Analysis: McCain, Obama polar opposites

[Auburn85 432]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24956561/

WASHINGTON - Heartily sick of the status quo, Americans will choose between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama this fall, two men who campaign as bipartisan reformers yet are polar opposites on virtually everything else, from ideology and biography to appearance and experience.

Over the next five months, a fragile economy and an ongoing Iraq war, as well as matters of age and race, will shape the monumental contest to succeed President Bush and become the 44th president.

McCain — 71, white and a veteran of Congress who vows never to surrender to al-Qaida — would be the oldest first-term president ever elected.

Obama — 46, black and a Senate newcomer who pledges to end the Iraq war — would be the first minority to achieve the White House.

“No matter who wins this election, the direction of this country is going to change dramatically,” McCain said Tuesday in New Orleans. “But, the choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and going backward.”

Obama countered in St. Paul, Minn.: “There are many words to describe John McCain’s attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush’s policies as bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.”

Among the biggest questions to be answered by Nov. 4:

Will McCain be able to overcome the country's intense desire for change by separating himself from the unpopular Bush while sticking close on issues of war and taxes?

Will Obama be able to overcome the country's unsavory history of slavery and lingering bigotry that deeply divides the public to be elected the first black president?

It takes 270 electoral votes to win the White House, and competition likely will be the most fierce in some 14 battleground states. Both candidates will fight to defend states their parties won four years ago. McCain also will make a play for Democratic-held states in the Great Lakes region, while Obama hopes to crack the GOP bastion of the South.

The campaign is the first in half a century in which neither a sitting president nor a vice president is running for the highest office, and the first since 1960 in which a senator will assume the White House. McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, is a longtime Republican Party agitator. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, is the Democratic Party's newfound star.

A study in contrasts

By just about every measure, the gulf between the two is wide.

Philosophically, the country will get either one extreme or the other in the conservative McCain or the liberal Obama.

An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll from April found that just over a third of all people call themselves conservative while just under a quarter say they are liberal. They rest describe themselves as moderate.

That means voters who aren't at the extremes of the political spectrum likely will be the deciding force. Thus, both candidates already have started to reach toward the middle after primary fights in which both played to their respective political bases.

Even so, the record is clear.

In line with conservative orthodoxy, McCain is a defense hawk who supports the troop-increase strategy in Iraq and opposes a quick pullout. He also favors tougher sanctions against Iran. He backs free trade and the extension of the Bush tax cuts that are the cornerstone of the current economic policy. He opposes abortion rights, and he favors school choice. He is a longtime advocate of fiscal restraint and a crusader against wasteful government spending. He takes a free-market approach to health care.

Obama has a record of liberal votes in the Senate. He opposed extending Bush's tax cuts on investments, a free trade agreement with Central America, drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge, extending federal wiretap provisions and the confirmation of Bush's two Supreme Court nominees. Obama also opposes privatizing Social Security and supports abortion rights. He was against the Iraq war from the start and has made his calls for a pullout a bedrock of his presidential campaign.

Personal backgrounds and physical attributes, too, are a study in contrasts.

Age may be less of a barrier than race

With a white mane and a posture that reflects his military upbringing, McCain is a Vietnam prisoner of war and Navy veteran who has served in Congress since his 1982 election to the House. He has spent some two decades in the Senate honing his image as an independent thinker who works across party lines and fights for reform. Now, he is marketing himself as the candidate with the experience and knowledge to make the best judgments to fix the country's ills.

Obama, the lanky son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, was reared in Indonesia and Hawaii. He's a Harvard University graduate and former Chicago activist who began his political career a dozen years ago in the Illinois legislature. He's been in the Senate just 3 1/2 years, quickly emerging as the Democratic Party's rising star. He beat Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton by campaigning on a promise of change that rejects what he calls the partisan politics of division.

At this point, Obama appears to have a tougher barrier to break through on race than McCain does on age.

An AP-Yahoo News study comparing November figures to April figures found that McCain has won over many people initially worried about age, while Obama has made little headway so far among people who are most uncomfortable about race.

Roughly 13 percent of those who said in November they would be very uncomfortable voting for a black candidate now say they would vote for Obama, while 51 percent of them would vote for McCain. And 31 percent of those who said they were very uncomfortable with the idea of voting for someone over age 70 would now vote for McCain, while 40 percent would vote for Obama.

And, for now at least, it's unclear whether experience or change matters more to voters.

The same study found that people who favor a Washington outsider who will change the way things are done split about evenly between McCain and Obama, while those who favor someone with Washington experience slightly favor McCain.

However, those who are optimistic that things actually can be changed in Washington favor Obama over McCain by a large margin, 43 percent to 31 percent. Those who are pessimistic about whether Washington can change favor McCain over Obama by an even wider margin, 43 percent to 23 percent.

