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.
Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment was “one of those rare
moments when [his] real ideology starts to come through,” Palin
said later yesterday in a solo appearance at Shippensburg
University. “Barack Obama is for bigger, more controlling
government and higher taxes.”
Palin praised small businesses as “the backbone of our economy.”
Plenty of that backbone was in the crowd, including “Dick the
Contractor” Tydings, who had driven 50 miles for a chance to see
Sarah the Hockey Mom. Tydings was among the thousands who stood
outside for hours on a cold, windy day, waiting in line for the
Palin rally in Shippensburg.
Enthusiasm in the predominantly Republican region of central
Pennsylvania might not be enough to offset support for Obama in
Democrat-heavy Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but it obviously
encouraged a campaign that needs as much encouragement as it can
get.
In Hershey, McCain vowed to “fight to the end,” and brought the
crowd to its feet with his defiant conclusion.
“Stand up! Stand up! Stand up and fight! America is worth
fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We
never quit.…Now, let’s go win this election and get this country
moving again.”
