McCain to gorge from Democrats' lunch pail?

Ripped from the wires ... Contrarian columnist Froma Harrop explains why the Republican presidential nominee is angling to enjoy a Big Mac Value Meal at the Democrats' expense.

By FROMA HARROP

John McCain has used these weeks of Republican calm to dive into the Democratic lunch pail. This strategy clearly assumes a Barack Obama candidacy. If demographics are destiny -- as the political sages keep telling us -- Democratic demographics may offer some choice cuts to the presumed Republican nominee. By dumb luck, Republicans have chosen their one candidate who projects a moderate image, hasn't alienated Latinos and offers an appealing life story to boot.

The core problem for Democrats is that Obama's backers are reliable Democrats, whereas Hillary Clinton's are unreliable Democrats. Less than half of the Clinton voters in Indiana said they would support Obama in a general election, which is a very bad sign. Add these largely blue-collar and rural whites to some swinging independents and you have a potential Big Mac Value Meal for McCain.

As the Democratic rivals continued their Deathmatch, McCain was rippling his compassion muscles before some of the wavering groups. His tour of the civil-rights battlefields and devastated New Orleans neighborhoods had zero to do with courting the black vote, which, with Obama running, would be totally out of play. The visits with poor rural blacks were choreographed to impress comfortable white suburbanites, who demand sensitivity on matters of race.

McCain's planned July address before the National Council of La Raza must be helping Mylanta sales near Democratic headquarters. Latinos have been a Clinton constituency, but as George W. Bush proved, they are amenable to voting for a friendly Republican. As co-author of the failed grand compromise on immigration -- widely scorned as weak on enforcement -- McCain can expect a warm reception by La Raza.

In making such overtures, though, McCain risks losing the tenderloin of Clinton's support -- working-class whites. Obama has done terribly with this group. And it's not just the old people. Pollsters at ABC News found Clinton leading Obama by 19 percentage points even among 30- to 40-year-old white voters who didn't go to college.

Obama will not doubt toil to close that gap, but his challenge is considerable. More problematic than his preference of pastor is his penchant for waxing sociological about rural whites. His comments at a fundraiser in San Francisco were regrettable for dismissing working whites' affection for religion and guns as an outgrowth of bitterness over their declining economic prospects. And still more damaging was the audience to which he was confiding -- the money masters who lay American workers off, or order the companies they invest in to do so, or neatly send their programming work to Romania.

Operating in Obama's favor is McCain's high regard for suppressing labor costs. If McCain is smart, he'll mix it up in his La Raza talk. He'll express love and respect for Latinos but also convey the message he delivered on Cinco de Mayo in Phoenix -- that "we would not have this problem if the federal government had carried out its responsibilities (to control the borders).''

Through careful wording, McCain can comfort white blue-collar workers and not offend most Hispanics, many of whom are also struggling against low wages. It is instructive to recall that in 
2003, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won a third of the Hispanic vote even though he opposed granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens and his Democratic opponent was a prominent Latino.

With a likely Clinton loss exposing the underbelly of the Democrats' white blue-collar and Latino constituency, McCain has his knives sharpened. If he can reprogram his robotic support for tax cuts favoring the rich -- and contain his fondness for cheap labor -- he may find a feast in the Democrats' lunch pail. Obama has a lot of work to do.

Contact Harrop, a syndicated columnist, at Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA.

Comments?

Comments

[Richard L. Wolfe]

Would somebody explain to me who the rich are ? When I was a teenage bagboy at the grocery store was I rich ? The have taxed the hell out of me no matter how much money I made. I paid $10,000 less during Bush's administration than I did under Clinton.

[Richard L. Wolfe]

p.s. the missing word between the and have was democrats.

[DanielC]

Dear Harrop,

Here are the points I made today in my article:

"...
The issues with Mr. McCain’s positions that could cause a candidates House or Senate run to stumble and fail:

1. McCain’s position on war. The poll numbers show time and time again that the voters in the United States are not to keen on the Bush/Cheney empire building isolationism that we have with the War in Iraq. He has stated that Iran would/could be next, for no reason other than they are training militia in Iran to send into Iraq.

2. McCain’s self defined lack of understanding on economics. With the recession hitting voters in the wallet with soaring prices at the pump to soaring prices at the grocery counter, the Democrats will be able to show his lack of knowledge on economic issues without even breaking a sweet.

3. Bush/Cheney approval ratings will have a large impact on this election cycle. With McCain’s perception of being Bush III, who wants four more years of the last eight?

4. McCain has to pull a lot of “Rightside” voters that look at his “Maverick” professed attitude to the Republican party and wonder if he is just a Democrat with a Republican lapel button. The only point of connection seems to be the desire for war.

5. McCain is as charismatic as a cow-pie. His campaign staff and the Republican leaders will have a hard time selling him to Joe 6-pack on anything other than attempting to get Joe 6-pack to forget about his wallet and be proud of the war efforts.

