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Keeping Virginia red

Matthew Price
13 Oct 08, 03:50 AM GMT

VIRGINIA BEACH: If there's anywhere you would have assumed John McCain would do well it's Virginia Beach.

John McCain This is home to the biggest naval yard in the world, so there will be hearty support for the former navy aviator here.

Not that everyone in the military supports him of course - at the Democratic convention I interviewed one former US Navy rear admiral campaigning for Obama.

But many in the military do see John McCain as their man.

Even in Virginia Beach though, there are concerns about Senator McCain's campaign. The state's Republican leadership is worried that he's not getting his message across.

This is a little old but gets the message across.

The polls suggest an Obama victory here - in a state that last voted a Democrat for president way back in 1964.

If McCain can't win here, he's not going to win the White House.

On Monday he turns up at the convention centre, just outside my hotel window, to try and persuade the faithful and not so faithful.

It might be easier here than in northern Virginia where population changes over the years have brought in a more Democratic-leaning crowd.

He needs their support here though.

One measure of that might be whether there's a good response to this message on the campaign's Virginia website, asking people to turn up at the rally: "Show your support by wearing RED to remind everyone to keep Virginia Red this November!"

I'll get back to you on how many are wearing Republican red in a few hours.

In the meantime, McCain has to work out how he runs the rest of his campaign.

Does he continue the (some say racist) attacks on Barack Obama's character that have characterized the last week or so in an attempt - as one advisor put it - to shift the focus off the economy?

If he does, he risks further angering the growing voices who - like that veteran of the civil rights movement, John Lewis - accuse him of "sowing hatred".

McCain has never struck me as someone particularly happy with such a style of politics. Remember Karl Rove's smears about him during the 2000 primary contest against George W Bush?

The dilemma McCain faces of course, as his poll numbers slide, is whether such attacks - awkward as he might feel about them - might be his best chance of winning this election?

As one colleague put it to me, this is McCain's dilemma, it is "the battle for his soul".

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Comments

1. At 12:41pm on 13 Oct 2008, Parrisia wrote:
McCain may be seen in public as deploring such attacks but on the background his campaign people are shamelessly firing up the Republican base with race poison. His willingness to win the much coveted US Presidency even on outright lies just goes to show what kind of a man he really is.

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2. At 1:15pm on 13 Oct 2008, passenger825 wrote:
As a Virginian living abroad I can say without question that I do hope Obama wins there in November. It has really disturbed me to hear the things that people are saying about Obama. McCain's attacks have whipped the ignorant into such a frenzy that he has begun defending his opponent at his own rallies. It saddens me to think that there are still a multitude of people who will never accept Obama as a viable candidate because of his ethnicity. I've already mailed in my absentee ballot and I will keep my fingers crossed over the next few weeks. I fear that many who would never normally vote will do so only because they refuse to have a black president.

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3. At 1:25pm on 13 Oct 2008, Pat Jack wrote:
McCain's campaign is at a cross-roads: go for Obama on his untested history; put forward high risk ideas that might swing people his way.

My advice: lock Palin in a cupboard for the next 23 days and fight the good fight - promote the good things tha he and the current presidency has done. Only if he does this does he stand a chance as I believe that McCain is a good man and shouldn't let others and events determine this (his) race.

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4. At 2:07pm on 13 Oct 2008, brittanyshaye wrote:
As a citizen of Virginia Beach, I can honestly say that I have not seen much support for John McCain.

I am an Obama supporter and I believe that even though Hampton Roads is generally a Naval place, the military in my area are tired of Bush and his politics. Seeing how close John McCain and Bush are, I believe that the military families in Virginia Beach will be voting for Obama. They are ready for change, as I am. John McCain isn't change, and they see that.

It's not a question of whether or not he can keep Virginia a "red" state, it's a question of why he is still campaigning here? Virginia is, this election year, a BLUE state.

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5. At 2:11pm on 13 Oct 2008, kinglofthouse wrote:
jpmmcginty
Obviously you do not live in the US. What "good" things has the Bush presidency actually done? It is the most corrupt government this country has ever had. Not just the Iraq war (a pack of lies and deceipt) but Gonzales, Cheney, the lack of oversight, executive privledge bypassing Congress etc. Mark my words, if Obama does get elected (let's hope so) these gangsters will go to jail. It will not end in November. McCain is a crook as the Keating 5 shows. As Lee Iacoca (ex Chrysler boss) said "THROW THE BUMS OUT' He called his campaigning for Bush in 2000 "the worst thing he ever did in his life" and he has had a long life.

