The other day I got into a discussion about Obama. My friend thought Obama was a lightweight, but he couldn't stomach the idea yet of voting for McCain.
After not knowing the facts about Obama's voting record in the Senate as well as my friend, I did something strange. I started talking about the issues. Which I had mistakenly thought this election was about.
You want the country to invest in universal health care, vote Obama, or else you want more Bush/McCain give-away to giant drug companies. You want cheaper gas? Vote Obama for alternative energy, or vote Bush/McCain for more give-away to Exxon and giant oil companies. You want more opportunity for your kids? Vote Obama, or vote Bush/McCain so Republican elites can send their kids to private schools while your schools remain crappy.
On the issues, the choice is very clear. Obama represents the interests of most Americans. Under Republicans, wages have fallen, the income gap between the rich and middle class has grown, the country has suffered.
Bush is giving $1 billion to Georgia (the country). How about $1 billion to fix some bridges here in Oregon?
The Republicans brag that they can take this election by making it about personality instead of the issues. They call for ordinary Americans to take sides with the party that truly hurts them by saying that Democrats don't respect them. They want to use resentment to steal from the middle class and give to the rich. That is their record, that is what they do.
And we should not let them. It is not what this election should be about. It's got to be about about jobs, health care, energy, schools, the future. These are things that matter, and on these things, the Obama ticket has said all the right things.
The Republicans have said nearly nothing at all, but their record while controlling Congress and the White House speaks for itself.
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It's up to Obama to make it about the issues. Right now, he's on his heels. His message is not being heard and he has to change his delivery.
Obama has won all the voters he's going to win through his rhetorical excellence and charisma. He has to show independent voters that he's the guy who can deliver real "change." And define that change and the differences between him and McCain as succinctly as you just did.
He's lost a lot of traction and he's not controlling either the pace or the direction of the debate. If he fades the way he did against Clinton in the primaries, he'll lose.
It'll be McCain by the margin of Ohio. And Sarah Palin will be the next President of the United States, either by McCain's demise or in the 2012 election.
The Democrats ought to be really nervous right now.
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