Posted on 12/12/2008 7:38:25 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe reflects in an interview: "We went through as rigorous a primary as we've ever seen in our country's history, I think, and there's no doubt that made us a stronger general election candidate. A lot of our dirty laundry was aired, and we had practice in testing a campaign...because we had been through 54 primaries and caucuses, and run the gauntlet. McCain hadn't done that."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
No.
It’s the economy, stupid...
Single women elected Obama.
No. Lazy slobs looking for a government handout elected Obama.
No, uninformed, uneducated voters elected Barak Houssein Obama - silly question.
Next.
Primary testing and prep had nothing to do with either one of their general races. McCain failed to use the summer to build the macro-case against Obama (Chicago connections, Acorn etc.) and then flubbed the September financial crisis. That, plus Obama massively outspending McCain and the MSM not vetting Obama, McCain was doomed to loose.
many conservatives stayed home.
Exactly. If this economic tsunami didn't happen McCain could have won easily.
Republicans put up an awful candidate who ran an awful campaign. I blame Rush.
B.S.
The “centrists” McCain courted shunned him,.
...the liberal MSM elected Obambi by not vetting him and refusing to allow anyone else too by lies and using the race card...it can’t be any clearer
qft
The MSM put Obama up against McCain and made sure the 0ne won.
Palin didn’t have 54 primaries and look at the bump she gave to the ticket.
I don’t see how it’s Rush’s fault that the Republicans put up an awful candidate who ran an awful campaign.
The main point of the “Operation Chaos” was to get hillary to win the primaries. As bad as she would is, she is still not as far left as obama, she can’t play the “race card” when she screws up, and...she is a natural born American citizen.
Operation Chaos succeeded in defeating Hillary. That was the goal. Insofar as Operation Chaos failed to defeat Obama as well (by pitting her vs. him), the two were smart enough to sort out their difference behind the scene before destroying each other in the final chapter of the primary.
Yes, Hillary might have lost to McCain had not Operation Chaos replaced her. We don’t know that, and McCain contributed greatly to defeating himself. He would have done far worse if not for Palin joining the ticket. Recall the anti-McCain “I’m never ever going to vote for him” hysteria* on FR when he won the nomination, which subsided only when he chose the perfect conservative POTUS candidate for VP.
(* - yours truly included.)
Here’s the deal:
Bush took a pounding for 8 long years and never bothered to respond and fight for the truth. He let Libby hang out to dry, as a case in point.
The MSM, Democrats, and liberals bashed Bush 24/7 for everything. The Bush administration chose not to fight for the truth and thought his silence was great bipartisanship and “above the fray”.
Bush took the country to war, loved the troops, and abandoned his leadership post to keep up support for the effort with the rest of the country.
As a result of all this, and the financial bailout calamity weeks before the election, the stars were all aligned to vote against Bush and for...anyone!
Obama with his billion dollar campaign of illegal money was able to show himself as passable. Coupled with the MSM’s help (they’re worth up to 15 points in a national election) and it didn’t matter. Mickey Mouse with a “D” after his name would have won.
McCain caused the election of Obama. Although, I still believe ‘OC’ was a mistake.
No, Peggy the Moocher elected Obama.
The public being misinformed about the cause of the economic crisis (subprime meltdown) elected Obama.
I am in 100% agreement with your take. Blame whoever you want but the bottom line is people recognized an opportunity to get freebies, from welfare recipients to our beloved police and firefighters who have discovered that if they vote Democrat they can retire at age 50 with full pay and benefits.
You’re right.
The women I know of that voted for 0bama did so because
“he’ll take care of me and keep abortion guilt-free”.
Well, they won’t actually tell you that, but they can’t provide and back up any other reason for their vote.
He did.
Let's not make Bush out to be a victim in all this. He has consistently betrayed conservative principles since at least 2004 and, with his bailout stunt today, probably put the final nail in the coffin of the Republican Party. He makes McCain look like Reagan at this point and that's saying something.
that is also true. mccain didn’t just lose 1 or 2 states compared to Bush.
The last person Rush wanted to see run for President was McCain. Don’t see how he can be blamed.
Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again...Palin/Jindal 2012.
The media ‘chose’ Obama and the sheeple just followed along.........
McCain became the nominee because he was the only candidate on the party’s left. Too many candidates on the right of the ticket split the larger conservative vote, and consequently lost entirely. It’s not that McCain got a free ride, it’s that his conservative opponents split the vote, leaving the less popular candidate to win.
