alaska.
Thomas| 10.29.08 @ 10:02AM
"Obama Rules" states that conservatives are "fascist"; "nutjobs" "scumbags"; light-beer drinkin', tobacco-chewin', spittoon-spittin' middle-aged Caucasians who "...beat their wives". He goes on to state that liberals "view freedom as a basic human right" and that they "embrace diversity".
What a post - a classic example of a liberal's over-emotional, convoluted hypocrisy at it's irrational, hateful and contradictory best!
Dosser| 10.29.08 @ 10:04AM
Gosh, you guys are an angry, almost rabid, bunch aren't you? You are amusing, though, and I pity you since your emotions have overridden rationale. Your Obamanation may win, but we're "girding our loins" against his impending disaster. Hey, Slow Joe says so. ^_^
Kamel Cetin| 10.29.08 @ 10:15AM
What's that stench? Did Michael R. and Obi R. fart again? Liberals are a sorry bunch, they bitterly cling to KY jelly tubes and abortion.
Mc Cain & Sarah rule!
scott Lyons| 10.29.08 @ 10:19AM
I agree - if OBAMA RULES is so left supportive, why is he even here on a website for a conservative daily? That makes no sense at all. I hope he/she likes it when their money gets spread around......
Dosser| 10.29.08 @ 10:25AM
Wow, talking about Palin and the wardrobe..... Is that the best you can do? You know what? You're right. Let's vote an anti-American in office.
Dosser| 10.29.08 @ 10:33AM
I'm glad you liberals are here. It gives truth the chance to be told since they can't get it from the MSM. It will either make it through to your head or just make your blood boil. Both outcomes are acceptable to me.
Thomas| 10.29.08 @ 10:47AM
Roush writes that"
"Your high paying manufacturing job has been shipped overseas", "yet you still believe tax cuts for the rich will cause the prosperity to trickle down".
No, I believe that "tax cuts for the rich" merely increase the chance that properity will "trickle down". If one raises taxes on business and, at the same time, increases it's labor costs by forcing it to pay high union wages, then we all pay higher prices. Likewise, prosperity will then have no chance of "trickling down because "the rich" will then just do what they've already been doing - move their businesses overseas where both taxation and labor costs are lower. Incidentially, they also take their money with them - leaving less of it in banks for the rest of us to borrow (at higher interest rates) when buying a home or car.
Higher union wages and higher taxation - the great liberal solution to a failing business sector made unprosperous by high union wages and excessive taxation.
Michael Roush| 10.29.08 @ 11:11AM
Thomas, you write, "No, I believe that "tax cuts for the rich" merely increase the chance that properity will "trickle down". The data from the last several years indicates that the prosperity has not trickled down. You also write, "If one raises taxes on business and, at the same time, increases it's labor costs by forcing it to pay high union wages, then we all pay higher prices." So, American workers have to work in the same sweatshop conditions that exist overseas in order to have a job? There must be a third way. Finally, you write, "Incidentially, they also take their money with them - leaving less of it in banks for the rest of us to borrow (at higher interest rates) when buying a home or car." How much money have the wealthy parked off-shore in order to avoid taxes? None of that is available to us to borrow for purchases.
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 11:39AM
Oh, look, it's those fun-loving liberals. They are back once again to share their love and tolerance with us; you know, the qualitites they always CLAIM to have. They are so nauseating I have to laugh.
Joe Phillips| 10.29.08 @ 11:49AM
One of the main differences between Conservative web sites and Liberal ones is the insulting filth that is routinely written by Liberals. If Obama Rules has coherent arguments let him make them in a reasonable way, without the name calling and filthy talk with which he seeks to offend. Otherwise, get this jerk out of here.
Peter R McGrath| 10.29.08 @ 12:00PM
Obama's commitment to "spread the wealth" is a promise to low wage earners (who pay no taxes) that they will receive a larger subsidy in the form of increases in the so-called "Earned Income Tax Credit" or some other so-called benefit. This "tax cut" is really an increased subsidy, paid for by those who gross more than a certain amount (an amount which appears to be shifting down from $250k per year to $150k per year, according to recent comments by Biden).
