McCain's NY promise morphs into his NJ strategy
John McCain stood at Rockefeller Center earlier this year and made a bold prediction: I will carry New York in the fall campaign, something no Republican has done since 1984.
"We're going to campaign all over this magnificent state. We're not going to give it up to anybody!" he told a cheering primary Super Tuesday crowd in February.
So when it came time to set up his New York campaign office, where did McCain put it? Times Square? Albany?
No. New Jersey.
Woodbridge, N.J., to be exact, a good 45 minutes from midtown. And it chafed some New York politicos that the grand opening of McCain's "New Jersey/New York" regional headquarters June 25 was headlined by five pols - Garden Staters all.
There's a saying in politics that the candidates' travel schedules don't lie but reveal their true strategy. In this case, so does the real estate.
For all of McCain's big-city bravado, even his most loyal supporters know it's hard to flip bluer-than-blue New York against Democrat Barack Obama. But in Jersey? They're optimistic.
"I would say right now New York is a long shot," said Rep. Peter King (R- Seaford), a longtime McCain supporter. "But we can get the benefit of the New Jersey campaign, and if the numbers pick up, you might see more in New York."
To be sure, McCain has a lot of fans upstate and on Long Island, where he thumped George W. Bush in 2000's primary. He can count on "Reagan Democrats," who carried the state for the former president in 1984.
McCain's top man here, Ed Cox, in photo at left, insists he can put the state in play. "New Yorkers like people who solve problems, and John McCain is a problem-solver," Cox said.
Craig Gordon
So far, there are few signs of a full-court McCain campaign push in New York - except for fundraising, like his recent trip to the Hamptons that netted $2-million-plus for GOP committees. But experts see slim odds of stopping Obama here.
"There's little doubt that some red states will turn blue and some blue states will turn red" this fall, said Lee Miringoff of the Marist Poll. "But it's pretty unlikely that New York would be in that mix."
New Jersey is more competitive, with McCain holding Obama to a single-digit lead in an average of recent state polls.
But a Siena Research Institute poll this month gave Obama a 13-point edge in New York - 50-37 - and others in recent weeks put Obama up by 20-plus points.
Both candidates will be on the Island for a debate Oct. 15 at Hofstra University. King said Long Islanders will see a healthy dose of McCain ads, because he'll use New York stations to reach Jersey voters.
Obama's camp has a slate of local activities planned, including a Sept. 14 rally in Mineola, which Obama isn't expected to attend. If the race did start to tighten in New York, that would probably mean it's tightening across the country - and would be a real trouble sign for Obama.
"If we lose New York, then obviously 'Game Over.' But we're not," said Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper, Obama's Long Island campaign chairman. "We certainly don't want to appear overconfident. That's the worst thing that can happen."
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Comments (3)
Mr. Obama spent 20 years hanging around racists and anti-semites(not 20 seconds-20 years!)
It took him that long to do the right thing? Does the man have much of a conscience?
1. Mr. Obama is a first-term senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name.
2. Mr. Obama voted present nearly 130 times,quite a lot for a first term Senator.
3. Mr. Obama lectures on learning a foreign language, can speak none himself.
4. Mr. Obama has never produced a single peice of scholarship,or written anything of note.
5. He earned a law degree from harvard but never practiced law.
6. He did write a book. The subject? Himself.
7. Has he ever admitted he changed his mind or was wrong about anything?
8. on Iraq, Obama has held almost every conceivable position.
9. His Pro-Life (National Right to Life) rating=
2005 0%,
2006 0%,
2007 0%
His Pro-Abortion (NARAL) rating=
2005 100%,
2006 100%,
2007 100%
What does one innocent human life mean to God( not man, but God)?
10. On Iraq, he has held almost every conceivable opinion
Padre Pio, was a very holy man and a great mystic. Every time I think I’ve read about every book I written on the man come across another one. In this particular book on him which I was looking at recently, there was a person who told a story about going to him for confession. He told about Padre Pio becoming very angry at him for voting for a socialist. Later he went back to him for confession and told him that this time he did not vote for the socialist but he couldn't bring himself to vote for other candidate either, Again Padre Pio became very angry at him
and would not grant him absolution(forgiveness of sin) From this we have to conclude
that Padre Pio considered it a sin for someone to vote for a socialist and also to opt for not voting
at all either. Another story I read about him in another book was when he went up
to a person he didn't know and had never met and confronted him about being
a communist. In other words, to Padre Pio, a person’s salvation was not exclusionary from
one’s political considerations and what political party you belonged to or voted for (if the moral positions of such contradicted Christian teaching) could put your soul in jeopardy. And what about being an accessory to another’s sin? If a politician has made clear his pro-abortion position and I vote for him and once he gets into office he carries through with his philosophy am I not guilty of aiding and abetting?
(The name of the book from which I got the Padre Pio story was "Stories of Padre Pio" by Katharina Tangari published by TAN books,Rockford Illinois translated from the Italian "Il Messaggio di Padre Pio". Madame Tagari knw Padre Pio for many, many years and was a "spiritual daughter" of him
Obama’s voting record on abortion legislation gives every indication that as president he would support the Supreme Court’s decisions that have made the procedure legal in most cases. Last August he voted against a proposal to codify a Bush administration policy that gives states the option of providing medical insurance to unborn children under the State Children's Health Insurance program. He also voted “no” on a 2006 bill to prohibit the transportation of a minor girl across state lines to obtain an abortion, if this would circumvent parental consent or notification laws in her home state.
We will have to ANWER TO GOD for our decisions people.
Luckily, most of the electorate lives on the earth and makes rational decisions, unlike Grej.
Actually Grej, Obama practiced law a few years with a civil rights firm in Chicago. Though he did nothing of note there. Also, he did not vote present in the US Senate but in the Illinois state senate. Get your negative facts right if you want credibility.