Go ahead, shoot the messanger.... (0.00 / 0)

But Obama hasn't been vetted yet.  He will be vetted, but he hasn't been vetted yet.

Independents love John McCain.  We don't just like him.  We love him.  We may not be able to vote for him, and some of us won't, but we love him.

There is no way of knowing which Independents will vote for him and which ones will not until at least the morning of the election.  The most consistent trait for Independents is we pretty much stay open to change our minds right up until we vote.

But one thing is for sure.  At some point between the first time John McCain's head was being descended into a latrine in a Vietnamese prison camp, and the first time his head was removed from that latrine, he earned the right to have his case heard until the morning of the election.

I'm disgusted by the GOP and their fiscal irresponsibility. And I really want a change in Party for the most part.  But John McCain actually winning his primary simply causes all kinds of conflicts for me.  It just does.  And I haven't a freaken clue what I'm going to do.  And every other Independent I know in NH is just as fluid.

I understand this is a partisan board. I'll just share how I feel as honestly as I can and you guys do with it what you please.  Consider me one of the members in your Independents' focus group.

And with that I'll just share one more thing since posting this on this board already is pretty dumb.  If I were a Republican strategist I would try and bait Democrats into attacking John McCain in a personal way; his conviction, his integrity, his personal mettle.  That worked in a South Carolina primary for Bush, but it will not work in a general, and it will not work in a NH general.  If you want to beat John McCain you are going to have to do it with issues, civility, and rational arguments - kid gloves, really.  Personal attacks will have a backlash, just ask Mitt Romney and Bay Buchanan.  And that was in a primary.  The backlash will be much more austere in a general.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:02:01 AM CST

On the other hand (4.00 / 1)

I don't think personal attacks will work on Obama either. It certainly hasn't worked in the primaries. He is far too likeable.

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by: Scoonie @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 12:35:59 PM CST

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not shooting the messenger, but... (0.00 / 0)

John McCain has a record to run on, opinions, visions of the future, and that is what the Dem nominee will run against. Personal attacks will not be necessary, and that's not what we're about, anyway. We don't have an equivalent of Karl Rove. All we have to do is point out how we differ, and how John McCain has given his almost complete support to the most destructive president in the last century: George W. Bush.

We honor his service to the country, but he would be a terrible choice. As likeable as he is personally--and so is Mike Huckabee, by the way--John McCain is wrong on many of the issues facing the USA.

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by: michael57 @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 15:20:39 PM CST

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Thought about your post... (0.00 / 0)

Yesterday when I read your post my initial reaction was, yeah, yeah, sure, both parties are the same, everyone has a Rove.

But you know, I got to thinking about it and I can't really think of a Rove equivalent in the Clinton administration, or an Atwater equivalent, either.

It was a personal revelation that was worthy of mention.  That's pretty cool when you think about it.  I had not.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Sat Feb 16, 2008 at 12:34:12 PM CST

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That's because Democrats have inner circles, not inner fiefdoms. (0.00 / 0)

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Sat Feb 16, 2008 at 19:21:38 PM CST

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sounds like you're about where I was for Bush v. Gore (0.00 / 0)

I thought there was little difference between the two parties, too. But think where the country might have been if more of us had thought harder, and sent Gore to D.C. Eight years' head start on global warming, Osama captured and Iraq neutralized instead of occupied, one trillion dollars less debt, no assault on the Constitution, etc. We can get back on the right road, but McCain is not the answer. He woud continue too many Bush policies. Iraq for 100 years? There's a stark difference between the parties still.

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by: michael57 @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 07:13:13 AM CST

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I heart John McCain. (4.00 / 1)

Really do. Have an Independents for McCain sticker from the 2000 primary on the wall. I voted for him, sent him money, and have never stopped being grateful for his service and his integrity.

But he is the wrong person to be president of the United States in 2008 for many many many reasons that have everything to do with policy and nothing to do with personality. The campaign will be about those policy differences.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 16:46:28 PM CST

[ Parent | ]