GOP sees Obama mired in base

[NJSecularist]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080526/NATION/469428595/-1/RSS_NATION_POLITICS

Sen. Barack Obama is close to clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, but he faces trouble on several fronts in the general election with blue-collar workers and other parts of the electorate who question his lack of experience, foreign-policy judgment and social liberalism.

Fewer than a few dozen delegate votes away from making history as the first black to win the nomination of a major party, the freshman senator is also showing signs of weakness among white voters in Midwestern and Southern battleground states, including Ohio and Florida, which Democrats must carry if they are to win the White House.

A senior Republican official in Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign said the party's internal polls show Mr. Obama is having trouble reaching outside of his base of blacks, young adults and college-educated voters.

"We're seeing that in state after state Obama has trouble drawing beyond his own base. His coalition has been secular liberals, young people and blacks. That's proven to be enough in the Democratic primaries, but he's going to have to go beyond that to win the general election," said Frank Donatelli, the McCain campaign's chief liaison at the Republican National Committee.


"He's done poorly in the last two months in every contest he's run outside of those areas. He's clearly not the candidate he was in February and March when he won a dozen primaries in a row," said Mr. Donatelli, who was President Reagan's White House political director.

The results of matchups between the two prospective nominees in a Quinnipiac University poll in several swing states were similar to the RNC's internal poll findings, he said.

If the media had done their job and vetted Obama before March, he'd be back in the Senate by now working on an actual resume. Instead they told the American people fairy tales about Obama's record up until that point. By the time the American people got to know the real Obama, it was too late. His base now only consists of latte liberals, blacks and young people. His base is McGovern-esque. That is not a winning electoral coalition. He'll lose Ohio due to his problems in Appalachia. He'll lose Florida because he disenfranchised millions of voters in that state. He stands no chance in other big states like Virginia and North Carolina. He won't win any Southern states. Instead of expanding our electoral map due to the sorry shape of the GOP, Obama is contracting it. He is our worst general election candidate since Dukakis, and he may even give McGovern a run for his money. Another 4 years of GOP rule is going to be hard to take.