Sherlock Schieffer Strikes Again on 2008

Can John McCain land enough "right hand punches" to "satisfy conservatives," and how is the 2008 presidential race unfolding? These are two of the topics raised on Wednesday’s "Early Show" in the "Capitol Bob" segment with Bob Schieffer. During the segment, Schieffer came to the obvious conclusion that the Democrat nominee will either be Hillary Clinton or someone else, and the Republican nominee will either be John McCain or someone else. However, co-host Hannah Storm alluded to one of Senator McCain’s weaknesses and humorously opined:

"Alright, we'll see if he's [McCain] able to throw enough right-hand punches in that race to satisfy the conservatives, right."

McCain can throw as many "right hand punches" as he would like, however his record will determine how many of those punches actually land. Conservatives will not be looking for someone who talks like a conservative; they’ll be looking for someone who acts like one.

Just eight days after the 2006 midterm elections, CBS turned its attention to presidential politics in 2008. Bob Schieffer listed a slew of potential candidates from both parties, but maintained that Clinton and McCain were the current frontrunners for their respective Party nominations. But, Schieffer sees the races unfolding thusly:

"I think what this is going to come down to on both sides, Hannah, on the Democratic side you're going to have Hillary Clinton and all of the others. One of all of the others will emerge as an alternative to her and either Hillary Clinton or that person will get the Democratic nomination. Much the same on the Republican side, John McCain and all the others one of all the others will emerge as the front-runner to challenge McCain. Either McCain or that person will get the Republican nomination."

What would have been interesting is if Schieffer had broken the race down into what candidates are getting organized in various states, which candidates have a built an infrastructure to run nationwide and would therefore be the most likely to become the alternative to the respective front runners, rather than stating the uninsightful conclusion that either the frontrunners will win or someone else will.

But, maybe Schieffer can’t help himself as he has a habit of stating the obvious. On May 9, 2000, he made a similar observation:

"This is going to be an interesting election I think. It’s going to be an election where Democrats will tend to vote for the Democrats, Republicans will tend to vote for the Republican and I think right now it’s really too early to say what these independents are going to do."