Today's Washington Post previews the carnage expected for Republicans on election day. The GOP once viewed McCain as their anti-Bush savior. McCain became Bush, hired his campaign staff and ran a Bush-like campaign. Now, the McCain-Bush combo could bring down once "safe" GOPers in the House and Senate:
When McCain clinched the nomination earlier this year, GOP leaders in Congress hailed him as the best possible standard-bearer because he had crafted an image independent of Bush. Leaders urged incumbents and challengers alike to lash themselves to McCain's brand.I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these "blame game" articles over the next several days. Republicans love the blame game.
Instead, the dynamics of the presidential race have created opportunities for Democrats that even they were not anticipating, particularly after the financial meltdown began in mid-September.
In Georgia, where Bush won by 17 points in 2004, Obama has cut McCain's lead roughly in half since Labor Day. At the same time, former state representative Jim Martin (D) has closed in on Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.).
In New York's 26th District, internal GOP polls show McCain trailing Obama by a narrow margin, sources said. Bush won the Buffalo-based district by 12 percentage points in 2004. The race to replace retiring Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) is considered a tossup.
In Virginia's 2nd District around Virginia Beach, Bush won in 2004 by 16 points, more than in 2000. In recent private GOP polling, McCain is ahead of Obama by two percentage points, and Rep. Thelma Drake (R) has gone from being favored to fighting for her seat.
This is the fun part -- McCain is saying he's the answer to Democratic dominance because the House and Senate are looking so bad. But, the GOP leaders in Congress are basically admitting that McCain is going to lose and they're the firewall. The final strategies of the Republican presidential candidate and the Republicans in Congress are at exact cross-purposes. They're just trashing each other:
On the stump, McCain implicitly acknowledges the GOP's pending collapse in congressional elections by suggesting a vote for him is a check against unbridled Democratic power. On Monday in Cleveland he called Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) a "dangerous threesome."And, the best thing is that they're all going to lose. Lose badly. Very badly.
House and Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are arguing that it is they, rather than McCain, who are the only check against Democrats. "Without a strong conservative leader, the Obama/Pelosi/Reid machine will steamroll a host of new taxes and left-wing social policy across the Senate Floor. There'd be an effective 'gag order' on independents and conservatives," McConnell wrote to supporters.
