Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barach Obama spoke at the Seagate Convention Centre in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday.
McCain aims for crucial senior vote
Obama now leads in states with many older voters.
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer/ October 14, 2008 edition
Reporter Linda Feldmann discusses Sen. John McCain's campaign strategy, leading up to Wednesday night's final presidential debate.
Washington
Now, it’s all about the seniors. In a presidential race that is marching daily – but not irreversibly – toward the election of Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain unveiled proposals Tuesday aimed foremost at benefiting older Americans hit hard by the gyrations of the stock market.
Seniors represent a critical voting bloc in states that Senator McCain has to hold onto to win the election – including Florida, Ohio, and Indiana – and that have been moving toward Senator Obama. Senior citizens are also crucial in blue states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Obama now has double-digit leads and which McCain has worked hard to sway. He announced what he calls his Pension and Family Security Plan at an event in Blue Bell, Pa.
The plan includes a reduction of the tax rate on withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s to 10 percent. McCain also repeated his proposal to suspend tax rules that require seniors to begin selling off equities when they reach age 70 1/2. Obama announced his own economic plan on Monday, including tax credits for job creation and a moratorium on home foreclosures. But it is McCain who needs a dramatic shift in momentum, and his emphasis on seniors is telling: These are voters that McCain should be winning handily, and any sense that they may be drifting away from him is a warning sign.
“The bulk of the media’s attention has been on younger voters, not older; but older are the high turnout voters,” says Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “Some feel like their concerns have not been addressed by the candidates.”
In Florida, Obama is up by an average of five points – by no means an insurmountable lead, but if McCain loses Florida, he loses the election. Pollster Brad Coker says white seniors are McCain’s strongest group in Florida, aside from registered Republicans, as of Oct. 6. And he needs them to counteract the other demographics that are leaning toward Obama. Mr. Coker, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based president of Mason-Dixon Polling, agrees that McCain needs a clear, simple plan to offer voters that he can lay out concisely.
“He needs something comprehensive and coherent that he can explain in 15 or 20 seconds,” says Coker.
In Pennsylvania, another key state with a large population of seniors, Obama now enjoys a solid double-digit lead. And the fact that McCain is doubling down on winning the support of seniors is a sign that he’s waging a battle in his own backyard.
“If he’s fighting to win seniors, he’s fighting in an area he should have already put away decisively,” says Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll, based in Lancaster, Pa.
“There’s no doubt he needs this plan, and he needs to start appealing to voters that, if we elect him, he’ll do more than just say, ‘Trust me,’” says Mr. Madonna.
The theme of the last presidential debate, to be held Wednesday night at Hofstra University on Long Island, is the economy – an opportunity for both candidates to emphasize their plans. In the last debate, McCain slipped in a major new proposal without much fanfare: a $300 billion plan for the government to buy troubled mortgages from homeowners. He repeated that plan in his speech on Tuesday, and laid out some other proposals, including a plan to reduce capital gains taxes for 2009 and 2010 and a plan to suspend the tax on unemployment insurance benefits in 2008 and 2009.
The Republicans have not completely given up on trying to take down Obama by emphasizing his past associations with people like William Ayers – a onetime radical who McCain running mate Sarah Palin calls a “domestic terrorist” – and Tony Rezko, a now-convicted felon with whom Obama once made a land deal in connection with the purchase of his Chicago home. The Republican National Committee, in an effort to help the underfunded McCain campaign, has just invested $5 million in two ads, one of which highlights Obama’s connections with Mr. Ayers and Mr. Rezko (and also William Daley, who it calls part of the “Chicago Machine”).
Last week, the agitation of crowds at McCain and Palin rallies had reached the point where voices were heard calling for violence against Obama. By Friday, McCain opted for the high road, telling a crowd in Lakeville, Minn., that Obama is “a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.” The statement was met with boos.
Wednesday’s debate represents McCain’s last chance to reach a wide swath of the American electorate. If the first two debates are any guide, chances are slim that McCain can change the trajectory of the race in his last faceoff against Obama. Perhaps the best he can do is match his rival in projecting a sense of calm, in light of the turmoil in the American economy. Polls have shown voters believe Obama won the first two debates.
Comments
2. P Jeffrey | 10.14.08
A plea for all Americans to wake up and look past the rhetoric.
McCain and Palin are demonstrating that they will be a disaster for America. They are being negative and filled with accusations, exaggerating faults and telling lies. They state flowery generalities and have not revealed what they will do in a meaningful substantive way at all. Sarah Palin is even denying that she violated a State Statute even though her own government agency declared it to be true. This is not a time to be bringing these people to the top leadership of our country. Just because they are pro-life doesn’t mean that they can govern the land and tackle the real challenges ahead.
Obama and Biden may not be perfect, but they are demonstrating a solid rationality, a maturity and an ability to think carefully before acting carelessly.
3. GWTx | 10.14.08
That’s all he’s got left…the “Archie Bunker” vote.
That’s the only reason he’s still in the race.
What’s his strategy for this week? That Obama is a space alien or what?
LOL!
4. crp | 10.14.08
I am a senior and I am in fear of McCain/Palin win. My greatest fear is of Palin should she become the vice president, let alone the president if something would happen to the 72 year old man. Her incompetence, lack of knowledge, held positions and inability to utter a coherent thought other than to spew hate is frightening to find in the 21st century in the United States.
5. Cobra | 10.14.08
Yes but what will they really be getting? In the end they have to look at that. It may benefit for a hort while but when prices keep rising, they will lose what they have gained.
