As you may already know, I've written a column critical of John McCain for insisting the NC GOP pull an ad critical of Obama. The NC Republicans were right, and McCain was wrong. Please visit the NC GOP web site, write them an e-mail of support and, if you can, kick a few bucks their way. (The Party chair's e-mail box was full -- imagine that -- but the others were open.) Here's the link: http://www.ncgop.org/leadership/ncgop.aspThe following is this weekend's column. Your comments are welcome.
In many states (PA, NM, NC) Republicans are running ads to support state ("down-ticket") Republican candidates that feature criticisms of Barack Obama. In perhaps 30 states, he is becoming radioactive.
My friend,
Melissa Hart, who's running for Congress in the 4th congressional district is launching almost daily attacks on her opponent, Jason Altmire, for his "fawning," uncritical behavior toward Obama. Consider the following information disseminated by Sharon Caliendo, a political superstar and consultant in Oklahoma and Texas:
Sooner Survey: Barack Obama Would Be A Disaster For State Democrats,
Drag Entire Ticket Down
Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president would be a disaster for Oklahoma Democrats and possibly drag down other Democrat candidates, the new edition of the Sooner Survey reports.
Survey Director Pat McFerron reports that with either Obama or Hillary Clinton as the party nominee, Republican John McCain should win the state easily. But while McCain now leads Clinton 2-to-1, he leads Obama 3-to-1 and Obama displays startling weakness in Democrat areas of the state.
While Oklahoma Republicans once salivated at the opportunity to again run against a Clinton, McFerron writes, "Barack Obama’s numbers in the state make him an even more appealing Democrat nominee to run against."
For Oklahoma Democrats on the fall ballot, McFerron sounds an ominous warning: "When looking at their individual favorability numbers, there is not much difference between Obama (32% favorable vs. 54% unfavorable) and Clinton (34% favorable vs. 57% unfavorable).However, when looking at ballot match-ups against McCain, there is a sizeable difference that could have dire consequences for down-ballot Democrats.
Against Hillary Clinton, John McCain has a two-to-one advantage (60% McCain vs. 30% Clinton). Against Barack Obama, however, it approaches three-to-one (62% McCain vs. 21% Obama)."Obama drew a favorable rating from 32 percent of those in the survey, with 54 percent expressing an unfavorable opinion. And 40 percent have a "strongly unfavorable" impression of him.
McFerron writes that in the
Ada/Ardmore area, an area of significant Democrat strength, 81 percent of those surveyed picked McCain and only 5 percent picked Obama in a head-to-head matchup.
In
Little Dixie, McCain has an astounding 5-to-1 lead over Obama.
http://wwwtmrcom.blogspot.com/Sharon Caliendo added the following:
"I think this is pretty much what you are going to see across the South including Texas and Florida. I work with a good friend out of Florida that said he believes the OK numbers will be similar for Florida which is outstanding news. I expect Sen McCain to have coattails in a lot of our states that were all or predominately red the last time.
OK and UT had every county go for Pres Bush and as it stands now I expect those numbers to rise for Sen McCain as we draw in the American Indian vote for the Senator. He has spent years working for the Indians on the Senate Committee and all the ones I have talked with in OK support McCain.
"Getting a good feeling about this election in our part of the Country. Now to reach out to those states that were blue in the last election to bring some of them red so on election night we can celebrate instead of waiting until the next day and longer."
A friend wrote that we need to give President-elect Obama "a chance." Below is my response.
