Posted by
Mike on Sunday, October 12, 2008 5:53:16 PM
By voting in favor of the Senate bailout proposal, McCain may have unwittingly handed the election to Obama on a silver platter. If so, this will undoubtedly mark the demise of neo-conservatism in America. The neo-cons tend to be extreme pessimists and skeptics which goes back to their origins in the radicalism of the Left. As a social movement, they typify agnosticism in the same way that Communists typify atheism. They therefore tend to be supportive of Judeo-Christian social issues of life and family. On foreign policy, they differ from the pragmatic realists in favoring pre-emptive intervention in keeping with the Trotskyite notion of continuous revolution, only their utopian goal is world capitalism rather than socialism. McCain, in keeping with his maverick image, leans towards the neo-cons so far in his choice of campaign leadership and foreign policy issues, but is open to reason from the more traditional Republicans like Mitt Romney.
In terms of the so-called Bradley effect, I have some first hand experience in that I voted for Tom Bradley when he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 1973, and I met him personally in Los Angeles before he ran for governor of California in 1982. He was a very charming, likable individual. It is a mistake to assume that people who said to pollsters that they were going to vote for Bradley for governor, and then voted for his opponent George Deukmejian, were lying to the pollsters. Bradley had strong character and good communication skills. Most people would have a good first impression of him and would want to support him politically. However, voting is a serious responsibility and a lot depends on the issues. Bradley ran as a pro-choice candidate whereas Deukmejian was pro-life. Bradley had a reputation for spending as Mayor, whereas Deukmejian was known to be fiscally conservative. Deukmejian was also the state's Attorney General, which in those days was seen as a pathway to the governor's mansion. Also, we cannot rule out human error on the part of the pollsters.
In the 2008 election, we cannot blame voters for being racist if the polls show beforehand that they would likely vote for Bradley and then they turn around and vote for McCain.