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6. At 2:31pm on 13 Oct 2008, ajaxtheleast wrote:
John McCain was behind a fair amount and
wasn't making enough headway.

So McCain signed his whole campaign
over to the Bush election machine.

McCain is owned by them lock stock and barrel.

But beside that, McCain has now shown his
true identity, and it isn't pretty.

If there was no blowback to his coded and uncoded racial and fanticized terrorist-ties
besmirching of Obama's character he would still gladly be at it.

Electing McCain as America's president will
further drag down the world's respect for a country that was viewed as a superpower
but as an acceptable one which didn't try
by military force to have it's way with other countries.

But "military force" is what McCain is about.

And electing McCain as president owned by the very un-indicted war criminal that ravaged iraq is to the rest of the world a slap in the face.

Once again as Americans did in '04 by re-electing bush they will have demonistrated, even if unintentially, that it isn't merely the
American president who is unconcerned about illegal invasions of other countries but also the Americans themselves.

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7. At 2:45pm on 13 Oct 2008, Pat Jack wrote:
kinglofthouse

I thought someone might say that. My point is McCain has a choice: he is struggling as he is no-man's land - he can't fight Obama as his very impressive campaigning machine is one of the best even seen (iphone anyone?); he can't keep going on that he is maverick outside of Washington that with his zanny side-kick (Saturday night live (and Mat Damon) are killing her (despite what he says)).

So he has to instill the what Republics are about and how over the last 8 years they have done bad things but there are good things also.

The reason being trying to suggest that Obama is a muslim terrrorist doesn't wash with the swing voters that he needs. It may strengthen his base but that is not good enough.

(PS - don't have to live in the US to realise what Bush/Cheney have done - it's plain for the world to see ;) )

My point is more about strategy than any political point of view. For every Obama support that goes out to vote he has to persuade his supports to do also instead of stay at home.

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8. At 4:07pm on 13 Oct 2008, JK-in-ATL wrote:
I'm a constituent of John Lewis and absolutely love him. I was probably as surprised as Lewis was when McCain randomly brought up Lewis as a close friend and advisor during the Saddleback Church event in August (Lewis pointed out that McCain had spoken to him only once in his life). Like many Americans (and in particular Southerners), I've been appalled at the viciousness of the tones of the crowds at McCain and Palin rallies (complete with shouts of "terrorist!" and "kill him!"), and to folks from the South, it does sound frighteningly like a lynch mob.

McCain (he who fought making Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday a holiday) tried to piggyback on the hard-won reputation of John Lewis, and it's nice to see it backfire on "the Maverick".

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9. At 4:11pm on 13 Oct 2008, mystjohn wrote:
I would hope that members who belong to "the biggest naval yard" int he world, have checked out McCain's public voting record on military and veterans' issues. McCain voted AGAINST the GI Bill, AGAINST funding for veterans health care and PTSD issues, in spite fo the fact that studies prove our soldiers returning from the MidEast are needing it and/or killing themselves in despair. He voted against veterans' health care IN FAVOR of continued tax breaks for the wealthy. McCain brings up his POW experience as often as he can to smokescreen his non-support of veterans. 600 others have had that same experience but do not pimp it to achieve political office. Nobody on a campaign does anything without the candidate's approval. McCain will support any tactic that feeds his ruthless ambitions, including suddenly pretending that inciting mobs to anger and hate is a bad thing. McCain is a disgrace to BOTH Republicans and Democrats, and good people everywhere.

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10. At 4:43pm on 13 Oct 2008, basementrat wrote:
Red as a Nazi flag

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11. At 10:10pm on 20 Oct 2008, marialouisa48 wrote:
I am a McCain/Palin supporter. McCain I know and trust. Obama I don't know and DO NOT trust. With Obama it's about race with his African American supporters, the others, don't know what their problem is. If a Mexican American was running for prez, I would still vote for McCain/Palin. Obama is of a questionable character to me from the research I have done. McCain I know is an all American, as well as Palin. They love this country, as I do, of that I am certain. Many people cannot see the "true" American for the smoke of racism. Yes, African Americans have become racists too. I just voted today for the one who is "more than able" to lead this country. I am not voting for skin color or charisma. I am voting for the "best man", and that man is McCain. Raza for McCain! Go McCain! Go Palin! Proud to be an American.

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