Interesting graphics at Campaign Stops:
Between the Republican McCain and the Democrats Clinton and Obama, the former is closer to the center:
Nearly lost in the blizzard of recent poll reports were the findings of a Gallup survey that the current Republican frontrunner, John McCain, might well give each of the two Democratic frontrunners a run for their money.
When Gallup asked 1,598 likely voters whom they’d back if the presidential election were held today, respondents chose Senator McCain over Barack Obama by a 50 percent to 45 percent margin, and also preferred the Arizona senator to Hillary Clinton by a modest 50 percent to 47 percent margin. [Raising McCain. Campaign Stops. January 24 2008]
Personally, I am unsure about McCain. Though he does have an environmental credential (remember the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act?), it is mixed at best while his grasp on economics is a turn off. He is also hawkish on security issues.
2 replies on “[1530] Of McCain to be the next President?”
Indeed a linear graph does a bad job at summarizing political position. But it still helps. That is even more so when the graph is based on research done by Pew.
Obama’s grasp on economics seems *largely* sound, but that is because for the most part he’s avoided talking in more than vague generalities. (When he hasn’t, he’s mostly impressed me – he showed a brilliant understanding of the effects of a cap-and-trade proposal, for instance.) However, I think McCain probably has a better grasp of the economy than Romney. Romney is the bugger telling people in Detroit that they can get their car-manufacturing jobs back. McCain is the one telling them that they need to adapt to the new economy where others have a comparative advantage in manufacturing automobiles.
I also think that linear graph does a horrid job of representing Giuliani. He is immensely socially liberal, takes supply-side economics to a retarded extreme, and is so hawkish that he almost makes “double Gitmo” Romney look pacifist. I doubt that the average American thinks placing a cloth over someone’s head and pouring water on their face isn’t torture, and I highly doubt that the average American thinks “the largest tax cut in American history” is the solution to all our economic woes.