6. McCain’s stance that he is above the laws of the land. The DNC know about and have also filed a complaint with the FEC about McCain’s breaking of Federal laws in regards to spending limits that he agreed to adhere to in August of ‘07. McCain’s campaign agreed to the limits and based a loan on the money in December for public funding of his, at the time, failed/broke campaign. They will/should post this every chance they get to show that Mr. McCain prior to even winning the nomination holds himself above the law much like Bush/Cheney and Mr. Nixon.

7. Mr. McCain’s voting track record. All the hyphen bills that McCain-Democrat have promoted will/may come back to haunt him, though not so much because we are talking about Democratic stances he snuggled up to and promoted in his years in the House and Senate.

8. Keating5. After raping retirement funds from folks with the Savings and Loans scandal that cause three of the five to never run for re-election and John Glenn (R-OH) quit after his next term, he attempts to keep his profiteering efforts in that mess swept under the carpet.

Congressional and Senatorial seat hopefuls will find that snuggling up to a promoter of “wars, more wars… 50 years, 100 years maybe a 1,000 years (in Iraq) what does it matter” will hurt their hopes for election or even re-election.
..."

In response to Newt's nine step plan of House and Senate fluff with nickels here and dimes there to appease the masses.

So Mr. Harrop is pulling the race card in hopes that Joe 6-pack will over look Bush III and the wars.

When faced with a candidate that can only play the war card against whatever else... you are left with only the race card. I'm sure to see another round of Obama is a closet Muslim part-time Satan Worshiper in my e-mailbox soon.

And this would allow McCain to totally alienate the evangelical and "right" voters in hopes that all the Latino’s will come out in the vanfuls to cast a vote for him to allow them safe haven in the US.

I find it funny that without any real focus on McCain his supporters can say how poorly the Democrats (Obama) will do against him when it will only take fifteen minutes of actual debating with McCain to show he's clueless on the point that recent polls are showing is 81% of the concern in this election cycle, the economy. He is very strong on wars though; how to pay for them, clueless, but he can continue Bush's plan of laying the bill at the feet of our great grandchildren.

And all this he must do with the FEC public funding restriction, since he has once again applied for government monies for his account since Joe 6-pack can't seem to spare the money. I smell a Bob Dole repeat.

DSC

[Richard L. Wolfe]

Daniel, I have to disagree with you on this one. How does raising taxes and then spending the increase revenue on big social programs help your grandkids? Today's Americans are afraid of the own shadow. If a few whiffs of smoke can lead to smoking bans then the idea of terrorism must shake them to the core. Obama is soft on terrorism. You cannot make deals with religious zealots. As for debates, I watched them and Hillary beat Obama every time. McCain and Obama will break even in a debate.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think either one of them is qualified to turn the country around. Me thinks we will have the EXACT same debate in 4 years as we do now and the winner will become the loser in the next election.

[DanielC]

Richard,

Well to concede your rebut makes my conclusion on the blog not work. So I'm'll have to stick to my story there... *Bow*

But this is all a bit premature, Billary has not quit yet.

To Denney's landslide comment on the other topic, I would say Ohio was a landslide since then the numbers are dropping. In so called "don't matter" election states that the tv news would not even acknowledge was happening.

DanielC

[rick campbell]

if you paid 10k less under clinton that is either a blatant lie or you are too ignorant to figure your taxes....if you make more than 200k a year you would be benefitting from bush's tax plan...a simple google effort will expose the lie or myth that you somehow paid 10 k more under clinton...why these bloggers are not vetted i will never understand....richard try selling your manure to someone uneducated...like a fox fake news viewer..

[prefab sprout]

Wasn't it JFK that reduced the tax rate from 91% to 70% on the highest incomes? Wasn't he a Dem? Of course the answers are yes and yes.

Sorry Wolfie..another rant of yours spoiled by the facts. One can only hope that we can get it back up to the 70% figure in the near future. This "new gilded age" of mega billionaires need to do their part!

[Richard L. Wolfe]

Rick, You might want to be careful about who and what you vet. Your language and hatred might not be accepted by an editor concerned with manners.

[beachguy(original)]

Nobody seems to think the military & their family & friends vote....not to mention the D.O.D. suppliers, their employees and families.

I remember when McCain was singing Bomb Bomb Bomb...Bomb Iran to the tune of "Barbara Ann"

Americans do not want to declare Iraq a loss and run.

We will elect McCain....Our enemies are "shaking in their boots" at the thought of McCain getting elected.

Again the democratic party "Jackasses" have not been able to bring forth a candidate that is electable....they had their opportunity and "flushed it"

[DanielC]

*Psst* BGO,

No one counts the overseas votes. At least that is the impression I get, the numbers on state/county and certainly not the cnn's, faux, and etc sites don't seem to change after they have "decided" the vote.

One county in Washington State was at 0% for three weeks till cnn finally posted the numbers RP won it.

I've been watching Onslow Co in NC and no movement. They (the registrars) all say they count the "early" vote and "absentise" vote after the computer finishes it's tally. But ya never see any updates. And believe you me, I've been watching this year.

