Nervous GOP Urges McCain To Attack

Politico: Worried About His Chances In November, Republican Activists Urge McCain To Go On The Offensive

(The Politico)  This column was written by Jonathan Martin And Mike Allen.

---

John McCain’s fade in recent polls, combined with a barrage of negative news coverage during the financial crisis, has leading Republican activists around the country worrying about his prospects and urging his campaign to become much more aggressive against Barack Obama in the remaining month before Election Day.

A flurry of new polls shows Obama gaining in several battleground states - most notably Florida, Pennsylvania and swing states throughout the West. Officials worry early voting, which is under way in important states such as Ohio, is likely to favor Obama in this toxic political climate.

Several state GOP chairmen in interviews urged the McCain campaign to be more aggressive in hitting Obama’s vulnerabilities, such as his past relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other problematic associations from Chicago.

But as September turns to October-Wednesday marks 34 days to the Nov. 4 election-it is clear McCain himself is to blame for the most urgent problems. His snap decision to throw himself into the bailout debate has proven disastrous, since his efforts looked late and half-hearted, and many in the GOP ignored his pleas in Monday’s House vote.

And his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, initially a political boon, has become a distraction inside and out of the campaign, with top staff now sidelined trying to avoid a debate disaster on Thursday night, officials close to the campaign say.

But some fundamental troubles are outside his control. The forceful emergence of the sour economy as a dominant issue has Republicans worried in general.

Jeff Frederick, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, said he was disappointed with McCain’s early performance in the debate when the focus was on the economy. “He really left a lot on the table while Barack Obama was really kind of hitting him.”

If this election has taught the campaigns and the press anything, it's to expect the unexpected. So momentum could easily swing suddenly back in McCain’s favor, especially if Palin and then McCain do well in the final debates.

A top McCain campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Polls will move and change - especially as interest grows. It’s a hard week to judge because of the dramatic shifts in the economy. We continue to be in a very fluid environment."

GOP officials also believe that a sustained attack on Obama’s ties to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, scandal-stained businessman Tony Rezko and former radical war protester William Ayers could sway undecided voters.

Among those goading McCain to be more aggressive is Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith, who said that “people need to see a gladiator who’s willing to defend what exactly he stands for.”

“We’re not talking, for instance, about the radical associations that Barack Obama has, with Mr. Ayers, Tony Rezko and so on,” Smith said. “More could be done.”

Murray Clark, the chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, said he is eager for Obama’s “troubling relationships” to be aired in his state. “I think those things will come up in Indiana again and they do have an impact on mainstream voters in Indiana. You call it going negative, [but] whoever ... is in a position to point out these relationships, I think it’s helpful.”

But right now the economic situation is very troubling for McCain.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Monday night found that more than twice as many people blamed Republicans for the defeat of the Wall Street rescue as blamed Democrats (44 percent to 21 percent).

Further, the financial crisis will only exacerbate a right track/wrong track split - one of the statistical north stars of the public mood - that Republicans hoped wouldn’t get worse.

"For the first time in American history, at least since Valley Forge, the right track of the country will be in single digits tonight,” predicted one longtime GOP strategist after Monday’s debacle.

Sure enough, this strategist said that surveys taken since Monday in one of the reddest of red states showed that the right track number there had plummeted to single digits.

Moreover, the saturation attention to the economy - always a weak spot for McCain and for the administration he’s tied to - has thwarted his effort to make the race a referendum on Obama, as public attention turns toward a global crisis and away from partisan attacks.

McCain’s first signs of life only came after his campaign mocked Obama as a celebrity and sought to make the best of a race that had increasingly been defined by the Illinois Democrat. Then, thanks in part to Palin, McCain pulled even or took a lead in some polls after a convention that savaged Obama and featured only a brief video from President Bush and no appearance at all by Vice President Cheney.

Now, with the financial crisis front and center, Bush has reappeared on the landscape and the race is no longer an Obama referendum.

The damage is registering powerfully on the electoral map and in state and national polling, the officials say. McCain has lost ground in at least eight key swing states, and the officials say his path to victory is so narrow that it allows virtually no room for error.

Recent polls have shown Obama ahead in Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, with gains in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and New Mexico.

Two recent national tracking polls - from Gallup and The Hotline - both show Obama enjoying a six-point lead. A Washington Post-ABC News poll out Tuesday night showed Obama with a four-point advantage among likely voters (50 to 46), down from an anomalous nine points the week before.

