We don't have that luxury this time.
Posted on 11/04/2008 1:55:06 AM PST by Stingray
Yes, I'm afraid after all the hope poured out onto these pages, John McCain will lose. There are at least two very important reasons for this (and they have nothing to do with media bias).
The first is - simply put - that McCain ran a lousy campaign. There was no focus on any one particular message that resounded with voters until Joe The Plumber came along (too little too late?) despite the fact that Obama's own voting record in the Senate said at least as much about his plans to "tax and spend" this country into bankruptcy faster than any president before him!
Why McCain was so hesitant to call Obama out on his liberal views is simple: McCain shares many of them! McCain believes - like Gore and Obama - that unless we do something about co2 pollution, we're doomed to suffer the ravages of global warming! In fact, McCain has often stated the need for tighter legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse gases, and has voted for those that have come before the Senate! Nevermind the fact that anthropogenic global warming is "junk science", McCain has bought into it and that is just one area where his "Maverick" stance in the Senate has actually put him on the side of the most liberal senator there is!
There are other issues that were taken out of the McCain playbook because of his record and past indiscretions in the Senate. Can't raise Obama's associations with Wright, Ayers, Khalidi et al without having to defend himself from his disastrous association with Charles Keating. Is it any wonder McCain didn't want to touch Obama's associations with a ten-foot pole?
McCain can't bash Obama for wanting to "bankrupt" coal companies, when his own plan to convert the country to natural gas (for the same green purposes as Obama) would've had roughly the same effect! Yet another issue taken off McCain's plate.
And how can you decry Obama's "socialism" when they both voted for the biggest socialist bailout of investment banks the world has ever seen? McCain's vote for socialism at that level is no less aggregious than Obama's desire to "spread the wealth", and is especially vexing in light of the fact that the bailout legislation doesn't solve the underlying causes of the latest finacial meltdown in the first place!
So you can't attack Obama for being "green", for his past associations, and for his socialism because of McCain's "glass house" record on these issues.
So what's left?
Let's see: you start to make promises to the American people that make Obama's sound downright fiscally conservative! In a race to see who could give away more of the store, McCain and Obama were running neck-and-neck. Remember McCain's promise to tap 300 billion dollars of the bailout money to help homeowners stave off foreclosure??? Obama had been promising something similar for weeks ahead of McCain finally chiming in on the great taxpayer gravy train!
Tax cuts? Both were promising them. I cringed whenver I heard McCain start to talk like a fiscal policy wonk. It literally made me change the channel!
And please, John, the fundamentals of the economy were NOT sound when you made such a ridiculous statement at a time when foreclosures and bank failures were starting to mount! How can anyone seriously criticize Obama and Biden for their gaffes, when McCain provided the greatest bulleting board material of all time?
To this day, McCain continues to resort to the only trump card he has: his military service. While not enough can be said about his sacrifice for this country, most people - who just want to see us get out of Iraq and Afghanistan - don't want to see the same things, or worse, happen to their kids or friends. His greatest positive was a reminder to people of the brutality of war and why - depsite the fact he's the best qualified to be Commander-in-Chief - they don't want to be in one.
The second reason is, simply put, most Americans want change and feel - somehow - that Obama is the best one to bring about that change. Nevermind that "change" is a word completely devoid of any meaning without context, people want it. Obama's use of the word in making it the cornerstone of his campaign simply illustrates - again - how he was able to tap into this desire and play it consistently for all it was worth. McCain never had anything remotely resembling a message like this he could stick to through this campaign.
On a closing, personal note, I find two of the McCain campaign's most glaring errors revolved around their public announcement to pull out of Michigan, and the way they fed Sarah Palin to the wolves (the Couric and Gibson interviews).
On Michigan: even if you can't justify the expense of making another trip to the state, you have to keep in mind that you have coattails upon which other candidates are riding. The worst thing to do is tell the press you're pulling out of a state like Michigan weeks before the election! Pull out if you must, but keep your freaking mouth shut about it! McCain's decision to pull out early, and announce it to the world, has screwed a number of GOP congressional candidates, leaving them to fend for themselves, where they are being outspent by a large margin!
On Palin: the biggest mistake the campaign made in letting her do those post-convention interviews was that she simply was not ready for the kind of sleezy "gotcha!" questions she would have to field from people who were clearly in Obama's back pocket! They were going to go for the throat on her (never intending to ask Obama what qualified him to be president!). The final insult of those interviews was to reduce her to a punchline on Saturday Night Live, a show which mercilessly lampooned her even when she was there! She was clearly not ready for the kind of campaigns on the national stage that gets run down here in the lower 48, and it showed. She could've been a tremendous asset if handled properly. Instead, she became a national joke, undeserving as it was. I blame the McCain campaign for that.
So gear up for 2012 all. We're simply going to have to field a much better candidate then.
And you’re as entitled to your opinion as I am mine. Great country, eh?
If we lose this one, we've lost the future.
You and 09Patriot are harbors of rationality in a storm-tossed sea of emotionalism. :)
I have watched both these candidates closely throughout this campaign. And you know what I heard the loudest coming from both of them to each other’s plans? “Me, too!”
Obama: I want to set aside money to help people save their homes.
McCain: ME, TOO!
Obama: I want to lower taxes for working families.
McCain: ME, TOO!
Obama: I want to fund alternative energies and clean up the planet.
McCain: ME, TOO!
And on, and on, and on.