Each candidate has five months to make his case.

[autigeremt 6,717]

It will be a tight race. If Obama had not created the associations with Wright and Aires, I could easily see him as a big time favorite. People will have a hard time trusting him because of it. Just like I do. It's not about his skin color, it's about his judgement and character, and I have a bad feeling about both regarding Obama.

[CCTAU 3,350]

It will be a tight race. If Obama had not created the associations with Wright and Aires, I could easily see him as a big time favorite. People will have a hard time trusting him because of it. Just like I do. It's not about his skin color, it's about his judgement and character, and I have a bad feeling about both regarding Obama.

By the time this is over, it will be primarily about skin color. The media will force everyone to see it that way. This article alludes to it already:

Will Obama be able to overcome the country's unsavory history of slavery and lingering bigotry that deeply divides the public to be elected the first black president?

So in other words, vote for achmed or you are a bigot. Not to mention when 80% of a specific ethnic group votes for one candidate, it is already about race. I can't stand him because he is so far left he has to look right to see Kennedy. But I am not voting for McCain because he is white. Sadly, many are voting for achmed because he is half black. So get ready for the skin color assault.

[Justin5 20]

It will be a tight race. If Obama had not created the associations with Wright and Aires, I could easily see him as a big time favorite. People will have a hard time trusting him because of it. Just like I do. It's not about his skin color, it's about his judgement and character, and I have a bad feeling about both regarding Obama.

By the time this is over, it will be primarily about skin color. The media will force everyone to see it that way. This article alludes to it already:

Will Obama be able to overcome the country's unsavory history of slavery and lingering bigotry that deeply divides the public to be elected the first black president?

So in other words, vote for achmed or you are a bigot. Not to mention when 80% of a specific ethnic group votes for one candidate, it is already about race. I can't stand him because he is so far left he has to look right to see Kennedy. But I am not voting for McCain because he is white. Sadly, many are voting for achmed because he is half black. So get ready for the skin color assault.

Hahahahahahaha

Essentially = "Yeah, its not about name or appearance that I won't vote for Achmed"

Sometimes you really crack me up CCTAU. This is just priceless stuff.

[CCTAU 3,350]

It will be a tight race. If Obama had not created the associations with Wright and Aires, I could easily see him as a big time favorite. People will have a hard time trusting him because of it. Just like I do. It's not about his skin color, it's about his judgement and character, and I have a bad feeling about both regarding Obama.

By the time this is over, it will be primarily about skin color. The media will force everyone to see it that way. This article alludes to it already:

Will Obama be able to overcome the country's unsavory history of slavery and lingering bigotry that deeply divides the public to be elected the first black president?

So in other words, vote for achmed or you are a bigot. Not to mention when 80% of a specific ethnic group votes for one candidate, it is already about race. I can't stand him because he is so far left he has to look right to see Kennedy. But I am not voting for McCain because he is white. Sadly, many are voting for achmed because he is half black. So get ready for the skin color assault.

Hahahahahahaha

Essentially = "Yeah, its not about name or appearance that I won't vote for Achmed"

Sometimes you really crack me up CCTAU. This is just priceless stuff.

Did I mention name? No. You did. Same thing you liberals are doing on another thread. Cherry picking any little thing to deflect the real message. Is Islam now a race? You are the perfect candidate to vote for achmed. Blind, but full of shi.....uh, I mean HOPE.

[autigeremt 6,717]

Justin, there is a whole lot of truth in what CC is saying. I don't care what color a person is, but the quality of the person and their character and judgement play a very large part in it.

[Auburn85 432]

Yeah, I wasn't going to vote for Obama. Not because of the rumor that he's a closet Muslim, or because of his church, preacher, or his race.

I'm not voting for him because he's too liberal for my liking. Maybe my reason will at least be in the top 5 for reasons if Obama doesn't win the presidency. I still think he will though.

[arnaldoabru 11]

Yeah, I wasn't going to vote for Obama. Not because of the rumor that he's a closet Muslim, or because of his church, preacher, or his race.

I'm not voting for him because he's too liberal for my liking. Maybe my reason will at least be in the top 5 for reasons if Obama doesn't win the presidency. I still think he will though.

I could never vote for a guy who didn't come from a life of privledge.I mean what kind of sorry ass comes from a broken home, studies hard, becomes editor of the Harvard Law Review, doesn't re-marry into money( what an idiot), and now thru hard work,organization, and brains becomes the Democratic Presidental Nominee. Did no one tell this fool that this is not how you become President. The easy way is just to have a Daddy(who used to be President and can get you into good schools and out of wars) that can use his influential and well connected friends to get you elected. On top of all of this he is.....BLACK.

I miss the good ole days already......"boy, go refreash my mint jullip."