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Jewish World Review
March 3, 2008
26 Adar I 5768
The general election ain't over just yet
By
Michael Goodwin
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
This will come as a shock to throngs of delirious Democrats, but the winner of the party's nomination does not automatically become President. There will be - repeat, will be - a general election. And John McCain is already showing he is going to be one tough opponent.
With their party's huge primary turnouts and record-shattering contributions, many Dems act as though the survivor of the showdown between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wins a cakewalk to the White House. There is talk of a landslide and big gains in Congress.
The prevailing sentiment is not that the GOP is weak. It's that the GOP is dead.
McCain, the aging, craggy-faced warrior, begs to differ. As if to remind swing voters he knows a thing or two about elections, he unleashed a series of hard-hitting attacks on Obama last week. If his punches didn't get Obama's attention, the Dem front-runner is deep in denial.
McCain's broadsides have covered Iraq, taxes and trade, each a key issue to many voters. The attacks had an echo of Clinton's charge Obama is not ready, a fact that may help Clinton stave off elimination in Tuesday's primaries. That, too, would benefit McCain. The longer Obama and Clinton keep fighting each other, the less time the winner will have for McCain.
By then, McCain will have started to define his opponent in the most unflattering terms. And when it comes to Iraq, he will have the help of the facts on the ground.
An illustration of how security concerns and a broad national aversion to defeat could give voters second thoughts about Democrats came from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, who's likely to be in the job when the next President takes the oath, warned against a rapid withdrawal of American troops. Both Obama and Clinton have promised just that and have mocked McCain for saying he would keep troops there 100 years if necessary.
Mullen used no names, but Dems could take no comfort in his words. "I do worry about a rapid withdrawal ... [that would] turn around the gains we have achieved and struggled to achieve and turn them around overnight," he told reporters. Asked by ABC News to define a "rapid withdrawal," Mullen said, "a withdrawal that would be so fast that it would leave us in a chaotic situation and the gains we have achieved would be lost."
The comments confirm a point I noted before, that both Clinton and Obama are vulnerable to charges their Iraq withdrawal plans are being made without any advice from the active military. Because they have accused President Bush of listening only to advice he wants to hear, they are setting themselves up for the same criticism. If one of them becomes President, he or she will take office with the top military man, Mullen, warning against keeping the withdrawal promise.
Then what? Ignore him and take the huge risk he is right? Or listen to him and break the withdrawal promise?
McCain's attacks sharpen the dilemma. After Obama said he would go back into Iraq if Al Qaeda was setting up a base there, McCain pounced. "I have some news," he said the next day. "Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It's called 'Al Qaeda in Iraq.'" He said Obama's comment was "pretty remarkable" and that our withdrawal would give Al Qaeda more than a base. "They'd be taking a country, and I'm not going to allow that to happen," McCain vowed.
That's a clear-eyed distinction of the kind Obama hasn't faced from Clinton. And it's typical of what he can expect on a daily basis from McCain. In that case, he'll be looking back on his epic battle with Clinton as the easy part.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
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