Obama better hope this guy isn't one-man focus group
E. Thomas McClanahanFormer Pentagon and White House official Douglas MacKinnon muses that he has many close friends, associates and family who are Democrats who voted for Obama in ‘08. None of them will do it again in 2012.
“Why? Because they view him as an abject failure across the board and have decided to put the welfare of their families and themselves before the empty rhetoric of the Obama campaign before it’s too late.”
He continues: “Because of my time in Washington and past positions there, I also know and am friends with quite a few journalists. I speak with many on a regular basis, and it’s safe to say that the majority of them lean left politically.
“That said, in off-the-record conversations with my left-leaning journalistic friends, not one believes Obama is going to win re-election. Not one. While most believe Mitt Romney to be a weak candidate, they are still convinced that he will comfortably defeat Obama on Nov. 6.”
If this proves true, it means the current polls are probably close because of the “Bradley effect”: voters lying to pollsters because they’re afraid of appearing to be racially biased. The phenomenon got its name after Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley lost a race for Califorinia governor even though he was ahead in the polls.
The Bradley effect could be in play this year or it couldn’t. But I’ve seen for myself what MacKinnon writes of journalists. Earlier this year I had dinner with a couple of former Star guys who moved to the L.A. Times years ago. Neither thought Obama would win.
MacKinnon says Romney will win in a walk. I think the chances are greater it will be close. Mitt Romney hasn’t closed the sale, although he still has time. Reagan didn’t do it until the debates. Romney needs to move away from the security of generalities and offer more specifics about his plans for the economy, the debt and entitlements.
The Dems will shoot at it, but what have they got? MacKinnon again: “Obama has no domestic policy to speak of. He has no foreign policy to speak of. He has no jobs program to speak of. His signature health care plan is driving doctors out of the field, crippling small businesses and putting thousands of Americans out of work. The Obama of 2012 has nothing positive to run on. Nothing. And guess what? He, more than anyone else in his White House or campaign, knows it.”
Rick Adams
9 months, 2 weeks agoThom,
This story sounds similar to my single male friends who when they go barhopping trying to pick up milfs but when they strike out they decide to turn gay.
not.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agoI do think there is a mountain of “buyer’s remorse” out there. the big 0 promised all this “hope and change” and working together and has delivered despair and partisan bills such as 0’care.
Our standing in the world has declined and people see Europe imploding and wonder if we will follow their footsteps since 0 has added 5 TRILLION to our national debt.
The suppostion that there could be a Bradley effect I think is also true. People have seen how the left villifies anyone that disagrees with them, so it is easier to just say “sure, I loved the guy in 2008 and I still love him”. The fact that unemployment has been over 8% for 42 months, why, that won’t affect my vote. I love him.
In the end, however, I have to hope that people are smart enough to realize that 4 more years of the big 0’s policies put America on the road to disaster. Business will not invest with his style of govt., and if they don’t, there are no jobs. It really is as simple as that. His class warfare rhetoric simply reinforces his hatred of producers.
Do you want jobs or continuing recession? Seems a pretty clear choice and one that America will make on Nov. 6.
Steve Alleman
Kansas City
9 months, 2 weeks agoTypical McClanahan dishonesty. By referring to Mackinnon as “Former Pentagon and White House official” he lets the reader think he worked in the Obama White House. This is not the case. I believe the White House referred to here is the Reagan White House (hard to tell because Mackinnon’s resume is so thin he always uses the same vague description for himself). He’s actually a third tier right-wing pundit, most often found at the loony townhall.com (the kind of website that publishes a column by Chuck Norris).
So the “I have many close friends who are Democrats and they hate Obama” line is about as credible as most of McClanahan’s ‘analysis’ (and I use the term loosely, it means ‘copying and pasting from wingnut websites).
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agooh, so you are saying he is mimicking shelly & lewis steve? You of course can show the original sites ET copied from??? I anxiously await the links…