McCain, Make Nice with Hillary

Note: Today I'm using the column from my national blog (http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com/) but the points made have great applicability to the state of Pennsylvania.

John McCain needs to go after the Hillary Clinton supporters in much the same way that a wolf would a lamb chop. John is a sharp individual and he has many bright people around him (like Rick Davis, Patrick Hynes, and Carly Fiorina), and they can see that a big chunk of the Hillary voters, perhaps as many as one-third, are ready to go to McCain in the general election.

Mrs. Clinton has said nice things about McCain (and so has Bill), including the fact that, compared to Obama (who has a speech he delivered in 2002), he has "a lifetime of experience." Husband Bill said that McCain has done everything conceivable for his country "other than give his life."

It's time for McCain to reciprocate -- and make positive statements about Hillary Clinton as a Senator. That might disconcert charter members of "the vast right-wing conspiracy," but it would make a lot of sense.

On the other hand, McCain should restrict positive comments about Obama to the minimum possible. Obama is ready to be orator-in-chief but not commander-in-chief.

The Reagan Democrats of yesteryear (pro-life, pro-guns, pro-military) are voting for Mrs. Clinton, but iwthout enthusiasm. The more they find out about Obama -- everything from his support of live-birth-abortion to his rapt adoration of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his support of the Chicago Democratic machine -- the less likely they will be to vote for him.

In short, John McCain, make nice with Hillary Clinton. It won't save her campaign, which now looks like a death-march, but it will attract millions of Hillary-ites.

Note: Click on the following link to an important article on how Barack Obama's (Democratic) poll numbers are up and Hillary Clinton's money numbers are way down.http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/04/hillarys_wrong_numbers_obama_p.html

JOHN MCCAIN 2008 LAUNCHES NEW WEB AD: "SACRIFICE"

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released a new web ad. The ad, entitled "Sacrifice," details how John McCain, like so many Americans who have answered our Nation's call in combat, understands that glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely, and who rely on you in return.

"Sacrifice" will appear on national news and information websites.

VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Ixt-mh3qM; http://www.johnmccain.com/service/day4_webvideo.htm
Script For "Sacrifice" (1:40-Web)

ANNCR: In the chaos, destruction and shock of war, soldiers are bound by duty and military discipline to endure and overcome.
Their duty and loyalty belong to their country.
They find solace in their faith in God.
But their strongest loyalty, the bond that cannot break, is to the cause that is theirs alone -- each other.
It is through loyalty to comrades in arms that they begin to understand that to love one's country is to love one's countrymen, and to serve the national ideal that commenced their personal transformation.
When war is over, they might have the largest but not exclusive claim on the success of their nation's cause and seldom share in the blame for its failure.
But their claim is shorn of all romance, all nostalgia for the suffering with which it was won.
From that crucible they have but one prize, one honor: that they had withstood the savagery and losses of war and were found worthy by the men who stood with them.
This is the truth of war, of honor and courage.
Before John McCain went to war its meaning was obscure to him, hidden in the spare language of men who had gone to war before him and been changed forever by the experience.
The Naval Academy, with its inanimate and living memorials to fidelity and valor, tried to teach him this truth.
But he had interpreted the lesson, as he had interpreted his father's example, within the limits of his vanity.
He thought glory was the object of war, and all glory was self-glory.
No more.
For he learned the truth: there are greater pursuits than self-seeking.
Glory is not a conceit.
It is not a decoration for valor.
It is not a prize for being the strongest, the most clever, or the boldest.
Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to the cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely, and who rely on you in return.
No misfortune, no injury, no humiliation can destroy it.