Target: McCain

Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama, you both have battled so far to what is more or less still a draw. Recent history has shown that neither campaign benefits from out front barbs against each other, and while I expect for the "under the radar" campaign to always be back and forth, I would suggest for your public statements to now focus yourselves on one named target: John McCain.

Barring the resurrection of Zombie Reagan, McCain is the GOP frontrunner and almost a lock for the nomination. Regardless of the GOP base's disaffection for him, they are still likely to rally around him in order to hold on to the White House. He also has more appeal to independents and Democrats than is comfortable.

In order to counteract that and also demonstrate to primary voters your national appeal, it's time to brutally compare yourselves and the Democratic party versus John McCain and his party. Personalize it, define him anew in the public mindset. Compete with each other over who best knocks McCain off his perch.

McCain is a pro-war supply sider who has expressed his desire to prolong the Bush disaster domestically and internationally. He also happens to be a decade to three decades older than both of you.

Contrast, brutalize, and destroy. Then win.

[More analysis at OliverWillis.com]

Read more Super Tuesday coverage on HuffPost

Comments

[Emper0r]

To "his" party? I'm not sure if you've acknowledged this yet Oliver, but the Republican party is HARDLY John McCain's party. Countless amounts of renowned conservative political figures and pundits are vowing to campaign against John McCain.

In the general election, McCain will get moderate/weak Republicans and independents, not even close to enough support to win an election. Democrats should NOT be worried!

[floydSmoot]

Obama is competitive for independent and even sensible republican votes. Hillary is not.

[bobh]

When does Mr. Straight Talk go to our troops and tell them that his preference for the status quo means that many of them will be putting in 7 or 8 tours in Iraq? When does he tell their families?

The Old Man needs to be thoroughly roughed up.

[MinuteMan]

I agree. The best way to both develop Democratic solidarity as well as advance their own nomination is for Obama and Clinton to start unloading on McCain and the GOP. Keep Bush firmly tied to McCain. This will give the two of them to show how tough they are without risking any damage to the Democratic cause which ought to be more important to either of them than their own canidacy. Besides, it would be great way for them to work off a little steam!

[Mormondude]

What destroyed the Republican party? I'd say that Bush's incompetence was the primary factor. Romney has refused to jettison Bush, to his own detriment. It's the classy thing to do, but in the end it has cost him the nomination.

Why did Bush destroy the party?

He ran as a Conservative and governed as a liberal, to put it plainly.

The only conservative ideals he ran on and then implemented were tax cuts and conservative judges. Sure, he cut taxes. But he never vetoed a single bloated spending bill from the Republican Congress. That was a HUGE mistake. The Congress was so undisciplined that Bush needed to veto things, and he didn't. This was one major blow to the Republican party. They lost their fiscal conservative branding.

Second of course was immigration reform. He advocated amnesty, which was and is a huge mistake and a huge blow to the party. We used to be the party that believed in the rule of law. Now we're suddenly the party that is more concerned about catering to lawbreakers than protecting our borders, protecting our workers, or protecting our culture.

Thirdly the only major reform bills he passed were liberal in nature. No Child Left Behind was written by Ted Kennedy. Even so, Democrats have not missed an opportunity to criticize Bush and Republicans for it. Trying to usurp the liberal agenda will never work, because it undermines Conservative values and you get no credit for it. And of course second was the new drug entitlement that is adding TRILLIONS of dollars to our future unfunded liabilities. Again, it accomplished nothing. Dems have not missed an opportunity to attack it, and give Bush no credit for passing it. These two issues left Conservatives behind and hurt the party.

[Continued]

[transendentilist]

While I agree we should be attacking the neo-cons, obama, (mr. uniter) has claimed for the second time, that the GOP was the party of ideas. He gave a glowing reference to Reagan. Obama is no uniter, and I think he's a republican in disguise.

[mommadona]

Hillary can't say a THING about McCain.

She IS a John McCain.

Obama would do well to play on the "flipflop" and kissy, kissy, hug, hug of McCain with Bush.

And he just might want to check out McCain's presidency and current dealings with a global rightwing nut organization by the name of the

INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE:

http://www.iri.org/

WHAT IN THE HELL IS AN 'INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN'?

[Kundera]

In other words: Racism and anti-woman BAD, but Ageism GOOD. When hate is directed at the left, that is bad, but when bigotry and hate is against the right, that's good. I get it now.

[PerryWhite]

Attacking McCain will be left to the Democrats' pals in the MSM.

[arielwire]

One way to truly unite the Republicans is to nominate Hillary. I really don't think she'd win the race against McCain- the Independents would defect to him in droves, the Republicans that would vote for Barack won't vote for her, and the 40- 50% of Dems that dislike her politics and policy will have a hard time punching a ballot for her.

[ld]

Excellent points, Oliver! I think that a part the problem is rank-and-file reporters in the mainstream media are under pressure from editors and media owners to conform to a right-wing view they don't necessarily like. With McCain they have a war-hero excuse that allows them to pander and avoid the problem.

I'm stealing your "zombie Reagan". Sorry!

[RedSt8r]

Republican for Hillary

I am a conservative Republican.

I am writing to confess a statement, which I never thought that I would utter: I will be voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Although many of my peers cannot shed the image of the oily-faced, bespectacled 60"s radical " and are visceral at the prospect of a HRC administration. I would offer that the Hillary that we endure today is merely a Plutocrat in a Pantsuit. Gone are her days of burning flags or her training bra.

Since her lone foray into federal Socialist activism, Hillarycare " a complete failure, Clinton has refocused on a more tangible goal " self-preservation. This has helped her to accomplish exactly what I would hope out of a Hillary administration " nothing.

Senator John McCain, however, has been on quite the warpath. In his tenure he has done more to damage free American political speech (McCain-Feingold), American national sovereignty (McCain-Kennedy) and has publicly condemned the methods of our uniformed soldiers trying to protect us. The only thing missing are his Birkenstocks and his Che Guevara t-shirt.

I offer to you, my fellow conservatives- there is but one thing more dangerous to traditional American values than Commanderess-in-Chief, Hillary:

President John McCain.

[studiocitydem]

Romney is a non-factor, and his supporters are feeling it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=70T4mLnk1Dk

[realitytrumpsbull]

I put my name down as an Independent because I think both the major parties are pretty much screwed. Campaign promises aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and DNC typically ends up being the liberal vehicle, and GOP the conservative vehicle, and both vehicles stop outside the Treasury building for pickup. GET YOUR GOVERNMENT DOUGHNUTS! No reforms? NO problem!
They hype about this, hype about that, promises promises, I don't want your handouts, I want to see things done that'll normalize livability so you can make your own way without being signed up for some 'special government program' or have to go work in Iraq or join the military or some other government-related crap. Can you do that? If not, then forget me voting for you, because it's my view that the corruption that is our federal system on 2 legs today is BAD.
Huckabee talks about abolishing the IRS, if you're going to force the paycheck beastie to change course, you're going to have to be pretty persuasive. McCain's a 'stay the course' guy, Obama, I don't know, I think he'd keep the war games going and going and going, Paul would pull the plug and force reforms. I like Paul. I don't think he's got a chance in hell against the hyphenated-american hordes, but I like Paul.
I think he's honest and sincere in rhetoric and approach, and I think he'd take a firm hand in dealing with the Mad Cash Cow that is the military or, 'defense' as it is also called.
Vote for whom you choose, though.

[midtown]

Democrats: 14,547,521

Republicans: 8,774,602

Democrats drew more voters to the polls: 5.7 million more. 62% more.