Iraq was/is not a lose. We blew through the place in two weeks, done deal! May 1st, 2003 Mission Accomplished! We achieved objective one, kill Hussain for Bush's daddy. I won't go into objective two that never existed or objective three that never existed.

It's over! We F'n WON!! Let the folks there, that appear to be in control, deal with it. Thanks, goodbye, and good luck. Troops Home, let's get drunk have parades and pass out ribbons.

DSC

[rick campbell]

richard
i don't need advice from you, i will continue to expose your misguided attempt at intelligence...do not threaten me again...and in case you did not know, "vetting" someone is investigating what they say and checking to make sure they are correct and checking on the background of the person making statements to ensure accurracy....you failed miserably at both attempts...when you blog my friend and make statements you can not back up this is what you get so either come up with facts or expect to be challenged on your false statements...

[beachguy(original)]

Daniel: the armed forces votes get counted no matter where they are

[Richard L. Wolfe]

Rick Campbell, No one threaten you in fact you attacked me! You called me a liar saying that I don't know what I paid in taxes. You are the one who needs to back up and get your facts straight. Maybe, you have been listening to the democrats talking points. Bush cut everybody's taxes who pays taxes. The rich benefited more because they paid more. Your attitude sucks and if you are threatening me you are barking up the wrong tree!

[DanielC]

BGO,

I know that's what they tell us, but Onslow's numbers have not moved and it's been 3 days.

DSC

[DanielC]

BGO,

I retrack my prior statements. I figured out why I'm not see'n movement.

http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/1875/4015/en/select-county.html

The precincts around LeJuenne are not participating. The website link from the NCSBOE does not explain any of the content presented, so I'm assuming the number totals are correct but the precincts are not presented on the internet site.

DSC

[DanielC]

*LeJeune

My fingers... argh

[Denney Clements]

Rick, Richard: As my Dad used to shout when my brother and I were squabbling: DON'T MAKE ME COME IN THERE!

In other words, Agree to disagree and move on.

dc

[prefab sprout]

And people wonder why I use an alias............(sigh)

[rick campbell]

denny...you are right ...when someone is wrong and continues to be wrong we should just ignore them and move on....the laughable part is he probably thinks he is right when he says everyone got a tax break under bush...LOL...that is funny....the right wing has yet to be "right" on any subject in the last 7 years...

[DanielC]

(This is a two part post to avoid the spam catcher)

While I preemptively refuted this claim in my blog entry on May 6, 2008 ( http://www.danielscochran.com/dscblog/?p=93 ), I have to believe my thoughts are more to the truth than Froma Harrop’s thoughts on McCain taking the Democrats for a “ride”. I think the Democrats and the 527s are going to take McCain for a beating the Vietnamese never gave him. Where will the Dems and 527s get all this ammunition? Well from McCain himself of course. Anytime this man opens his mouth, anytime this man makes a decision, and anytime there is a debate he will provide more than enough proof that he is an unfit leader.

Just these last five days we have reports of how he is in bed with lobbyist to run his campaign, run the GOP convention and make decisions on the direction of how he will govern. These lobbyist have been linked with 527s that produced Progress for America which was fined for violating Federal Election laws. The same lobbyist has been linked to military regime in Myanmar (aka Burma) [1][2]. McCain was looking at hiring one lobbyist that had to be passed on because of his own history of close ties to shady foreign governments. This from the gentleman from Arizona that would lead the United States people to believe he is the champion of campaign reform and ridding Washington of lobbyist [3].

[DanielC]

(part II)
This is the same man that has time and time again since The Keating Five professed to campaign against lobbyist influence on our national policies. But his campaign management choices show that he is really, really deep in bed with the very folks he speaks out against to Joe 6-Pack on the campaign trail [4].

In a recent interview with Bill O’Reilly, McCain states he did not vote for Bush/Cheney and reverses himself not seconds later in the next sentence. What are we supposed to believe the reports from meeting he had where he says he did not vote for Bush/Cheney or his words on cable news? The transcript from the interview is very clear in McCain’s response to the question of his vote for Bush/Cheney [5]. Now to the old man’s defense, Mr. O’Reilly was being a bit “fast” with the question so maybe the old man forgot the rehearsed response he was taught to speak.

McCain’s constant forked tongue speaking will catch up to him when he has to face a debate. If there is a real debate, you know the old fashion ones where the candidates actually speak to each other about issues. The debates of the last few elections seem like well rehearse acts planned out by the candidate’s campaigns to not touch on issues or actually debate each other on points of views.

Respectfully, I submit to Froma Harrop that she is a bit off on where McCain feeds from this and past elections. To say that McCain will be feeding from the Democrat’s lunch pail is way off from where he is really feeding out of… the lobbyist meal ticket.

[DanielC]

Links didn't make it through as I thought...

You can get them at:
http://www.danielscochran.com/dscblog/?p=97
If you care...

The delegate campaign takes some rather nasty twist this passed weekend.

[Nick]

"The delegate campaign takes some rather nasty twist this passed weekend."

And depending on which network you watch, he's either ahead of her, or tied with her.