Looking For A Wedge

In many senses Democratic Presidential Hopeful and Illinois Senator Barack Obama has his wedge issue, or wedge issues as the case may be. Perpetually he has used to the low approval ratings for President George W. Bush as a means to drive a stake into the Republican and Conservative base in order to chip off pieces of that support. Trying to label his principle rival, Arizona Senator John McCain as running for President Bush's third term is a natural extension of that tactic, hoping that, if it were to stick, that it would win him more disaffected voters.

In some senses it has worked, groups like Republicans for Obama have come forth to support him and he has enjoyed support from a number of identified GOP, such as former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chaffee or the grand daughter of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But to this day Senator McCain has had a hard time locking into his wedge issue. He's tried playing the experience card with really only a little success, failing to bite into the polls in a serious way. He tried tying Senator Obama to former President Jimmy Carter, saying that the Illinois Senator is running his second term, hoping to invoke the memory of his presidency with those who remember it and found themselves opposed to it. Still it had limited appeal, the memory of the Carter presidency either distant in the minds of voters or thought of by students of political history, especially with a large number of voters either too young to remember his administration or not born while he was in office.

There he has found little to actually use as a wedge issue and with that it has been hard for his campaign to actually excite his voters or draw them in.