Oh, hell’s bells, Norm. I wasn’t talking JUST about you, since if I was, I’d have said you specifically. I’m not blaming you here, at least not exclusively. ;-) There were a number of McCain supporters (media types, pundits, etc) making the same claims that McCain was going to just outdo Dubya, especially in New England. It never materialized. You can cite all the polls you want, but those were ultimately bullcrap. Aside from Gov. Palin, who was mishandled by McCain’s people, this was the lousiest f’ing campaign for President in my lifetime, even eclipsing Bush, Sr’s meltdown in ‘92 (and that was bad because he seemed so bored that he didn’t even want to win). McCain had ample opportunity to go for the jugular, and he didn’t.
I remember seeing ex-OK Gov. Frank Keating on tv about a month ago or so, and in a very short answer, he forcefully made the case for why the False Messiah was incredibly dangerous (indeed, Keating was one of the FBI agents in the ‘70s who pursued his mentor, William Ayers). I thought for a moment, holy crap, we should’ve nominated Keating. He wasn’t scared for a second about calling a spade a spade on the criminal connections and following through in connecting the dots.
McCain couldn’t and wouldn’t do it, partly because he’s never demonstrated a killer instinct against Democrats (unlike against Conservatives in his party, which he always never hesitated to attack) and also partly because he was engaged too much in collegiality towards a fellow Senator. I was waiting for the moment in the debates to see him rip into him with, “You’re DAMN right I’m questioning your patriotism ! I’m questioning your experience ! I’m questioning your connections ! I’m questioning your agenda !And I’m g’damned questioning your place of birth ! Where the hell is your birth certificate ? I had to produce mine because I was born in the Panama Canal Zone, where’s yours, FRIEND ?” And... nothing. Half-hearted comments and pulled punches.
But, hey, I still schleped my absentee ballot off because I didn’t want to be accused of “electing ‘Him’” and tried to persuade an anti-McCain Conservative to bite the bullet and do the same. As somebody who did vote for him, I’ve damn well earned the right to say he failed ME and others as a candidate in stopping this horrific madness about to ensue in 2 months and 7 days. He forgot this election wasn’t just about him, it was about all of US. WE pay the price with his loss, since Johnny keeps his Senate seat, same as before. I think if he had dispensed with the grating “my friends” schtick and had shown that he TRULY wanted to win (which lasted for all of 5 minutes after picking Palin), we’d not be in the $hit we’re in right now. The wrong candidate at the wrong time.
And remember, Norm. It’s not like I didn’t warn you what would happen.
That's because he was too busy going for his own jugular.
What happened last week was this. The American people took away our hockey pucks and told us to sit the penalty box. The public is excited to watch the Communist Organizer play. The only things we can do now is clean house and hope the economy sinks Obama’s approval ratings. (We won’t be seeing signs of that until next fall.)
McCain winning GOP nomination is a sign of how disorganized conservatives are. Back in August 2007, McCain was declared finished. In trade had McCain below 10 for winning the GOP nomination. With McCain a non-factor, Huckabee, Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani teared each other apart. This dragged the approval ratings of the 4 GOP contenders and allowed McCain to slip thru. Conservatives need to get their act together if they are to clean house.
“And remember, Norm. It’s not like I didn’t warn you what would happen.”
Hardly means anything. Like I said McCain would’ve won had the economy not melted. Once it did melt it didn’t take a sage to admit the very likely outcome.
Elections are affected by environment. It’s silly to suggest that 2008 is comparable to 2004. McCain would’ve outrun Bush mostly across the board in 2008 and in some regions in 2004. No it’s not a fact - because we cannot run two alternate realities, but I’m sure of it - so let’s stop arguing it.
The fact is McCain won the nomination. If Fred Thompson couldn’t beat McCain he wasn’t going to beat Obama. I can say that with confidence about Fred because he is very similar in style and somewhat similar in philosophy to McCain (and *NO* I am not going to argue this with you). Giuliani and Romney would’ve done better probably in the last analysis but the former ran a horrible abortive end run for the nod and Romney’s steam was upset by Huckabee.