Is it just the economy, stupid?

[Stravo]

Last night on MSNBC (Fox is living in its own world at this point) I watched Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan give their analysis of the debate. Pat laid something out that has been touched on by many commentators and pundits but in a very succinct way.

If not for this economic down turn this race would either be too close to call or McCain narrow lead as it has been all along. Essentially what he said is "Do you think people just suddenly woke up and decided Obama was the one? This is all about punishing the party in power and reacting to the negative economic news and climate not about Obama is the better candidate."

First of all do you buy that? And secondly what does it say about the electorate that despite 8 years of this fucking hell we have suffered through with Bush and a Republican agenda rammed down our throats why does it take something like this down turn to wake people up and make them angry? Shouldn't they have been angry from the get go? If you listen to McCain not just now where he does have only the usual Republican economic "cut capital gains, businesses need even more breaks" bullshit but before it was all the usual stuff. Why was the electorate so evenly divided between these two starkly different men? Is Obama that bad of a candidate or are people still buying into the Republican pipedream and it took this mess to wake them up?

[Darth Wong]

Approximately thirty percent of Americans are hard-line Religious Right retards, many of whom are also closeted Klansmen. That is a huge insane voting bloc. It's not surprising that it would take something like this Perfect Storm to bring a guy like Obama into power, when you have a third of the population that would never vote for a "liberal" or a black man even if you pushed heated nails into their balls.

[SirNitram]

Keep in mind, this is Pat Buchanan. He still thinks Palin is a great pick.

Obama was tearing things up before the economy went shittastic. It would've been closer, but thinking McCain would sweep through this casually if only the damn market had held is farce. The biggest change I can envision is he might be comfortable enough to tell the Limbaugh coalition to fuck off and picked Joe Lieberman for his VP, destroying his base vote.

[CaptJodan]

While it's obvious that the economy hasn't helped McCain, or that Obama's lead probably wouldn't be so drastic without the downturn, I don't agree with Pat, as he said last night, that McCain would actually WIN if it wasn't for the economy. Keep in mind, Sarah Palin would still be as stupid as she proved to be regardless of the economy. Also remember that the only time McCain was really leading nationally was after their campaign bump. I think it would certainly be a closer race, but I'm not sure McCain could pull it out of the fire.

The ONLY thing that makes me question that is the negative attack ads. Historically, negative attack ads work. Ayers, in the right political climate, would almost certainly work, if for no one else than the base. But as we saw last night, no one fucking cares. When there's a clear and present danger to American's pocket books, people stop listening to anything that doesn't affect or help them. So, if the economy wasn't doing badly, I think those negative ads would have a far greater effect. Enough to win the election, as Pat said? Maybe, maybe not. I think we would have seen a slightly different Obama, less conservative in his own rhetoric if the economy wasn't issue number 1.

[Ariphaos]

It speaks to the failure of the Republican brand that, according to canvassers, people who openly refer to Obama as a n****r are seriously considering voting for him.

Pat is damned right about punishing the party in power. The party in power failed, spectacularly. He's speaking as if they don't deserve punishment.

[Ghost Rider]

Part of Pat's problem is the presumption that Republicans are not at any fault. His comment of punishing the party is indicative that he believe that the Republicans are doing at least a good job, but this bit with the economy is what making them lose voters.

So yes, it is economics that are making those who would never give Obama a second chance a vote. And it has everything with the party in power making some monumental retarded choices. So in that particular, they are looking as Obama as the better person because he won't parrot the last eight years.