What do think is your candidate's biggest weakness?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I don't really have a dog in this race (I prefer the two demdogs to the gopdog obviously). At least the primaries in the '60's and '70's had candidates that I could easily cheer for.

But for the three still in the running:

1. McCain; the fact that's he's a member of the same party as the unpopular incumbent (quite how much that hurts I don't think we know yet), certain past ethical issues, the fact that he can get angry quickly. And there are some things that might be weaknesses but might not (or might be balanced out by something else). His age is one of those things, his likely lack of appeal to Bush's new voters in 2004 is another. I don't think that Iraq will be quite the problem for him as some assume (except insofar as it ties into the first point).

2. Obama; his tan is just a little bit too dark for a lot of people (read: old people especially), he has a "foreign" name, his cronies seem to have decided to scream "racism" at all criticism (this is actually far, far worse than the first two points), he has a disturbing lack of appeal to the traditional working class (both metropolitan AND non-metropolitan), he has a disturbing lack of appeal to Hispanics and his campaign has blown two very, very good chances to lock up the nomination. To this we can add the usual stuff about lack of experience (but see McCain's age on that), his windish rhetoric (which is increasingly irritating... but perhaps I'm in a minority on that), and a general perception that he's a bit weak on the policy front. In addition to that he'd be damaged a great deal if his image gets tarnished even a little. How much of a weakness that actually is depends entirely on how many skeletons there be out there.

3. Clinton; she is very, very, very polarising and has an absurdly negative image (the two are just different sides of the same coin really). This is the main problem and it dwarfs all others. She may also have problems with black turnout and the record of her husband in office is something of a double-edged sword. Her campaign has also demonstrated a certain level of incompetence at times.