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The people running McCain's campaign don't have the language to talk to the middle, much less the left. They can fire up their base, probably even turn it out in droves, and whip a rally in an ultra-conservative corner of a town near you. But they can't--as in simply don't have the tools--talk to the middle of the country.
They don't have any real-life experience to draw on to understand economic hardship. They don't have a grasp of subtleties and nuances of positions that Americans care about. They have no actual investment in helping middle America. They have no vision, much less any ability to articulate that vision.
We know this because we've watched their candidate limp through a field of republican pretenders. We've seen him resort to political stunt after stunt. We've watched him take positions--always black and white, cut and dried--that shift hour to hour and day to day. We've cringed at their tactics of last resort: hate speech, racism, mudslinging, and spectacular defamation via the lie.
And no matter what happens next, they don't have a record they can run on. Otherwise they wouldn't be lying about it. They don't have a single solution. Otherwise they wouldn't talk about slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They don't have an ideology they can defend. Otherwise they'd be trumpeting the end of abortion on a daily basis. They don't have a notion of what to do. Otherwise they'd propose a health care plan that wouldn't lead to 20 million more uninsured Americans. They don't have a candidate who isn't deeply flawed and unfit. Otherwise, they'd deal with Keating front and center, release the medical records, hold regular press conferences, have him campaign everywhere without his running mate, and they would've opted out of public financing because they would've been certain of his appeal to regular Americans.
We're in good shape. It'll be rocky. They'll try to suppress the vote, fudge the returns, strong-arm the media, and blanket us with lies--but they don't have mainstream America behind them. And that's why this won't be 04 again.
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