Stop Blaming Palin; McCain's Campaign Dropped the Ball

Grizzly Groundswell ^ | 11/07/08 | Winged Hussar 1683

[Winged Hussar]

Like the French generals who executed enlisted men for "cowardice" to cover up their own shortcomings during the First World War, John McCain's campaign staff is now looking for a convenient scapegoat in the person of Governor Sarah Palin.

First and foremost, the McCain campaign selected Palin to be John McCain's running mate. ...If the staff failed to [review her credentials] adequately, it set Palin and therefore McCain up for failure.

Second, we know of at least one dropped ball and blown opportunity. We called the McCain headquarters repeatedly to bring to its attention a letter from Hillary Clinton's campaign counsel, Lyn Utrecht, that accused Obama of harassing, intimidating, and suppressing voters during the Nevada caucuses. We faxed and E-mailed copies of this letter to McCain headquarters, and also to some state campaign offices. Had the campaign publicized this letter's conclusion in 30-second commercial slots, it would have utterly demolished Hillary Clinton's new-found support for her party's candidate while adding real flames (credible allegations of misconduct by Obama's own campaign) to the smoke (voter registration fraud) of the ACORN controversy.

There is no place in the American electoral process for the types of voter suppression, intimidation and harassment systematically engaged in by the Obama campaign, its allies and supporters.

Sincerely,

Lyn Utrecht

Counsel Hillary Clinton for President

While various Hillary Clinton support groups like PUMA did re-post this letter on their Web sites--the optical character transcription of the Adobe Acrobat original that we provided helped--McCain's people did not get back to us, and they did not act on this opportunity. Like a less than diligent maintenance crew that forgets to arm a Navy warplane with a full load of missiles, or doesn't bother to top off the fuel tanks, McCain's people let their "pilot" down.

[Mamzelle]

re: And if there had to be a fall guy, McCain was the perfect one. )))

Hey, you caught me up short on that one. You are absolutely right! A cheerful thought with which to go about my day.

That he's not coming out to defend Sarah this week speaks volumes. She certainly has nice things to say about him!

[GreyWolf]

McCain’s Campaign Dropped the Ball

McCain’s campaign never had the ball (or balls) to begin with. John McCain was the second worst candidate of the nine or so that we started with ahead of only Ron Paul IMO. I would have gladly voted for Romney, Thompson, Huckabee, or anybody but McCain. He is not a Conservative, has never been a Conservative, and has a history of throwing Conservatives under the bus. The only thing he did right in this campaign was to choose Sarah Palin as a running mate. Yes, I voted for McCain and Palin (mostly Palin) sadly hoping that Sarah somehow would be Present at some time. However, I know many Conservatives who stayed away from the polls rather than vote for McCain. In a nutshell, that is why McCain lost. No one is to blame except McCain. Unfortunately, Sarah Palin’s political career is probably finished because of her association with McCain.

Everyone is talking about the Republican Party recovering in 2012. I think it’s time for Conservatives to abandon that sinking ship and form a new party. Republicans are never going to wake up and left will prevail unless we do.

[VaRepublican]

Listen, Baracks past associations were out there. I dont care what McCain tried to do it was McCain, He lost to GW and whined about dirty tricks and then he lost again, hes got a left message and the only reason I listened is due to sarah.

[DPMD]

It’s further proof that McCain and his campaign staff flunkies are liberal democrats in costume. They blame others for their own failings.

[dfwgator]

I wish I could get a bumper sticker that said “Don’t Blame Me, I didn’t vote for either one of those knuckleheads.”

[Doctor Raoul]

Sarah Palin and John McCain played golf yesterday and Sarah took 11 hours.

Why 11 hours?

Well it was “hit the ball, drag McCain, hit the ball drag McCain.”

[VaRepublican]

It sucks that were goona trashed for this opinion. John McCain was NEVER a viable candidate the only reason it was even that close was Sarah. Pulease McCainiacs let it go we lost because of John McCain!!!!!!!!!!

[Alberta's Child]

This election was orchestrated for ‘the one’ to prevail.

I used to believe this, but I'm starting to wonder if the opposite isn't actually true.

I've been seeing some strange speculation about Joe Biden's mysterious absence from Obama's "victory speech" on Tuesday night, and in general over the last few days. And now I'm thinking the Democrats were absolutely sure McCain was going to win.

The fact that Obama is turning to Clinton-era hacks and safe, long-standing Democrats like Granholm to fill his transition team (i.e., Obama has no clue how to govern, and more importantly has nobody on his own campaign team who does) might support this.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Some good news....They mentioned on Fox today that they are getting a lot of emails complaining about the negative stuff being spit out about Palin

Also, Rick Santorum has called on John McCain to defend Palin...obviously McCain is in hiding

McCain better develop some repros will quick, or he will not be re-elected for Senate (if he decides to run)

[Alberta's Child]

McCain was Exhibit A in support of my argument that U.S. Senators make terrible presidential candidates simply because they are among the dullest mediocrities on the planet.

[Piquaboy]

Sarah was the one who did the real campaigning.

[JoJo Gunn]

It’s been over 36 hours and there’s not one word either way by McCain about all of this.

[07Jack]

“The problem with the McCain campaign was McCain. A real leader takes responsibility. Establishment republicans point fingers. Imagine the route had he not chosen Palin the Conservative.”

Right on. That’s the truth, plain and simple man.
The Palin choice actually energized his campaign and gave it a fighters chance.
McCain was a poor candidate who was facing tremendous odds to start with, got back in the game with the Palin pick, and then the bailout fiasco/market crash buried him.
It speaks volumes that he’s not out defending Palin right now. McCain lacked the conviction of leadership we needed during this election cycle.

[dbz77]

McCain alone was not even my 2nd choice. The early primaries that allowed unregistered as Republicans to vote eliminated the TRUE conservative choices. Primaries were a sham for Republican voters.

My choice in the primaries was Ron Paul.

[fabian]

how are we going to close off the primaries to anyone other than republicans so this doesn’t happen again?

[FrankR]

"And if there had to be a fall guy, McCain was the perfect one. "

Exactly!

And, he was hand-picked in the primaries for just that role. Liberals by the thousands, following marching orders, crossed over in the primary polls to make sure that McLame would be the "opponent". They knew he would be like one of those blow-up "Bozo" punching bags, who would take the licks and keep bobbing back up for more. Or maybe that should be bobbing "across the aisle" for more.

But there was one minute during the campaign, when he picked Sarah, that I thought, "Ya know, with her he might just pull this thing off, and ruin the little primary scheme by the liberals."

But, he kept on going with that "appeaser" and "cross the aisle" crap and muzzling Sarah until they squeaked ahead.

No one let McCain down, but McCain. I'll say it again, without Sarah on the ticket there a millions who would not have even bothered voting in the first place.

[madball]

Ditto.

[Gaffer]

McCain's campaign didn't drop the ball; they never had it to begin with. He was selected by the NYT, LA Times and every other liberal asswipe rag and cable news network in this country. He wasn't the first/best choice - he was the remaining choice. His chances, whatever level they were, were only increased by choosing Palin.

[Leep]

See #12.
Also, by the time the Primaries got to Pa, my state, the only choice I had was the top choice of the bottom of my list.
Likewise, Romney got cancelled out by folks who had no true interest in him being the Republican’s choice.
So, a lot of folks ended up with their 7th choice?
John McCain.

[Globalist Goon]

Aside from the Iraq war, McCain was unable to effectively communicate that he is the leader of an opposition party. And this is mainly because of his opposition to conservatives and the legislation he humped and sold.

Goodbye and good riddance!