The real question - always avoided by the social engineers advocating such increased subsidies - is whether the policy actually improves the lives of those receiving such subsidies? The answer, unequivocally, is "No." Any analysis of census data reveals the following for those populations receiving the highest subsidies per capita: higher death rates, lower life expectancies, higher rates of out of wedlock births, higher incidence of crime, drug abuse, and abortions. Obama's promise of a "tax cut" for lower income wage earners is really a promise to deliver more dependence and more misery. Such policies have been tried, and failed, repeatedly, most recently, in the U.K. and France, where the MAJORITY of births are now out of wedlock. Why any thinking person would want the same for America is beyond understanding.
TGC| 10.29.08 @ 12:01PM
Obama idiots come after Palin on her clothes, her shoes, and her children. They come after McCain on his age, his injuries from being a POW.
They ignore Bidens constant supidity! His lack of knowledge.
They ignore BOs ties to terrorists, felons, racists, communists, and PLO supporters. They ignore his trying to hide his history, his own racism, his all consuming desire for women to abort their children...even to the point of allowing a baby born alive after a botched murder attempt to be left alone in a closet to die without medical attention! They ignore his ties to ACORN, the group now being investigate by the FBI for voter fraud! It's insane...to vote Obama you have to be completely out of your mind.
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 12:31PM
Democrats: the party of infanticide
Ghastlyone| 10.29.08 @ 12:38PM
'Obama Rules':
Remember who voted and passed that "SOCIALIST" 700 billion dollar bailout plan...yes...your fellow liberal controlled congress. And yes, we all can't forget about that "de-regulated" Wall Street liberals keep talking about, because we all know only those rich evil republicans run the show there. Only rich evil republicans are the CEO's of large companies, investment firms, ect. in deep dark blue New York huh?.
OCPatriot| 10.29.08 @ 2:38PM
McCain only knows, as a military man, how to "fight." It's a war to him. That's over-simplifying it, but if McCain could produce a coherent plan that benefitted the people he's cajoling, he might be ahead by a long shot; unfortunately, he views everything through the narrow prism of being a military man. Truth is, he's not really been a military man for some time and the subtleties of the smart military mind have eluded him since he did so badly, so many years ago, at his Naval school. He seems impervious to feedback, poor Senator McCain, and he calls himself a maverick (meaning he listens to his inner self more than what's going on around him), which results in his choosing Governor Palin as his running mate. The tragedy is McCain is now in "win-at-any-cost" "scorched-earth" mode, and it isn't working.
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 3:48PM
That's okay, Obomber Rules, I know you've never seen an abortion you didn't love. That's what you and your ilk are all about--the culture of death. Go take your meds, you've missed a few doses. Loser
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 4:04PM
Obomber, give it a rest. I don't know how you can even see through your spittle flecked computer screen. We're gonna kick you a** next Tuesday, November, 4--then what are you going to do? May be get a job?
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 4:18PM
Bet daddy gave it to ya. Certifiable.
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 4:31PM
Gotta go--I've got a life. It's been great having this intelligent and respectful exchange of ideas with you.
ruth| 10.29.08 @ 4:52PM
Bye, commie.
Dave S| 10.29.08 @ 8:00PM
The Democrats/liberals would love to dent Sarah Palin's future by showing Obama strong in Alaska in 2008. There must be a get-out-the-losing-vote in Alaska in order for Democrats to win in 2012 or beyond.
Osamas Pajamas | 10.30.08 @ 1:22AM
Silly Democrats. Lying propaganda is typical for them, as they lie when they inhale and they lie when they exhale. How do you know if a Demo is lying? Check to see if he is breathing, and then stop that with a dirty sock and a plastic bag. Demos are so off-their-rockers that they believe their own propaganda! Observe that I do not call them "liberals." Ayn Rand was a "liberal" --- she sought to liberate the individual from the collectivist state. Demos are, variously, socialists, nazis, fascists, or communists ---- "statists," in other wods, but certainly not "liberals."
Yi Ha ***
Minister of Information
Peoples' Capitalist Republic of Whizbangistan
*** Pronounced "YEEEEE HAAAAAAA!!!"
Maryanne| 10.30.08 @ 4:41AM
For a vid about Obama's association not just with marxists, but Marxist Imagery which really shows where his head is at, check this out on YouTube (runs about 2 minutes and is very visual) (you'll need to cut and paste because I have no idea how to do a hyperlink)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SWdlS9cOHw
Here's a link for a conservative bog specifically aimed at Young Voters:
http://youngvotermedia2008.blogspot.com/