Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Winning California for McCain

Tonight, I went to the volunteer kickoff event for the McCain campaign in San Mateo County. There were about 300 volunteers who attended, and many of them had not been involved in the campaign previously. As one of the speakers joked, "There are so many people here it looks like a Democratic Rally." It shows you that the excitement about the McCain-Palin ticket carrying across the country has even reached the Bay Area.

I am really curious to know how close the race in California is. All the California polls I've seen are pre-convention. (If any has seen recent California polls, please let me know.) I heard that a recent internal Republican poll put Obama's lead in California at about 5%. Honestly, I would be surprised if it is that close, but I do think it could be single digits. And that means McCain is within striking distance.

The bottom-line for those living in California: Don't be afraid about wearing the McCain pin or putting a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on your car or putting up a yard sign. There are more McCain voters in California than you realize. McCain is definitely the type of Republican who can do well in California and maybe even win the state. And get involved with campaign! Any resources that the Obama campaign has to put in to shoring up support in California are resources that he cannot spend in swing states like Ohio, Florida, or Pennsylvania.

The speakers also spoke a little bit about ways to talk with undecided voters. The number one thing is to explain why you specifically support McCain. You may not know every issue, but you should have one or two specific reasons why you support McCain. And don't be afraid to draw contrasts with Obama, especially as it relates to the reasons why you support McCain.

The other thing that may help is to visit some of the conservative blogs which quickly respond to what is going on in the news to give you ammo when the Democrats attack McCain or Palin. Some good sites to go to are McCain Report, The Weekly Standard, and the National Review Corner. And of course, check back here regularly as we offer our opinion on why the McCain-Palin ticket is best for the US.

2 comments:

Olivejenny said...

Cameron,

Great article and I'm so glad to hear about your experience! I have a good friend who lives in CA and supports McCain ... she'll be thrilled to read about what you learned! And just the whole 'vibe' of the experience! Woo Hoo!

She has remarked to me more than once that she's sure CA will go to Obama. I reminded her that CA has had a couple very famous Republican Governors! She's an artist living in Malibu ... oh, she also was a Vietnam War protester in her youth and is now one of the most fervent McCain supporters I know.

It's close in OR, too! And I have another friend supporting McCain in WA ... she helped organize a youth rally for McCain supporters a little over a month ago and they had over 1000 young people come out for the event! Sheesh, I didn't even know there were 1000 young people in the entire state who would be willing to vote for a Republican!

Way to go, West Coast! Woo Hoo! Keep up the great work!

The Vegas Art Guy said...

And if the race in CA is close then the democrats are going to have to expend energy and more importantly money to hang on to the state, money that could be spent elsewhere. It also looks like McCain is picking up steam here in the Silver State, we could go GOP again in November...