Sarah Palin was the only one of the 4 candidates who had the guts to stake out positions diametrically opposed to Obama & Biden, and it seemed that when McCain wasn’t reigning her in (remember the calls to let “Palin be Palin”?) he was feeding her to the wolves.
McCain’s biggest folly was that he ran a cautious, courteous campaign, hoping the press - which had held him in such remarkably high esteem during the primaries - wouldn’t throw him under the bus in the general election.
Win or lose, this election should be instructive for ANY Republican seeking office from now on: get the money, go straight to the people, tell the press to go f*** themselves, and be willing to get in the mud with your opponent, if necessary.
Hopefully, the next candidate will not make McCain’s mistakes.
“...you mean Stingray’s opinion means so much to sway voter turnout.”
Heh. If I were that powerful, you think I’d be sitting here typing to these guys??? ;)
And how is “discouraging such discouraging posts” an example of squelching free speech? Did i ask the admin to remove your post? I did not. Did i ask the admin to ban you? I did not.
What this is about is hopefully getting people to think twice before giving in to pessimism and spreading that pessimism all over the boards here.
You are using your free speech to discourage us (even if that is not your intent) and i’m simply using my free speech to discourage these type of posts.
“In fact the party needs to push this, and start squeezing the rinos”
Not until we squeeze the liberals out.
We don't have that luxury this time.
It was on the A&E channel on satellite TV. McCain has TN in the bag.
Any and all apologies accepted.
Now that the election is over, please feel free to restore this thread’s original title.
“McCain will win in spite of loser posters like you.”
Guess it depends on how you define “win.”
Apology accepted.
BTW, this thread was posted on 11/4/08. Why did you feel compelled to changed the posting date, too?
Not sure I like what’s happening here...
I don’t apologize for understimating the foolishness of voters in one election.
Nor do I apologize for correctly summarizing your argument as McCain and Obama are no different. We’re about to see just how wrong your argument is.
It is, and was, stupid, ignorant, ill-timed, inflammatory, absurd on it’s face, laughable and a servant of evil.
And I definitely don’t apologize for telling you to take your limp, whiney ass self somewhere else today.
Wow, dude. Who pissed in your Wheaties?
I see you’re unrepentant to the end, just like Ayers. :)
BTW, when it came down to the issues both candidates were putting forward and they’re record on the bailout: you could hardly tell a dime’s worth of difference between them.
They were both running as candidates of change. They both view AGW (anthropogenic global warming) as a threat (it’s still junk science) and both voted for the biggest socialist takeover of industry since the New Deal (bailout).
They were both promising government handouts to buy votes (only liberals are better at it).
McCain was slightly right of Obama on some issues, but - again - that ain’t saying much. In the end, people had a choice between a “centrist” with some whacked out lefty ideas on the environment, (McCain) and a true, died-in-the-wool leftist (Obama). Exit polls indicated that most people thought Obama was the real agent for change, and elected him for it.
Now you can whine, call me names, try to beat me up and pout and moan all you want, but - sadly - I was right, you were wrong, and just like the RINOS, you’ll run the same type of Bush/Dole/McCain “milquetoast” conservative in 4 years and you’ll be cursing me out again for being right.
So save the wear and tear on your fingers and just admit you were wrong gracefully, and apologize for the unwarranted nastiness. Unwarranted nastiness is exactly what I expect from Obama supporters, not fellow Freepers.
And one final thought on those who allege (laughably so) that my original post was intended to “suppress Republican turnout.”
Here’s a reality check for you: McCain lost in an electoral landslide. If you seriously think my little tome had the power to keep millions of people home on Tuesday, then you must honestly believe Freerepublic has millions of lurkers so damn stupid that they have to depend on what someone like me writes to dictate how they should think and act.
In other words, you either have to believe I’m omnipotent in my ability to influence through words, or this board has millions of lurkers reading it that are too damn stupid to think and act for themselves. In either case, you’re delusional at best.
I’m shocked and saddened to see that some Freepers have appeared as intolerant of free speech as those on the left they accuse of the same.
Later.
No.
I don’t agree that you are right to blame McCain’s for some people like you helping elect a socialist president and commander in chief.
Each person has responsibility for their ignorance and error.
“Each person has responsibility for their ignorance and error.”
Just as each person has responsibility for their own bitterness and malice. (That would be you, dude).
Stop blaming me for McCain’s inadequacy as a candidate. McCain lost without any help from me. Your continued willingness to be blinded to that fact means you are in very deep denial, indeed. Seek professional help immediately.
Cute bit of projection.
My point is very simple and still true. I’ll simplify and repeat:
Those who didn’t vote or didn’t vote for McCain, helped elect a socialist.
And those who acted to discourage voting or discourage voting for McCain, helped elect a socialist.
“Those who didn’t vote or didn’t vote for McCain, helped elect a socialist.”
I voted for McCain. So much for that.
“And those who acted to discourage voting or discourage voting for McCain, helped elect a socialist.”
Got me there, dude. Obviously you think people who read opinion on Freerepublic.com are too stupid to think and act for themselves.
As I wrote before, if my stated lack of belief in Santa Claus keeps you from celebrating Christmas, you’re either too stupid to think for yourself (and therefore NEED someone to tell you what to think and do), or I really am the great and powerful Oz!
Either way, you ascribe too much power to me and not nearly enough to yourself and the readers of FR. Since that’s the case, here’s my last word to you: go away.
Now do what you’re told.
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