What to look for in McCain-Palin at F&M

September 9th, 2008 12:21 am · 0 comments

Anything, anything, about the economy beyond the simple message about lower taxes. The Bush tax cuts have been in place since 2001 and 2003, and yet here the economy is with higher than 6 percent unemployment, a weak U.S. dollar and a housing crisis. Why would continuing the Bush tax cuts and giving middle- and low-income earners a smaller tax break than what Obama’s plan calls for is the solution to America’s economic woes?
How Sarah Palin and John McCain’s messages differ. The Republican strategy to win the White House appears to be appealing to social and religious conservative through Palin while running to the middle with McCain. This area belongs to the former, but with the Philadelphia media no doubt in town, expect McCain to talk about his moderate stances on global warming and immigration, unpopular among traditional Lancaster Republicans. The 6,500 or so at F&M aren’t the only ones watching and reading tomorrow.
A quick strike on Barack Obama’s bumbling answer about when life begins. At the Saddleback forum last month, Obama said it was above his pay grade to say definitively when life begins, and this week he’s tried to roll back those comments. They were too flip, he said recently, and went on to explain that he’s not going to presume to tell the nation and the world to follow what he believes. But he still hasn’t answered the question. Cue softball. Let Palin take a whack at it.
Evil media. Horrible evil proding media. Booooo media. Hisssss. Media baaaddd. How dare they question Palin’s credentials! Booooo. How dare they sift through her record as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska. Booooo! Evil media.
That Lancaster County will play a significant role in determining who wins Pennsylvania, and this time the candidate may not be stretching the truth. Lancaster is part of the Philadelphia strategy for both campaigns, and just tonight Lancaster County GOP chairman Dave Dumeyer said Republicans need a 15 percent victory in the “Conservative T” to offset Democratic gains in Philadelphia. Since Democrats have multiplied their numbers here, making it - believe it or not - one of the strongest Democratic areas of the state, Obama won’t have to work too hard to keep McCain’s victory margin in Lancaster down, which is why you saw him here last week.
No mention whatsoever of Hillary Clinton. Not since Palin was booed in Washington, Pa., during a rally after she mentioned the New York senator. Lancaster went to Obama during the primary, so this wasn’t Hillaryland.
School choice. Obama’s addressing education tomorrow during an event in Dayton, Ohio, so McCain’s going to say something about his plan to create competition by allowing school choice. Will score highly among this audience, but with a likely Democratic Congress, does it really have a chance?