Two days to go til the election and, surprise surprise, McCain is doing everything from criticizing Obama’s patriotism in speeches to pamphleteering many unsubstantiated charges… like Obama favors criminals over police.
Joe Biden commented on the McCain endgame in a speech yesterday:
“In my view, over the last few weeks, John McCain’s campaign has gone way over the top,” said Biden Saturday at an outdoor rally on Evansville’s Main Street. “They are trying to take the low road to the highest office in the land. It’s not only George Bush’s economic policies that John McCain has bought hook, line and sinker. He’s also bought Karl Rove’s brand of political tactics.”
“It is disappointing, I never thought I’d see this from a McCain campaign,” Biden continued. “They’re calling Barack Obama every name in the book. They are going out in a way that I don’t recall it being more personally vicious.”
As a supporter yelled, “They’re scared!” the Delaware senator predicted that the tone would get worse in the last three days. (via CNN)
In reality, the early voting has stacked up in Obama’s favor.
Just under 50% of the vote in Colorado, for instance, a swing state, is in already and it appears to be 2 to 1 in Obama’s favor. This is a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats… but Independents are the largest group. That is where Obama seems to be doing very well.
Florida, which McCain must win if he is t be elected, has the Republican falling behind in many polls.
The NY Times pointed out yesterday that there are reasons for Democratic optimism in Florida:
Emblematic of the challenge was the experience of two Republican canvassers who appeared at Beth Moriarty’s door in Orlando Thursday looking for her husband’s vote. Her response was blunt.
“Y’all are totally at the wrong house,” Ms. Moriarty said. “My husband, he’s 62, he has never voted for a Democrat in his entire life. Until Tuesday.”
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has a litany of structural advantages to help him. With only days to go, the Obama campaign has more of just about everything: offices (100 to Mr. McCain’s 80); advertising money (outspending the McCain campaign four to one in some weeks); and voter registrations (a 660,000 Democratic edge over Republicans, up from 280,000 in 2006).
McCain senior advisor Nicole Wallace speaks for the Republican campaign, however, with the view that the polls are “tightening:”
“We have never been as convinced as others by some of the discouraging numbers. We are not saying we are moving ahead of him. But we are certainly encouraged by the tightening of the polls.”
While this may be true, fivethirtyeight.com, a polling site, notes that it is very difficult to get accurate polling on weekends, especially when there is a holiday (Halloween).
So it’s coming down to the wire. We have Dick Cheney giving McCain his nod, a scary thought in itself… the current VP is one of the least popular figures in American politics right now. And we have President Bush apparently keeping himself almost invisible in order not to effect the election.
But Sarah Palin continues as the negative voice of the Republicans, as she pushes through the swing states:
At a rally in central Florida for Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, supporters chanted “John McCain! Not Hussein!” Mr. Obama’s middle name is Hussein, and some of his opponents use it to falsely suggest that he is Muslim. (via NY Times)
And McCain seems to beputting all of his chips in Pennsylvania, where the polls are heavily in Obama’s favor.
We’ll have to see where we go from here.