6. Ron M | 10.14.08
McCain’s tax plan will benefit me greatly. I am not the person in need of help under today’s conditions although who knows next year. His economic plan is not directed at those who need the most short term assistance, those in the bottom 80% of incomes. His economic plan presented today is supposed to be a short term fix. But this is what happens when your economic advisers are lobbyists and insiders in the financial services industry. Your economic policy are not directed to benefit the country but to benefit those who the advisors represent. This policy is a confirmation of how out of touch McCain is with the problems of our times and how frightening I would find leaving the policy making of our fiscal policy in his hands.
The only ones who can favor this policy are those who are directly benefited by the policy and those who are ideologues and are oblivious to reality.
7. van | 10.14.08
All I want, people to remember all the promises that Obama has made, not one that he will keep, other than very high taxes. Also remember when this economy tanks worse than it already has under Obama’s watch, think how badly you were hoodwinked by the same group that really got us here in the first place. Remember of what you wish for, you may just get it.
Where is Hillary when we really need her?
9. DisFisCon | 10.14.08
I think that “McCain aims for crucial senior vote” might be a bit misleading. Seems like the only way that the senior vote might be crucial is if there are enough seniors in play to swing the election. McCain’s focus on the seniors might be a last ditch effort to keep his presumed impending loss in the “ran respectably” category. I don’t think that McCain’s playing for the win anymore. He’s aiming at the spread, hoping that even in defeat the Republican caucus doesn’t ride him out of town on a rail.
This is really disappointing, in some ways. McCain demonstrated a lot of potential for a decade, with his reputation for seeking out answers that were a little bit less politically motivated than most of his colleagues in the Senate. His reputation for thinking more about the good of the nation and less about the good of his state definitely uniquely qualified him to help steer the country. If he implodes in the next few weeks it will be very sad.
10. jjb | 10.14.08
hey van - curious about how the economy has tanked under obama’s oversight. he’s a senator from illinois. get it straight: the economy has tanked under BUSH’s oversight; the president? remember him? the republican, like mccain?
11. kjb | 10.14.08
I am not ready for Obama’s radical socialist form of government. His tax increases will be a disaster in this current economic climate.
I do not believe Obama has been truthful with the American people in his alliances with ACORN, Bill Ayers, and Pastor Jeremiah Wright. For all those voters enamored by Obama’s smooth talk, please wake up and see it for what it is…an end to the American dream as we know it.
12. Mark | 10.14.08
To kjb:
If Obama is not the embodiment of the American Dream than I ask who is? Rich white guys like McCain hardly represent the common man or the aspirations of ordinary folks. We’ve seen how well millionaire oilmen succeed in leading our nation after fooling us into believing that their just plain old down home folks. McCain would certainly be a continuation, not and end, but a continuation of the privileged taking care of their cronies.
13. kjb | 10.14.08
To Mark:
I too disagree with Bush in how he didn’t do a better job to curb runaway spending; but McCain has a long track record of opposing his own party on key issues. Don’t be fooled by Obama and Biden being on the side of the common man or ordinary folks; just research Obama and Biden’s voting records and that will speak volumes about them. I hope you are not a small business owner…if you are, watch out…if Obama becomes President, you’ll have to pass on the Obama tax hike to your consumers and likely lay off workers to keep your business afloat. Be an informed voter and please stop drinking the Obama kool-aid.
14. Kay Matthews | 10.15.08
I can’t believe the comments I am reading. They seem so shallow and show no comprehensive understanding of the complex problems confronting our nation. The financial crisis isn’t a finger-pointing game. Over ten years Congress (BOTH parties, thank you) has failed to act to curb the things we have all been reading or watching in the news: ceos draining their companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in trouble and excesses run up by those supposedly keeping oversight on them, etc., etc. Doesn’t anyone understand how capitalism works? Does anyone know where jobs come from other than the government? Wake up, America! Senior citizens have specific concerns that will become the concern of the younger generation in the future. But then situations are constantly evolving and don’t stay just the same.
15. Richard | 10.15.08
Has there ever been a more self serving opportunist running for President than John McCain. Get past the rhetoric and so called straight talk express and tell me one positive thing the Senator has done for middle class Americans in all his many years in the Senate. Just one mind you and I might change my mind.
16. steven | 10.15.08
I keep compairing todays economic climate to that of the late 1980’s. Federal spending out of control and the saving & loan bail out. It appears we learned nothing from the past. Free markets are one thing but with a policy of no regulation it can lead to disaster. We can continue to have the fed. goverment bail us out untill the Federal Bank fails. Wonder what the deficit wll be then?
18. josephbbl | 10.16.08
John McCain has provided one reason not to vote Republican. Again, for those of you who haven’t heard the news:
AIG gets $85 billion bailout from U.S. government.
AIG officials go on a $85K hunting trip to Europe.
AIG officials pay $44K for a Spa session in California.
These AIG officials are Republican.
Some bailout, eh?
19. Pat | 10.22.08
As an 86 year-old woman I assure you I will not vote for McCain for several reasons. First he would privatize Social security. Secondly I question the judgement of a Presidential candidate who would choose Palin as a running mate which makes a mockery of the office of Vice President Thirdly and most importantly he would prolong the eight years which have left our nation in shambles because of a war which should never been started or continued and which has weakened our standing as a world power. Lastly he’s too old to assume this position of authority.
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1. IHS | 10.14.08
John McCain will win over the seniors if he proposed the allowance of a tax-free or low-penalty conversion from a conventional to a Roth IRA. A maximum such as $100,000 for such conversions can be set. Seniors on fixed income face challenges and many have no room to cut back on expenditures to offset higher living costs. Basic necessities such as food, gasoline, home insurance, utilities, and property tax have risen much faster than increases in social security checks. The tax-free from the new Roth IRA will help a lot of needy seniors.