The McCain campaign has been having some trouble balancing their support. While Sarah Palin's conservative social views have gotten a strong hold of a good portion of McCain's conservative voters, many moderates have been skeptical. McCain's campaigning strategies to please the right voters have resulted in a loss of support from the center, which is the support that McCain needs in order to overcome Obama's lead. This was indeed a bad move for McCain because the middle voters are probably the most likely to shift their support from one party to another.
For example, former Republican secretary of state Colin Powell is endorsing Barack Obama ( as I see Kevin mentioned below). Well, what's the significance of this? Despite the fact that it was expected for Powell, well known to be a moderate conservative, to eventually back Obama, his move may just be enough to push many other undecided voters over the edge to vote for Obama. It helps that Powell very clearly stated his views on Obama vs. McCain; he basically said McCain: Nah and Obama: Yah.
With the election getting closer and closer, the undecided voters are weighing the pros and cons of the two candidates. Yet, it seems like McCain's cons seem to be adding up more and more to a greater amount. McCain's rough performance during the financial crisis (think back to "The fundamentals of our economy are still strong.") and his not-so-great VP choice of Palin are some of the things that are really pushing people over the edge. McCain got nominated for the GOP nominee spot in the first place for his supposed "maverick" behavior. His "maverick" appeal was that he could also serve for the interests of the independents and moderates and "take on his own party." But now, it seems that McCain is giving into the needs to please his party and his actions haven't been successful in attracting those middle voters, which he so desperately needs.
1 comment:
With the influx of declining party loyality I'm sure McCain is having a lot of trouble getting the same unconditional support he was probably accustomed to in his previous runs for office. It seems the crossing of party lines extends even into the government and really appears to show an change in our nation. To me this seems like it could develop into a positive change. If people are willing to cross party lines for a candidate it seems to show that they have done some sort of research on the candidate, know his policies or something that influences them to join the other side. This seems to imply that people really care about the choices they're making and that they're not voting mindlessly because a candidate belongs to this ambiguous thing called a political party.
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