Some Republicans say they are uncertain of McCain’s electoral strategy, wondering why, for example, he’s back in Iowa this week, a state few independent analysts see as being in play and where public polls this month show Obama enjoying a double-digit lead even before the economic meltdown. Asked why McCain was in Iowa, one veteran Republican there replied: “Because he’s running a senseless, non-strategic campaign. Why else would he come here?”

Despite the grumbling, McCain’s political hands say they’re making progress on the ground and are nearing or exceeding the apparatus they had in place in 2004. A top Republican National Committee aide said field staffers and volunteers made more phone calls and door knocks last week than at the same point four years ago. The joint campaign-committee Victory effort has over 400 offices in place.

“We have hit every goal we have set,” said the aide. “We’re on offense in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota,” five states that were in the Democratic column in 2004.

It is also possible the bailout will pass, the economy will stabilize and the campaign will shift to other issues. But GOP officials are increasingly pessimistic that the contest will turn away from pocketbook issues. The two biggest concerns they expressed in private: that the economy will dominate voting and that McCain has botched the issue from day one.

That has had the effect of neutralizing what these officials saw as his greatest strength: providing hard-nosed leadership in hard-luck times.

[ioweign]

McCain is pulling out of Michigan.

Tell us again about that "surge" tactic...

[im4honesty]

ATTACK, LIE, SMEAR, ATTACK, LIE. The GOP at it''s best!!

[babooph]

It is not Johns fault the GOP catered to a bunch of religous nuts for all those years-now it is biting them somewhere-Bush will be tied to all who run.

[pastdue1]

Robin Smith needs to be careful what he wishes for ~ we have yet to see about Palin''s minister, we have yet to see about Palin''s relationship with the oil lobbyists, we have yet to see Palin''s relationshiip with Stevens and we have yet to see any financial records on the Palins ~ not on their $1.5 million holdings or their federal taxes.
Plus , if ancient history is the goal ~ McCain still must live with his deep Keating relationship and the S & L scandal. McCain must live with his close association with the gambling industry and McCain has yet to fully explain his deep ties with Davis of the infamous Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae scandal.

[misha128-2009]

THE FANNIE/FREDDIE - IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE REPUBLICANS - ...

Posted by mdwoman at 01:07 PM

Considering the current FBI investigations in the mortgage industry after 7 years of failed enforcement -- that claim is clearly false.

[misha128-2009]

More tactics from McCain who doesn''t know what a strategy is. Fully demonstrating his lack of knowledge at the debate. Why would his election strategies be any more successful than his War on Terra''? US troops tied down in Iraq as the US Generals there state Al Qaeda had relocated the bulk of their forces to Afghanistan where yesterday the Commanding called again for additional troops neither Bush nor McCain intends to deliver until after the election. Their War on Terra'' has Al Qaeda in 60 - 100 countries now instead of a handful and as strong or stronger than on 9/11. Almost 7 years of war and the enemy is as strong as before they attacked and more diversified than the day they attacked -- how can that be anything but failure.

[bretster7]

Spin this one Obamabots

http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs


That is, if you have the guts and the intellectual honesty to watch the whole thing.

[delljackson]

John,

Where is your honor sir? Really?????

[antoniof123]

Nervous GOP Urges McCain To Attack

They were not watching the news and why so meany people said McCain really lost it was becuase he attacked. But then again that is all he has been doing in fact that is all the GOP knows any more that is why they are getting what they deserve.

[liberalme]

Why is it cool for libs to kill human babies and not cool to kill spotted owl babies?

Posted by CBSCensorsU at 11:

How is that different from the "fetus loving" republicans who have no problem sending these adults off to a manufactured Bush war to get over 4000 killed!
Thats why the repubs love the fetus--they don''t want too many of their own going off to war.

[sweetlilsoul]

They are urging him to attack??? lol Are you serious? That''s all McCain has been doing. In fact, that''t the whole foundation of his campain. I guess they haven''t figured out yet that that "strategy" or "tactic" whichever they want to call it, isn''t working. In fact it is just turning people off and showing us what we don''t want as a leader of our country. We''ve already had that, its time for someone that we can honestly be proud of. Go Obama!!!

[minnick8-2009]

Pssst......It''''s okay to switch sides...."no one can fault you for it..."

Posted by wlwatkins

I have to hand it to you, your post is the only one I''ve read since about last March which has been a strong plea asking Repubs to switch sides. I''ve had insults, mud, rocks, rotten eggs, and spray paint thrown at me for revealing my affiliation. I have been shocked that these blogs have not been an open forum for an exchange of ideas, but rather an avenue to vent rage. I''ve thought that if it were possible, there were people in here who would have reached through their monitor and strangle me.

