McCain trying to knock out Obama so he can face Clinton

[maximusveritas]

Interesting post by Jonathan Chait:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/02/14/mccain-aiding-clinton.aspx

I noted yesterday that it's odd McCain would be attacking Obama for lacking specifics, when McCain is far vaguer and more ill-informed than Obama. It's even odder that McCain's campaign is jumping into the question of which Democrat came out with which stimulus plan first. I expected MCain to go after Obama, I just thought it would be on grounds of being a liberal liberal liberal peacenik.

Could the answer be that... McCain's goal is not to hurt Obama in the general election but to hurt him in the primary? Every poll now shows Obama performing better than Clinton against McCain. On average, he does five and a half points better than her, which is a very significant margin.

This makes quite a bit of sense. The Colorado poll yesterday showed Obama beating McCain by 14 points, while Clinton lost to McCain by 7 points. If I'm McCain looking at those numbers, I'd want to start getting involved in the Democratic primary to make sure Clinton is the Democratic nominee, not Obama.

[Az_lefty]

1. yes, it's becoming very clear that Obama can beat McCain...

Hillary can't for several reasons.

[Hepburn]

2. Exactly....

...and the Repukes are hoping to hell and back that the Dem nominee will be Hillary cuz McInsane can beat her...but he cannot beat Obama.

JMHO

[bowens43]

3. The republicans have bben pushing

Hillary as candidate for a few years because of this. There is no Democrat less likely to win the general election then Hillary.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Aye!

I other words, Obama is being pounced on by both Hillary and McCain--the ideological twins! How Ironic! :rofl:

[maximusveritas]

5. And Bush has been doing the same thing

That's something Chait doesn't touch on, but it looks like this is definitely a strategy coordinated among the top Republicans.

[AtomicKitten]

6. he can spank both of them

with one hand tied behind his back