Victor Davis Hanson nails it, as usual:
If Obama were to win, no one would infer from the desolation he described in America, that he may well inherit an economy, in a downturn, that just grew at 3.3 in the last quarter, an unemployment rate of 5.7%, and record levels of exportation, one that did not go into recession with $140 a barrel oil, with more students in college than at any time in its history and more than any other nation in the world, with a war in Iraq nearly won, and both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein gone and replaced with constitutional governments — and Europe, whether in France, Germany, or Italy, with strong pro-American leadership.
No one would infer that after our enemies blew a 16-acre crater in New York and attacked the Pentagon — and promised lots more to come — we have not been hit since, but in contrast, al Qaeda’s leaders are either in hiding, scattered, imprisoned, or killed, with bin Laden and the tactic of suicide bombing with record low levels of support in the Middle East.
His bottom line: our enemies are winning, AK-47s are ubiquitous in our streets, our economy is in depression, and gay people can’t visit their dying partners in our hospitals. In short, “Hope and Change” has became gloom and doom and there is something for everybody from government to save us.
This message, I’ll point out, has been a loser for the Democrats – with the exception of 1992, when there was a split GOP vote allowing a Democrat to slip in under the wire. Will it work in 2008? Perhaps – and if it does, then so be it. People get the government they deserve, and if Obama wins they’ll get it good and hard.
Now the attention will turn to McCain – though the MSM will try to keep at least some of the attention on Obama through the next week. McCain’s task is difficult but also rather simple – keep pointing out that he has real plans backed by real experience, while Obama has highflying rhetoric backed by nothing. In this anti-GOP year, the only Democrat who can lose is Obama, and the only GOPer who can win is John McCain, and as of right now I don’t know which man will win, which is odd for me because, on Presidential elections, I’m usually able to pick out the winner by this time of year.
As Nevada Pundit pointed out to me earlier, Obama has given McCain plenty of opportunities to pick apart Obama’s speech and cast yet more doubt on whether Obama is in the American mainstream, and whether or not Obama’s plans are grounded in reality, or leftwing wishfull thinking. We’ll see soon if McCain sees his chance and takes them – and we’ll also see whether Obama can razzle-dazzle a majority into blindnes long enough to win in November.
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