John McCain Plays The Fear Card

By Robert Paul Reyes

Things don't look promising for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee:

*George W. Bush has the lowest ratings of any president in history since the advent of polling.

*In the past few years there have been a series of scandals involving Republican members of Congress.

*In 2004, 47 percent of Americans leaned toward the Democratic Party, with 44 percent leaning Republican - a three-point difference. Today, it's 51 to 38 in favor of the Democrats - a gap of 13 percentage points.

Statistics from Chicago Tribune/Steve Chapman

*The price of gas has never been higher. Fairly or unfairly, Americans always blame the administration for spikes at the pump.

*The Democrats have captured two Republican House seats in special elections.

*Americans are no longer buying the fiction that the surge is working.

*The picture in Afghanistan is turning ugly: The Taliban is resurgent and resorting to suicide attacks.

* "Wanted dead or alive" Osama bin Laden is still very much in the picture, releasing videos at a faster clip than the hottest pop stars.

*After 8 years of the stumbling and bumbling Bush administration, Americans are desperate for change. Obama is perceived as a "change agent", a McCain administration would be viewed as a third Bush term.

*Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman is running for president as a Libertarian. He will siphon some votes away from McCain. Ron Paul may also launch an independent run.

*The economy is in the toilet. McCain has admitted that economics is not his forte.

All those things may be true the Republican faithful say, but the long and bruising fight for the Democratic nomination has wounded Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The Republican wet dream of the Democratic battle for the nomination going all the way to the convention will never happen. I predict that before the end of June, the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, will unite behind Obama.

McCain's only hope may be for another 9/11 type terrorist attack in the homeland. Obama doesn't have extensive foreign policy experience, and in the event of a horrific terrorist attack Americans might rally around John McCain, the war hero.

McCain is already playing the "fear card", falsely painting Obama as an appeaser of terrorists. Talking with your enemy is not equivalent to appeasement. As any student of history knows, appeasement means making tangible concessions to your enemy, in the hopes that it will satiate him and keep him from going to war against weaker neighbors.

Obama is by far the most qualified candidate to lead this country in time of peace, or in the midst of a terrorist attack. Americans should reject McCain's fear mongering and elect Obama as the next president of the United States.