G.O.P. Now Sees Obama as Liability for Ticket

NYT: G.O.P. Now Sees Obama as Liability for Ticket
By CARL HULSE
Published: April 26, 2008


Representative Zack Space, Democrat of Ohio, said voters would see through Republicans’ attacks on Senator Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama is starring in a growing number of campaign commercials, but the latest batch is being underwritten by Republicans. In a sign that the racial, class and values issues simmering in the presidential campaign could spread into the larger political arena, Republican groups are turning recent bumps in Mr. Obama’s road — notably his comment that small-town Americans “cling” to guns and religion out of bitterness and a fiery speech by his former minister in which he condemned the United States — into attacks against Democrats down the ticket....

Republicans say the new focus on Mr. Obama reflects their view that he remains the more likely Democratic presidential nominee since he continues to lead Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in convention delegates. It also shows that Republicans, who have for months characterized Mrs. Clinton as the contender who would most energize Republican voters, now see vulnerabilities in Mr. Obama that could be liabilities for other Democrats on the ballot. “There were times when Republicans reacted with just horror that he would lead the ticket,” said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst. “Now there is not the sense of him being invulnerable, the magic bullet. I think there has been a major change.”

The growing Republican emphasis on Mr. Obama could also help Mrs. Clinton plead her case that she is more electable, bolstering her argument to superdelegates that Republicans are poised to pounce on her relatively untested opponent. Her advisers have been frustrated that some top Democrats rate Mrs. Clinton a greater liability for the party’s candidates in conservative parts of the country — a view still held by some strategists — even though she has shown a capacity to withstand Republican attacks. At the same time, some Democrats privately said the new Republican push could be a backdoor effort to buoy Mrs. Clinton, the candidate Republicans initially saw as the Democrat who would most rally Republicans and spur fund-raising. It has not been lost on Republican strategists that they can give pause to superdelegates leaning toward endorsing Mr. Obama....

Mr. Obama was considered a crucial asset in a House election in Illinois earlier this year when his endorsement helped a Democrat, Bill Foster, gain the seat vacated by former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a Republican. And for months Republicans have looked with dismay on Mr. Obama’s ability to draw new voters and on the force of his call for change. But they say the drawn-out campaign has altered Mr. Obama’s image. In recent days, Republicans have sought to make him a lightning rod in the hotly contested special House race in Louisiana and in a statewide race in North Carolina, whose presidential primary is May 6....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/politics/26ticket.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

They are trying too hard to help Clinton beat Obama for me to believe this.

in an attempt to keep the thing going right down to the convention floor.

They actually think they're going to split the party. They actually think this party works in lockstep the way theirs does, a follow the leader dynamic.

I guess nobody ever told them the line about herding cats.

They are scared stiff period. They nominated McCain because....why? Because a tired,
71 year old who doesn't really fit in with them is undergoing political plastic surgery
for the sole reason that all their other candidates were worse?

They are looking to spin this any way they can, but the fact is that Rudy Giuliani was
the only one of them even close to being socially in step with the times, and he was
squashed like a crippled cockroach. They'll use their considerable money and media
monopoly to make McCain look like something he isn't, but in the end, Mme. Tussaud's
candidate will still look like wax. Don't get me wrong: plenty of people will vote for
the wax. Forty-five per cent of American voters will vote Republican even if their ticket
consists of Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. But if we can't swing the swing voters this
time, we need a new set of PR guys.

First great laugh of the day. A serious topic but that was so funny. Thx!

Yeah, right......:evilfrown:

They want to run against the strongest candidate?

by desperate people.