[BretLudwig]

View From Lodi CA: Obama Versus McCain€”Who Has The Edge In Intangibles?

By Joe Guzzardi

"Im reviewing the two presidential candidates to try to find out
which one may have the advantage in intangibles going into November.

Republican Senator John McCains home base doesnt amount to much. Mc
Cain comes from the electoral-vote-poor Arizona (it has ten electoral
votes), a state that would have voted for any GOP candidate.

McCains Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, represents Illinois
with a healthy 21 electoral votes. But Illinois is automatic for most any
Democrat. Ronald Reagan was the last Republican to carry Illinois€”twenty
years and five elections ago.

Many analysts predict that the vice-presidential nominees might determine
the elections outcome. I disagree. In 2004, John Edwards couldnt
deliver North Carolina to the head of the Democratic ticket, John Kerry.

And in 2000 George W. Bushs vice president, Dick Cheney had no home
base. Youll recall that Cheney lived in Texas but when someone found
out that the Constitution prohibits the president and vice president from
being inhabitants of the same state then€” presto change-o€”Cheney
suddenly lived in Wyoming.

Not that it mattered to Bush electoral vote-wise anyway. Bush had Texas in
the bag. Wyoming added only a paltry three votes to the party.

Pundits say that Obama is smoother than Mc Cain and will eat him up in
their head-to-head debates.

But, despite being virtually incoherent on many occasions during the first
four years of his presidency, Bush forged ahead. Kerry was the more
eloquent in their 2004 debates. What good did it do him?

What about the First Ladies-in-waiting?

While many Americans are ready to elect a mixed-race president, there are
deep reservations about Michelle Obama, Baracks all-black wife who has
a chip on her shoulder. According to Michelle, she only recently became a
€œproud€� American.

But Cindy McCain has image problems galore. The heiress to a beer fortune,
Mrs. McCain has been addicted to prescription drugs and has had a lot of
plastic surgery. And Cindy stole another womans husband. No one likes a
home-wrecker, especially when she owns a jet and has dyed platinum blond
hair and a big bosom.

If Cindys a home-wrecker, then that makes her husband John an
adulterer.

Again, McCains philandering may not matter. Way back in 1828, John
Quincy Adams questioned€” to no avail in his presidential re-election
bid€”the legality of his rival Andrew Jacksons marriage (there were
bureaucratic foul ups).

Six decades later, according to rumors, bachelor Grover Cleveland fathered
an illegitimate son, but was still elected.

Finally in 1992, Bill Clinton admitted that he had €œcaused pain€� in
his marriage, but won the presidency handily.

McCains indiscretions are the most shameless of any adulterous
president. His ex-wife Carol Shepp had been disfigured in an auto accident
while McCain was in Vietnam. When McCain returned home, he embarked on a
series of extramarital relationships before he met Cindy and
unceremoniously dumped the crippled Shepp.

Since neither his wife nor his power of persuasion are likely to influence
many voters, Mc Cain will count heavily on his military record to take him
to the White House.

But why should he put any faith in that? George Herbert Walker Bush and
Bob Dole, both true World War II heroes, lost overwhelmingly to Clinton, a
draft dodger.

And before Kerrys campaign could get off the ground, his decorated
Vietnam service was hotly debated and soon became a liability. After Karl
Rove got through with Kerry, half the nation thought he spent his two
Southeast Asian tours as a Viet Cong agent.

Boiled down to its bare bones, the election comes down to this: Obama is a
black, liberal Democrat running in a predominantly white, moderate
America.

McCain is in the unenviable position of being a Republican trying to
replace the most disliked Republican in American history.

Worse, Mc Cain shares many of Bushs unpopular views on Iraq,
immigration and free trade.

For voters, Obama and McCain represent a challenging November choice. The
elections outcome will depend on how many angry citizens show up to
express their outrage at Americas demise or stay away as an expression
of their frustration with the meager presidential pickings.

As for me, Im sticking to my long held aversion to major political
party candidates. Ill vote€”but not for either of them."

http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/080620_vfl.htm

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