Republicans See Hope In Obama vs. McCain
24 May 2008 2:00 pm by Taylor Marsh
Guest post by Scan
Everyone knows that Barack Obama is one of the great purveyors of hope. And wouldn’t you know it…thanks to Obama, a different kind of hope has spread to the Republicans.
Must-read piece from Politico:
It sounds crazy at first. Amid dire reports about the toxic political environment for Republican candidates and the challenges facing John McCain, many top GOP strategists believe he can defeat Barack Obama — and by a margin exceeding President Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004.
…The contours of the electoral map, combined with McCain’s unique strengths and the nature of Obama’s possible vulnerabilities, have led to a cautious and muted optimism that McCain could actually surpass Bush’s 35-electoral-vote victory in 2004. Though they expect he would finish far closer to Obama in the popular vote, the thinking is that he could win by as many 50 electoral votes.
You’ve got to hand it to the Republicans…they were handed a sorry lot of candidates and managed to pick the only one with a shot at winning.
Among the 10 strategists interviewed by Politico for this story, there was near-uniform belief that had any other Republican been nominated, the party’s prospects in November would be nil. “No disrespect to the other candidates,” said GOP pollster Glen Bolger, “but if anyone else had been nominated we’d be toast.”
Republicans get it: Elections are about winning.
Choose wisely, superdelegates.