Gee you guys. Sarcasm. Pretty obvious in context isn’t it?
Must. Have. Coffee.
Yes I agree and also the MSM was the most kind to McCain on his way to the nomination.
The problem with that theory is we just witnessed John McCain’s SECOND failed national campaign.
Remember McCain ran a lousy campaign in 2000, and lost the primaries in that year as a direct result.
McCain then blamed ‘lobbyists’ and gave us Campaign Finance Reform.
McCain also blamed the NRA, and gave us the ‘gun show’ legislation.
McCain also blamed George W Bush, and voted against the ‘Bush’ tax cuts, because they were the ‘Bush’ tax cuts.
And McCain spent the seven years between losing the primaries and winning this years nomination by default (thanks again Mikey Huckabee’ attacking those he blamed the most for his ‘loss’ in 2000...Conservatives.
John McCain has never been an astute politician. He’s never been a Conservative, nor a Liberal for that matter. His political actions are not linked, nor derived, from any basic political philosophy or principals. His whole ‘schtick’ is Anger Politics.
He wakes up, gets pissed off about something - usually something he finds is personally insulting and/or offensive, and goes off on a Maverick JIHAD.
It was very helpful to the Democrats. McCain wasn’t trying to ‘help’ the Democrats, to be clear. He was trying to strike back at those he felt had either betrayed, insulted, or simply dared to publiclyl disagree with HIM.
Thats why his toughest words and actions were always directed at his fellow Republicans. Democrats just sat back and watched him run amok, and picked up the chips at the end of the election cycle recently concluded.
The irony is found in the fact McCain today is doing what he did in throughout the previous seven years.
Blaming everybody but himself for his defeat at the polls. Thats why you don’t see McCain defending Sarah Palin today.
Prediction: In the coming year, we will witness John McCain doing everything he can to undermine the RNC, the leadership within the Republican minority within the Senate, and the House at every opportunity.
Because if nothing else, John McCain is a creature of habit, without a political core set of beliefs.
Watch and see.
Savage hypothesized that the republicans deliberately put up the weakest candidate knowing what was coming so they wouldn’t be blamed and could come back as the big rescuers in 2012.
I don’t endorse this theory but it’s interesting.
the whole point of OC was that mccain was so incompetent that we had to mess things up to give him at least a chance to drag himself across the finish line. Because he certainly wasn’t going to win on his ideas and charisma.
No.
Drive By’s, lazy humans looking for handouts, and uneducated people voted in Obama.
Our economy was it too but that has to do with uneducated Americans not knowing that it WAS NOT all Bush’s fault for the crisis....
Let’s see. Who was president when Limbaugh hit the scene, and who will be president in 6 weeks?
Operation Chaos on Wall Street elected OIbama even though his cronies had a big hand in causing it.
Good eye, Badeye.
ACORN's evasion of campaign finance laws by laundering Soros' millions through prepaid debit cards stole the election.
Good analysis of McCain. He is a leaf blowing in the wind, most of it generated by his own mouth. (Tortured imagery I know - sue me)
You sum it up nicely!
My point is not that Bush took a pounding, it is that he NEVER used the office to fight back! He stood there taking the pasting. Republicans in general never stand up for truth, they are way more interested in not creating waves and crossing their plantation masters, the Democrats.
Further, Bush took us to war. I’m okay with that, but he never had a consistent effort to maintain the support for the war with the rest of the country. He abandoned his post and thus the country turned against the war and against him.
In 8 years how many times did Bush address the nation from the Oval Office? 3 times in 8 years? 4 times (once every two years?)
No, it was the GOP with no plan beyond the WOT and spending money.
Thank you.
I agree, no lawsuit contemplated...(chuckle)
No. Obama beat hillary because the Dem players and money people evidently decided to back him instead of hillary, and the Dem base was never very enthusiastic about her.
But Obama won the election because McCain was a lousy candidate. For that, you can fault McCain, the RNC, the RINOs, and the abortion-loving big money country club donors who think that plenty of sex with no kids is more important than the welfare of our country.
You can fault Rush for allowing Fred Thompson to be polished off by the MSM and the RNC, but it’s a hard call. A lot more blame goes to the idiots at NRO and elsewhere who backed Mitt from the start because they thought he was the most “electable.” Those are the same effete idiots who thought Sarah Palin was too common and that Obama was cute.
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