<p>If the Democratic Party thinks that this election will be a cake walk, they will be in for a rude awakening in November.</p>
<p>McCain has a lot of qualities that are appealing to a lot of people in the country. His POW status also buys him a lot of points.</p>
<p>I like his campaign theme, he is urging us all to serve a cause greater than our self interest. We should put all partisan politics aside, and do what is best for the country. Country first, party second.</p>
<p>That will never happen. The number 1 tenet of both parties is to make the other look bad…even to the detriment of the country.</p>
<p>I am willing to give him a chance, he has demonstrated that he will be willing to go against his party to do what is right for the country.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>hate to break it to you, but I, along with all of my 40 to 50 year old friends are all voting for McCain</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In the 60’s, I was more worried about where my Barbie was than any revolution. In the 70’s, I was worrying about if my crush of the week liked me back. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, he is a senator for the state of Arizona. He is a representative of a state constituency, just like Obama.</p>
<p>Same here for me ^^ I’m voting for McCain, although he wouldn’t have been my first choice. Same with many of my friends. I have a large group of friends who are my age and happen to be Jewish. All voting McCain.</p>
<p>Bottom line. </p>
<p>If Obama can get blacks and young voters to turn out in outstandingly high numbers, he wins. If not, he loses. </p>
<p>Those two groups are the wild cards in this race. Everyone else is simply falling in line based on party.</p>
<p>“Most people in Illinois can’t stand Obama”</p>
<p>Ha! That would explain why he won the Illinois primary by 32 points, I guess. Maybe you meant “Most people in Waterloo.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think that’s likely true, absent something unforeseen.</p>
<p>Me and my friends are canceling out ag and her friends, I guess. All my friends, women in their 30s, 40s and 50s, are voting for Obama. And some of us – gasp! – are Hispanic.</p>
<p>Karl Rove just called BO “cooly arrogant” going on to say " even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."</p>
<p>OP, the presidential race has just gotten started. As has the mud slinging.</p>
<p>(And oh, the irony of invoking country-club waspy stereotypes describing Obama.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Realize I said Illinois and not Chicago</p>
<p>But we all know Chicago gets whatever it wants in the state. Just look at our governor.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But, to Karl, EVERYONE is the cool guy in the country club with the great looking date while he looks in from the outside.</p>
<p>“Realize I said Illinois and not Chicago”</p>
<p>Right, and so did I. Obama won the ILLINOIS primary by 32 points. He won Chicago by a much wider margin than that!</p>
<p>If “most people in Illinois can’t stand Obama,” they have a bizarre way of showing it. Since the election provides strong evidence that you’re wrong about that, can you offer some contrary evidence showing that you’re correct?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>hahahaha!!!
That was good!!</p>
<p>LOL! Very sharp!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well gee… who do you expect to beat him?!? Billary sure wouldn’t… not in his own state!! East Saint Louis probably provided a few thousand extra votes for him just due to FRAUD.</p>
<p>My friends & family & I are all voting McCain, as well as all our neighbors, co-workers, and kids’ friends’ parents.</p>
<p>Of course we are all really really smart and don’t have the tendency to get swept up in fads, mass hysteria, or “flavor of the month”.</p>
<p>(And just fyi, that group crosses all demographic lines - male, female, young, old, white collar, working class, and several races & religions too. Hope that doesn’t disappoint anyone, or disincline anyone from going to the polls - McCain still needs every vote he can get).</p>
<p>Going back to the original post, Gordon Smith is doing everything he can to portray himself as the left-leaning Republican who works across party lines. All of his ads so far have been that way. One has two Democratic Oregon political people–both women, one African American–talking about how they are voting for Smith because he works across party lines and was “one of the first to stand up to Bush and oppose the war.” Turns out they misspoke on that, but you know how ads go. </p>
<p>Oregon is a blue state, where the Republican party is pretty weak at the moment, and in this election, Smith knows he can’t count on winning without support from Independents and some Democrats.</p>
<p>I see, hops_scout, that you have no evidence to back up your assertion that “most people in Illinois can’t stand Obama.” If you had evidence, you would share it, like this:</p>
<p>“Well gee… who do you expect to beat him?!”</p>
<p>OK, if you think his weak opponent explains his strong performance in the primary, how do you explain his even stronger performance in an approval/disapproval poll, which has no opponent, nine days before the primary? Obama had a 68% approval rating in Illinois at that time – and that’s in a poll of Democratic and Republican voters. His disapproval rating was only 27%. (For comparison, the next most highly approved politician in the state was Dick Durbin, at 54%.)</p>
<p>[Obama</a> leads Clinton by 2-1 in Illinois poll / QCTimes.com](<a href=“Obama leads Clinton by 2-1 in Illinois poll”>Obama leads Clinton by 2-1 in Illinois poll)</p>
<p>People in Illinois voted for him because they support him, not because they disliked his opponent…Clinton’s approval rating was 53%, which is usually enough to win an election.</p>
<p>bz - Don’t worry - all my friends and I are in the intellectual, well-educated group voting for Obama so there is still a race.</p>