When pontificating about the upcoming 2008 general election, many pundits doesn't seriously include Sen. Clinton in any scenario to match up against Sen. John McCain for the ultimate prize in politics, commander in chief of the armed forces. Since winning West Virginia by 41 percent she still feels the force that can handily defeat McCain in November.
Personally, I felt it was her last stand, and the Democratic elite, such as John Edwards, have loudly echoed this by recently endorsing Sen. Obama. While writing consistently about an Obama/McCain election, it's only fair and balanced to accord Candidate Clinton "a what if" if she pulls off the biggest presidential heist in modern politics.
So what if she successfully takes victory out of the jaws of defeat or Obama withdraws from the presidential race?
According to polls released by Reuters/Zogby, McCain narrowly leads Clinton in a potential match-up in the November presidential elections.
If Clinton somehow beats Obama in the Democratic primaries and gains the nomination, the country will have a chance to watch senators from opposite sides of the country and political spectrum do battle later this year.
It is clear that the Democrats’ best chance to win back the White House is Obama. However, with a long, drawn-out primary season from the Democrats, there is still potential for Clinton to steal this election with her guerilla warfare race brand style and beat her rival and face off against McCain. The problem for Democrats is that Clinton has very few advantages over McCain.
She is obviously seen as softer on security than McCain. Without even knowing the two candidates, most Americans (including Democrats and independents) assume the once prisoner of war has a clear foreign policy advantage over the liberal, woman Senator from New York. Despite her campaign’s recent efforts to show her foreign policy prowess, Clinton just pales in comparison to McCain when it comes to experience working with friends and foes across the world.
Considered a steady hand in a troubled world, McCain is seen as having more knowledge about world affairs than Clinton. We’d be remiss to point out though that most Americans who are tired of the Iraq war and do not believe it is worth fighting anymore strongly support Clinton over McCain. If the situation in Iraq doesn’t handsomely improve this summer, it will heavily drag down the pro-war McCain.
When it comes to the economy, the No. 1 issue facing America today, McCain has a slight edge over Clinton. And that is why we now see her attacking his economic policies while campaigning across the nation.
“John McCain admits he doesn't understand the economy — and unfortunately he's proving it in this campaign,” Clinton told a Pennsylvania AFL-CIO union group. “After seven disastrous years of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the stakes in this election couldn't be higher and the need to change course couldn't be more urgent. But John McCain is only offering more of the same,” the New York senator said.
These criticisms from Clinton may very well be true, but voters have no reason to believe that Clinton will help the economy any more than McCain.
The only real reason one could think she would do a better job on the economy is because her husband held shop during a time of economic boon. Her plan to increase jobs by investing in United States infrastructure is appealing, but probably just more political talk than anything else.
The only thing we know for sure is that if she becomes president, taxes will increase despite her repeated statements that they will not.
McCain continues to outline his economic policy, and it becomes more conservative then many expected, although he did take some heat from right-wingers on his mortgage plan. He called for a host of measures to curb spending, cut taxes, ease gas prices, and help homeowners. And he too hit hard at Clinton on the economy.
McCain while speaking recently at Carnegie Mellon University said, “Both [Clinton and McCain] promise 'big change.’ And a trillion dollars in new taxes over the next decade would certainly fit that description.” Both senators call for a moratorium on gas during the summer is having a back lash from Warren Buffett, conservatives and moderates.
He's calling for the government to make a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax.
"The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus — taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up," McCain said.
The 18.4 cent federal gas tax and the 24.4 cent diesel tax would be eliminated from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In an interesting dig at his colleagues in Congress, McCain promised to end earmarks and corporate welfare, both seen as key economic issues in the upcoming election.
For the most part, McCain’s economic plans are vastly superior to those of Clinton’s. He will keep taxes and spending down, and use his strong, independent personality and leadership style to solve some of the other serious economic problems coming out of Washington, D.C. like pork barrel projects and corporate handouts.
Given Clinton's soaring high negatives and the fact that the public has utter distrust for her, it would be safe to say if she were to match up against McCain, we would have another Walter Mondale/Ronald Reagan style match up in this presidential season.
The clear winner no doubt would be McCain unless Clinton find's a way to disqualify him from the race before the November vote. Given the issue of whether he's a naturalized citizen of this country, we see no reason why the Clintons would not attempt to have him removed from the ballot.
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