I would have possibly been open to a consideration of a new way of thought some months ago, but after having experienced the level of hatred demonstrated by most of the left, there is NO WAY.

[im4honesty]

The GOP is nervous... so they suggest that McCain do the only thing he can, LIE... SMEAR... LIE... SMEAR.

[fetuskarate]

Palin bounced from 7 colleges finally settling on a school in a state that''s famous for potatoes. she can''t name a single Supreme court case and continues to talk in vague, uncertain forms. This woman is no more qualified than a Rubber Duck to be the next vice president of this country.

[wlwatkins]

No where in the news is anything of McCain''s advice to Bush about the going over congress''s head and doing what was it a trillion in bailout without our support as taxpayers?
Funny and the only thing here in the comments from any one that supports McCain is fear tactics....Obama taking their freedoms, guns...etc..
LOL No it is much better to place a dictator in office like we have had.
Gheeze...guys forget about which party you are in and look at the smiles on your children''s and grand children''s face....do what will give them a decent education, a secure economy, new energy sources!

What about Keaton five? pow''s claims of "songbird"? Oil companies owned by McCain? Palin?
Do some research.....
Pssst......It''s okay to switch sides...."no one can fault you for it..."

[mhg_phd]

I am an Independent, I will be voting for McCain and Palin. McCain and Palin have got to get tough on the issues of Obama. McCain needs to bring forth important information such as how Obama says Frank Marshall Davis, a well self proclaimed Marxist/Communist leader, was his mentor and even a father figure. How Obama has in the past admitted to "attending socialist conferences". Alan Keys even called Obama out on this issue in 2004.Even Obama''s campaign official blogger is Sam Graham-Felsen, a well known Marxist supporter. McCain and Palin need to make Obama explain why he keeps close company with socialist, Marxist, Communist, Anti-American Company.

[mhg_phd]

I am an Independent, I will be voting for McCain and Palin. McCain and Palin have got to get tough on the issues of Obama. McCain needs to bring forth important information such as how Obama says Frank Marshall Davis, a well self proclaimed Marxist/Communist leader, was his mentor and even a father figure. How Obama has in the past admitted to "attending socialist conferences". Alan Keys even called Obama out on this issue in 2004.Even Obama''s campaign official blogger is Sam Graham-Felsen, a well known Marxist supporter. McCain and Palin need to make Obama explain why he keeps close company with socialist, Marxist, Communist, Anti-American Company.

[mhg_phd]

I am an Independent, I will be voting for McCain and Palin. McCain and Palin have got to get tough on the issues of Obama. McCain needs to bring forth important information such as how Obama says Frank Marshall Davis, a well self proclaimed Marxist/Communist leader, was his mentor and even a father figure. How Obama has in the past admitted to "attending socialist conferences". Alan Keys even called Obama out on this issue in 2004.Even Obama''s campaign official blogger is Sam Graham-Felsen, a well known Marxist supporter. McCain and Palin need to make Obama explain why he keeps close company with socialist, Marxist, Communist, Anti-American Company.

[brownpride46]

I AM PRO-CHOICE BUT ADAMANTLY OPPOSED TO LATE TERM ABORTIONS THAT OBAMA ADVOCATES! Palin cannot overturn Roe vs Wade. She knows her beliefs are NOT POLICY.

By the way, "The Boss" Springsteen sings at Obama-aide: "Were you BORN IN THE USA? need yer ''''riginal birth certificate to be President. Were you BORN IN THE USA?"

GOOGLE: OBAMA CRIMES (A DEMOCRAT WEBSITE!)

For you activists, spam your Senators & Reps like this:

Dear Honorable Anna Eshoo,

We voted for you and will continue to support you. Please vote NO on the bail out.

Also, even if Berg vs Obama 08cv4083 is dismissed, we kindly request that you urge Senator Obama to release his ''''''''''''''''original'''''''''''''''' birth certificate.

Thanks to GOOGLE and the information age, a logarithmically
growing constituency demands irrefutable proof that Senator Obama is indeed eligible for the Presidency. This is a sine qua non for our continued support.

No candidate for any office should ever consider him/herself above the Constitution.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Very Truly Yours,

Very Concerned Democrat

[starleo146]

What can they say indevoter. McSame decision is backfiring, and she will be the big attack dog tomorrow hoping to rile Biden up. I do hope he cools it.she is very sarcastic, and you have that instinct to attack back,are you sure she is of Indian decent not related to Cheney at all.