GOP sees Obama mired in base

Sen. Barack Obama is close to clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, but he faces trouble on several fronts in the general election with blue-collar workers and other parts of the electorate who question his lack of experience, foreign-policy judgment and social liberalism.

Fewer than a few dozen delegate votes away from making history as the first black to win the nomination of a major party, the freshman senator is also showing signs of weakness among white voters in Midwestern and Southern battleground states, including Ohio and Florida, which Democrats must carry if they are to win the White House.

A senior Republican official in Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign said the party's internal polls show Mr. Obama is having trouble reaching outside of his base of blacks, young adults and college-educated voters.

"We're seeing that in state after state Obama has trouble drawing beyond his own base. His coalition has been secular liberals, young people and blacks. That's proven to be enough in the Democratic primaries, but he's going to have to go beyond that to win the general election," said Frank Donatelli, the McCain campaign's chief liaison at the Republican National Committee.

NEWS ANALYSIS:


"He's done poorly in the last two months in every contest he's run outside of those areas. He's clearly not the candidate he was in February and March when he won a dozen primaries in a row," said Mr. Donatelli, who was President Reagan's White House political director.

The results of matchups between the two prospective nominees in a Quinnipiac University poll in several swing states were similar to the RNC's internal poll findings, he said.

In Ohio, a Democrat-leaning state in economic distress, the presumptive Republican nominee edges out Mr. Obama 44 percent to 40 percent, according to the Quinnipiac survey. In Florida, where Democrats are campaigning heavily, Mr. McCain led his likely opponent 45 percent to 41 percent.

"Senator Obama is losing the white vote by 14 to 18 points in Ohio and Florida, which is enough to keep him from victory despite overwhelming support from African-Americans," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"In Ohio, more than a quarter of [Hillary Rodham] Clinton voters say they will support McCain. In Florida, more than a third of them say they will back McCain against Obama. If he can't win a decent chunk of them back, he's got an uphill climb in these pivotal states," Mr. Brown said.

Mr. Donatelli, in an interview with The Washington Times, said the McCain campaign has succeeded in uniting Republicans behind the senator from Arizona. "We are already over 90 percent by our survey, while in contrast, the Democratic nominee is going to have a lot of work to do to put his party back together again."

He acknowledged that the economy and the war in Iraq were major issues to overcome, but said the McCain campaign is convinced that the election will turn largely on "the blue-collar workers in the Midwest."

"These are the old Reagan Democrats, and they are in play more than at any time since Reagan, despite the downbeat economy," he said.

"Obama is a cultural and social liberal, and he has trouble connecting with these voters. That puts in play a number of blue states that McCain has a strong chance to win this time, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania," he said. "We feel much better about our chance to win many of the big industrial states in the Midwest."

McCain strategists point to an ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,122 Americans, released May 12, that revealed weaknesses in Mr. Obama's candidacy in three areas when compared with Mr. McCain's:

â?¢ On who has "the better experience to be president," Mr. McCain led 71 percent to 18 percent.

â?¢ On who has "better knowledge of world affairs," Mr. McCain outpaced Mr. Obama 65 percent to 24 percent.

â?¢ On "who do you trust more to handle the U.S. campaign against terrorism," Mr. McCain leads 55 percent to 34 percent.

A persistent experience issue that has been dogging the Obama campaign is the candidate's assertion that he would meet with leaders of rogue states such as Iran and North Korea without any preconditions. That stance has troubled some Democrats and raised eyebrows in the Jewish community, a key Democratic voting bloc.

"I've been critical of Obama on that. Negotiating with dictators is a bad idea, but he would learn that in a year or so. I'm not going to say it's dangerous," said Michael O'Hanlon, a senior defense and foreign-policy analyst at the Brookings Institution who advises Democrats and supports Mrs. Clinton.

"Obama is much less experienced than McCain, but he has to worry that people will think he is not ready for the job. That's the worry," Mr. O'Hanlon said.

Mr. Obama was questioned aggressively about the issue at a meeting Thursday with voters in a Boca Raton, Fla., synagogue, but said his willingness to sit down with rogue leaders does not include terrorists and would not include Hamas until it renounces terrorism and accepts Israel's right to exist.

"This is a big issue with the Jewish community. Jews are supporting Obama by the smallest percentage" since Ronald Reagan's early-1980s landslides, said a leader of an Israel advocacy group here.
The Washington Times GOP sees Obama mired in base

Leave it to the dems to pick a candidate that has slim chance for a win to the White House......

Have a good one!:s4:

I have to agree with 99% of that...:postgood:

Yup. Good stuff!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

Leave it to the dems to pick a candidate that has slim chance for a win to the White House...

---

So true, but that's what happens when the majority is ignorant, and the only thing that matters is "change".