It is not easy to find many people outside of Republican voting Americans rooting for a McCain win in the upcoming US Presidential elections. If the man does have any redeeming features he is doing well to keep them hidden although Obama's choice of Joe Biden doesn't seem to have enhanced his cause much. Actually, looking hard at Bidens record makes some very uncomfortable reading for those whose biggest concern with this present Republican Administration is its foreign policy. Biden is not the best choice to exaggerate the gap between McCain's pro and Obama's anti-war stance.
Yesterdays Washington Post-ABC news poll show that the lead Obama commanded is being chipped away and now stands at 49% to McCains 45%. Take into account the 2% margin of error and Obama supporters are understandably starting to sweat and will be hoping for a bounce from this weeks Democrat Convention.
What the same poll also highlighted was that a large number of Hillary Clinton supporters are now backing McCain which causes me a bit of head scratching. It seems the ultimate sour grapes to change allegiance to the enemy just because your first choice didn't get the job but then maybe the US election is a completely different animal to the Party politics we have here.
It is almost unheard of for Party members to flip from Labour to Conservative or vice versa, they are completely different animals and the large majority stay with their chosen Party regardless, opting not to vote or vote tactically for the Liberal Democrats if they want to hand out a bloody nose to their own.
Is the ideological difference between Republicans and Democrats so small that one is able to ricochet between the two or do the voters elect Presidents purely depending upon who is running the Party at the time and are quite willing to change sides if they don't like them?
Seems a very strange thing for Hillary supporters to turn their guns on the Party they were lauding a few months ago. If you don't like Obama, for whatever reason, stay at home and just don't vote otherwise you are just cutting off your nose to spite your face and i just don't understand that thinking at all.
4 comments:
protesting by clinton supporters i can understand, but switching sides would seem ludacris to any independent spectator.
obama's high profile supporters' knowledge of the political scene far outweighs the die hard clinton supporters. so for them to freak out at the possibility of obama becoming president is unfounded. unless they are still brainwashed from the clinton campaign.
honestly though, i cant help but feel that obama's race has a part to play in these supporters switching sides, in fact, im almost sure.
I find myself coming to the same conclusion lettersa2z, i just don't understand the mindset of people switiching sides, and ideaologies, because the preferred person is not
taking a lead. Should be all about getting a Democrat in Office shouldn't it?
You ask if "the ideological difference between Republicans and Democrats so small that one is able to ricochet between the two..."
I think the ideological difference is quite a bit smaller than most people imagine. Effectively, both parties support a much larger government and, while Dems might be less pro-Iraq (now), both still support almost the exact same level of foreign military/diplomatic/economic intervention which is what gets us into these wars to begin with.
As to the Hillary "insiders" and other big Hillary supporters that are making such a fuss about Obama, these people really don't care at all about any sort of ideology when they're not in public; it's just about getting more power. If they can get more power by holding Obama hostage, they will. If they have to see him loose so they can have another run at power in 2012, they probably won't mind that too much either. So, I think the degree of difference in Rep and Dem ideology is irrelevant because ideology is irrelevant.
Very interesting points you make effay because here the left and right are occupying the same ground also, mostly right of centre and very little ideologically different between the two so the next question, and this hurts but, has the left lost the battle of ideologies as everyone seems to have shifted right? I may need to look into this.
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