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You Decide 2008 has some interesting coverage on John McCain possibly pulling out of the race by September based primarily his poor fundraising efforts to date.
I personally don’t think McCain has much of a shot. I was formerly a fan of who thought he was a simple, kind moderate many years ago, but in recent years he is coming off like the sweet grandpa who is trying to be everyone’s favorite old relative by saying exactly what we want to hear. And not being able to keep up with what most of the country is watching or listening to, or even talking about. I think he could of had a shot if he was 20 or even 10 years younger, but now he seems past his prime and out of place in the current pool of candidates.
Here’s the FOX News coverage on the speculation that he could drop out of the race:
Senator John McCain may not know that contraceptives prevent the spread of H
IV, but at least he does believe in evolution. At the Republican presidential debates last night, when moderator Chris Matthews asked if anyone did not believe in evolution, Senator Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo all raised their hands. Amazing.
Unfortunately Monday, April 16th this country watched as one a national tragedy unfolded in front of our eyes as young students and teachers were taken hostage in what should have been a safe environment – their college campus. The day ended with many unanswered question – why? how? and who?
As with any news on a national scale, the 2008 candidates used their blogs and other methods to send out their statements and thoughts on this sad day in American history. The AP has a nice round-up here. Probably the most disturbing sediments came from McCain who said he didn’t know the details of the attacks before firmly standing behind the Second Amendment stating that every American deserves the right to bare arms.
Most of the other public comments talk of the bigger picture sending their thoughts and concerns for the families of those lost.
CNN asks the next question – will gun control become a topic now for the 2008 election?
Bill Schneider provides some excellent insight into the issue, stating that gun control has not been an issue in this country in more than 12 years, and the last gun control issue passed was in 1994!
He also states that less than 50% of the American population is for stricker gun laws in a study from January 2007, the lowest number since 1990. But Bill also points out that gun pros vote as opposed to those in favor of gun control:
“But public anger is not usually sustained very long, whereas gun owners remember every gun control vote as a threat to their rights. Gun owners vote the issue. Supporters of gun control typically don’t. So politicians believe they will pay a price at the polls if they support new guns laws, even when most voters agree with them. When it comes to public opinion, intensity matters. Not just numbers.”
As a firm believer in stronger gun control in this country, I do hope that this becomes a larger issue in the next election. But Bill brings up some good points that this will probably take a back seat to the Iraq War, Foreign Policies and Health Care.
John Stewart and company covered the New Media aspect of this upcoming election from MySpace to YouTube and Second Life. In fact, many of the aspects they bring up were already covered by 2008 Election Watch here and here (not that we’re trying to brag, ok, maybe we are). But here’s a round up of everything, including the hilarious hacker change on John McCain’s blog, Enjoy!
It was a big day in the world of Hillary Clinton today. She held a town hall meeting in Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, and stated that if elected she would create a universal health care system. Also announced today – former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack who backed out of the race last month due to a lack of funds, gave his official endorsement for Clinton.
With all the good news in Iowa, Senator Clinton has also raised the most amount of money in one week – $10 million. The old record was held by John Edwards in 2004. Man, she’s on a roll!
In related fundraising news, John McCain recently announced that he would not meet expectations by the first deadline for money raising, March 31st. McCain has only held four events since his announcement to join the race, but plans to have an additional 40 scheduled between now and May.
If you answered “No” to the above question, then it looks like you won’t be voting for John McCain in 2008, who recently had the following exchange with a reporter on his “Straight Talk Express”, somewhere in northern Iowa:
Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”
Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”
Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”
To be fair, the initial question was, “Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?”, and I would have believed that McCain’s initial uncertainty was understandable (if not sincere). But when a follow-up question was asked about whether he supported the president’s abstinence-only education policy in schools (Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”), it seemed clear to me that McCain was more interested in pandering to the religious right (no sex before marriage, or else!) than in giving an honest answer to a simple question.
Yea, as if we didn’t know this was coming.
2008 Election Watch 