Posted on 11/05/2008 7:58:38 AM PST by publius_in_abq
Let's begin the soul-searching. A month ago, I agreed with most pundits that McCain was the only candidate who had a chance to make this race close. I am beginning to doubt this now. McCain barely won his own state of AZ, and lost Iowa (due to ethanol subsidy opposition) and neighboring SW homestates of CO and NM, and barely won TX (12% spread!) and GA (5%). McCain also lost Ohio and FL soundly and was drubbed in PA.
I was deeply disappointed in Palin's debate with Biden (gave her a B-) and her interview with Couric was cringe-inducing (couldn't name a single magazine she reads, and over the course of weeks couldn't come up with one decent answer as to how living next to Russia gives her foreign policy experience). But I still don't think she was the drag on this ticket. She is inexperienced in terms of the national scene. But she was the fighter on the team, while McCain was less so. So I am still unsure...who was the drag on the ticket? Or would no one have fared better than these two against BO?
The Republican brain-trust better re-think that position. A couple more presidential election cycles like this last one & there might not be a Republican party.
My vote was an anti-Obama vote...and I’m not afraid to admit it. I can’t get very excited about a “across the aisle” candidate. I want someone who WON’T reach across the aisle. Their were two drags on this ticket...the fact that Bush is a republican( and people somehow believe he is to blame for the economy) and McCain.
Palin wasn’t the problem. McCain was the wrong person at the top of the ticket. We needed a Washington outsider to blunt the connections to Bush. When they ran those “I voted with Bush 90% of the time” ads against McCain it was not very helpful. <-—understatement alert
That said, McCain tried hard and we had the pleasure of discovering Sarah Palin who could conceivably be President in 2012.
BINGO! Yes the press picked our candidate. The press picked their candidate. The press hand carried Obama to the White House. Now is the time to do something about it. Lets attack their advertisers. There was a poll that stated 7 to 1 that the public believes that the press is biased. My 87 year old mother saw it with Katie Couric interviewing Sarah. Now if an 87 year old woman can see it why can’t the rest of America see it. LETS TO SOMETHING!
McCain and the RNC were not pro-active on the issues.
They all saw the economic downturn coming and should have used it before October. The fact of Democratic complicity would not have been just brushed off a “blame laying”.
The press and Chris Matthews will be taking a vacation from doom and gloom and all we had to do was elect a Marxist Democrat. It was so worth it, kids!
Sorry General Petraeus, your services will no longer be required...we gots us a peace-loving advocate of Hope and Change.
It's CHICKEN and WAFFLES for everyone!!!
The drag was not a person, issue or event. these are all secondary. the drag was campaign finance reform and McCain’s stubborn selfish position on campaign spending. If you were to double McCain’s expenditures on GOTV, issue ads, pavement pounders and campaign presence - still keeping McCain at a financial disadvantage to Obama, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia would have gone differently. Probably would have coattailed a few legislators with him. Add Private organization issue adds lost by McCain/Feingold - and it is clear. double McCains campaign spending in the last few months and double issue ads and the idiotic punditry would be chatting now about how McCain’s issue positions were what the american people really wanted, despite the massive turnout. McCain stood in front of the claymore he set when he linked up with Feingold and took out several friendlies with him.
Me, too. I was planning to sit this one out until McC brought Palin on board.
So were a lot of evangelicals and true conservatives.
Sarah brought life and vibrancy into the campaign. Anyone who saw her in person realizes she is a truly charismatic person.
Without her, McCain would have lost many more states than he did.
IMO the real reason that we didn’t win was us, not them.
The RNC, current or past presidents or conservative talk radio did not get behind the republican unless, as an example, all 10 criteria are met - this is a direct paraphrase from Limbaugh. McCain did not meet all ten requirements, thus we got beat by a competitor that did. We all know that the Clintons HATE obama, but they did stump for them. We need to be behind our candidate, just as ALL of the dems are behind theirs - PERIOD. In reality we didn’t lose by all that much, imagine what would have happened if the RNC REALLY got behind the McCain/Palin ticket....
In football when the defense is stopping the run up the middle don’t you change your game plan at half-time? I know I start hitting them with short screens in the flats and runs to the outside holes along with some stunts by the O-line on the second level (LB’s) making them ineffective.
The RNC needs to draft the youth movement like the dems do.
Playing a little fast and loose with the facts, aren't ya? McCain carried AZ by 9% in a state that is trending blue with a HUGE Hispanic population. That's a decisive win. And, yes, he lost Ohio and Florida, but he wasn't defeated "soundly."
was it schmidt that decided mccain shouldn’t talk about wright?
I'd say Palin didn't bring in votes. She only exchanged them. Palin brought the so-called "base" back in, while chasing away the independents/moderates who gave McCain his win. I know independent voters who planned to vote for McCain and didn't due to Palin.
I've reached the conclusion that the "base" is not fiscally conservative at all. They're only conservative on social issues, I presume. Palin was the reason I almost didn't vote at all. (She is not a fiscal conservative, plus she turned the GOP feminist overnight, and I know other Republicans who have the same opinion.) I had to drag myself to the polls and begrudgingly pull the lever for McCain.
turns out according to exit polls.. that palin boosted mccain by 4% of the people who thought she mattered..
I believe we need to have a HUGE GOTV effort for 2012 in...
California.
Think about it. There are myriad ways for conservatives to win a national election without California. There is NO way for a democrat to win without California. If we can turn California red, it's game, set, match.
You can’t figure out the right path without looking at the wrong turns. If you don’t learn from your mistakes...you will repeat them. You have to discuss the wrong turns to learn what NOT to do again.
“Think about it. There are myriad ways for conservatives to win a national election without California. There is NO way for a democrat to win without California. If we can turn California red, it’s game, set, match. “
That would be a coup. But stranger things have happened. Ten years ago the idea of Virginia having two Democrat senators, a Dem gov, and going Dem in a general would have been unthinkable. And California does have a history with the party. Two Republican presidents in the last 40 years were from Cali.
As much as we laughed at it at the time, it appears that Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy was not a waste of resources. They did expand the playing field. Lets try to do the same.
Well, I know it’s hard to embrace, but you’re in the minority. Palin rallied the conservative base. The GOP/McCain was able to get 48% of the vote because of her, in part. If you look at the rallies, the attention they drew, it was because of her; not McCain. McCain’s just another centrist among a party full of centrists. He’s not conservative and neither is the GOP. No, Palin DID bring in votes. Just not the Independents. And that doesn’t mean her place on the ticket was the cause of that. I believe the cause was because the GOP/McCain provided nothing to vote FOR.
Yep, that’s the guy. He set up so many things they COULDN’T talk about that there wasn’t much left.
He and Salter set up the suspension of the campaign with no end game in sight. So McCain goes to DC with nothing to say, the ground game gets suspended, even some staffers were laid off for a few days.
That moron had no clue how to run a campaign.
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