McCain would be wise to stay out of this and let Clinton and Obama tear each other down, but I think after comments like that, he's somewhat obligated to publicly denounce Obama and talk about how wrong he is about small-town America.

 

aye... i suppose. But it must frustrate democrats to see all this in-fighting. I just like to take vacations when i have time (timing is everything!), and this just seems like a good time for McCain!

 

I think he would be wise to comment just enough to keep Barack talking about it, of course Hillary will have to also. He might be taking time out to write is Inauguration speech though

 

As a registered Democrat, I can tell you personally that it does indeed frustrate us to see the in-fighting. Obama and Clinton would be better-served directing their venom toward McCain -- there's certainly plenty of material. Instead, they waste their efforts tearing each other down and ultimately provide fodder for the Republicans in the eventual duel.

 

treat it like "bumping" a thread? good strategy.

 

Indeed. The sooner Obama is able to push past this and onto other issues the better off he'll be. If, as you say, McCain (and Clinton) push the subject and keep it out in the open, Obama will have to continue to defend his statements (or perhaps retract them) and ultimately he'll probably make another tactical error and let out some other awful secret -- like maybe he doesn't go to church after all, or that he thinks guns are a problem.

 

Yes it is akin to "bumping" wit ha little bit higher stakes.

I said it before, the Democrats better start thinking of taking Bredesen's idea and run with it.

 

I dunno. It is irratating that voters don't elect the President. Now voters can't select the candidates?

 

I am a registered democrat, and i beleive that this will be the first year i vote republican. John Mccain is the only candidate that is not acting like a child. Barrack may have said these statements with all the goodness in his heart, but in the end, it is ignorant. Have we not suffered enough ignorance under the rule of george dubyah? i just don't see why all the candidates that get the most support, tend to be the most ignorant candidates we have.

 

I'm the opposite. My knee-jerk reaction to Bush/Cheney fucking everything up with the Iraq war is to completely change the leadership. But Barak has me seriously worried. MaCain is marred with his support of the war and being affiliated with the Keating-5. Hilary is nothing new, same-old-stuff and perhaps worse, and she supported the war, so i don't want her.

 

plus, i would, for once, like to see a democratic convention which has some real drama! wouldn't it be cool to go into that convention with everything in the balance? that would be good tv.

 

Lets face it though, Neither Hillary or Barrack will get us out of Iraq soon, and both of them will cause more damage trying to pull out of Iraq, then anything else. I believe that McCain is honest, he says he will not get the troops out of Iraq immediately which isn't what anybody wants to hear, but it is honest, and it is truthful. i think he will do what he believes is right and he won't compromise what he thinks is right, whereas i could see Hillary cutting corners, and i can see barrack becoming so overwhelmed and completing nothing. he may be a republican but at least you can trust him.

 

This is the same reason I feel that Obama is the only real good choice we have available to us. Far from being ignorant, as SuperMurk suggests, I think Obama may be the only candidate who will truly be able to bring people together -- as long as he keeps comments like this more or less to himself.

 

Oh yes, Barrack obama bringing unity and ignorance to us all. He won't do anything because he hasn't had any real power or experience, he didn't even finish his term as a senator because he wanted to move on to bigger and better things, yet he promised he would. Do you think if something better came along he wouldn't abandon something that he was doing to help the country? i just don't trust him.

 

My thoughts on Iraq are that we should have never gone. not surprisingly, i initially supported the war. BUT! I think it would be foolish to pull out before everything was as stable as we could make it. We made the mess and are obliged to clean it up.

And you are right... i don't think ANYONE can get us out of iraq quickly.

As far as McCain, i preferred him over other republican candidates. He distances himself from the moral-majority, anyway, which i appreciate. But until we get a fiscally conservative republican, why bother voting for one? Clinton was the last guy to balance a budget, and McCain never talks about reducing gov't's spending or it's role in my life, so he can basically go fuck himself, he is not a real republican.

 

I don't think being a jaded politician who has been chewed up and spit out by Special Interest Groups and Political Action Committees and Lobbyists and so forth is necessarily a bad thing. Far from it -- my hope for Obama is that he'll be something rather different than what Washington is used to, unlike McCain and Clinton, who seem to promise little more but the same.

 

are you kidding? barrack has had it easier then any other politician running for president. The media has a sort of gag rule as to not point out the short comings of barrack because he's black and nobody wants to be the one to point out THAT elephant in the room.

 

Unlike McCain or Clinton, barak (supposedly) has taken NO pac money.

 

Have you watched Saturday Night Live lately? They make fun of the media throwing Barak softballs, while pounding Hilary with real heat.

 

This comment is more telling about the way YOU feel about him than anything else you've said about Obama. Obama's race has not been the object of much (rational) discussion because it is, as any (reasonable) person realizes, totally irrelevant to the debate. I think you're absolutely wrong that Obama has received preferential treatment from the media based solely on his race. In fact, I think that for Obama to get as far as he has speaks a great deal to what a dynamic candidate he truly is. A man of color with no political experience and an Arabic middle name? He's ignorant America's worst nightmare and yet he is one of the Democratic frontrunners.