An Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll sums up the presidential election like this:
"Old guy vs change: McCain, Obama images take shape"
Now more than ever, it's the old guy against the agent of change.
Ask people to blurt out their first words about the two presidential candidates and one in five say "change" or "outsider" for Barack Obama and "old" for John McCain, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Monday. Those are not only the top responses for each man but the ones used most often since January, when fewer than one in 10 volunteered those descriptions.
Four months from Election Day, the survey underscores that people see quality and question marks in both contenders as they struggle to control their images. Lack of experience is the next most frequently offered view of Obama, 46, the Democrat who came to the Senate from Illinois less than four years ago; for McCain, 71, the Republican senator from Arizona and Vietnam prisoner of war, it's his military service.
"My husband and I are about the same age as McCain, and I don't think we'd be in a position to take this country in the direction it needs to go," said Rosemary Bates, 65, of Barre, Vt., an Obama supporter. "We've grown up in a different era. Something is not working and it needs to be changed."
Obama is seen as warmer and more empathetic, McCain stronger and tougher. When people are asked whether specific words and phrases apply to each man, the Democrat does 12 percentage points better for caring about "people like you" and is 11 points more likable. McCain has a 24-point edge as a military leader and is 9 points more decisive.
For all the discussion about racism being a factor in this election, it appears that this election will be more about ageism, an acceptable form of bigotry in our society.
McCain is old. Ha ha ha. The jokes about his age never stop. It seems that lazy late night comedians have gone to their files and pulled out the Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole jokes and simply inserted McCain's name.
Maverick McCain, previously the Left's favorite Republican, has suddenly turned into a doddering old coot, on the verge of senility.
Obama is inexperienced but he's young, relatively speaking. Young is good. He's about change and we need change.
Are voters really ready to trade some vague notion of change for their safety?
Gee, we are at a war with an enemy that wants to destroy us here at home and abroad, but McCain is old and Obama is so youthful.
Sure, McCain is tough; and terrorists and tyrants around the world are hoping for an Obama victory. So what?
Who cares about protecting the homeland with a strong defense, when we can have change, courtesy of the baby-faced, albeit middle-aged, Obama? That old guy McCain can't deliver what we want: Change.
The fact that McCain has a 24-point edge as a military leader and yet people are rejecting the old guy shows just how much things have changed in the past seven years.
Apparently, people feel very safe. Maybe that's President Bush's fault. His administration has obviously been too successful at enacting policies that have prevented another massive attack on America, like 9/11.
Remember the Alamo! Remember the Maine!
Remember 9/11! Strike that last one.
Clearly, people have forgotten what happened on 9/11. It's official. We prefer warm and fuzzy to strong and tough. Remember the World Trade Center and what happened there? Not really.
Yes, that's history, ancient history. Not as old as McCain, but it's old. It's over.
Now that the likable "apple pie" Obama is wearing a flag pin in his lapel, all is well.
He really is about change. He changed his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He changed his stance on patriotism and flag pins. He now says he'll reject public financing for his campaign. He has changed his plans for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. (On the last example, Obama denies that he's changed. He's "refined" his position.)
I guess Obama really has established himself as the agent of change (or refinement as the case may be).
And old man McCain, the faded old war hero, is being trashed as mentally unstable because of his time as a P.O.W.
Of course, the Left thanks him for his service, but he's a time bomb. Veterans like McCain aren't fit to be commander-in-chief. His service to the country gives him a warrior's perspective on national security and solving international crises. We can't have that.
Forget that stuff Obama said in private at that fundraiser where he called blue-collar hard-working Americans bitter, clinging to their guns and their Bibles and their prejudices. Forget his allegiance to his hate-America pastor. Forget his homegrown terrorist buddy William Ayers. Forget Tony Rezko. Forget Wesley Clark, too. Forget Obama's grandmother, the "typical white woman." No, remember her, but forget that Obama called her a "typical white woman."
He's changed since then.
Longtime Democratic consultant Doug Schoen said that for many voters questions about Obama’s identity, faith and patriotism are metaphors for a broader doubt and uncertainty about somebody who, until four years ago, was an unknown even in much of the political community.
“It's Obama against Obama—and Obama’s narrowly winning,’ Schoen said. “He’s only five points ahead running against a shadow when he should be up 15.”
“If he's acceptable, he's president. It’s that simple.”
War hero, lifelong public servant McCain is a shadow.
Very nice.
A little apple pie here, add a blitzkrieg of Obama commercials where he's shown being embraced, literally, by white people, and toss in a flag pin on his lapel.
That's the recipe to be president. That's the plan for victory over the old guy.
That's acceptable to Americans?
Really?
That has to be a joke. Tell me it's a joke.
If change means weakening America, I don't want it.
I want the old guy.
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