Can someone tell me again how the hell John McCain won the nomination? All I remember is seeing him at the bottom of the polls, then a haze came over me and all of a sudden he was the nominee. I’m still not sure it’s real.
The media picked him. The MSM constantly printed/said wonderful things about McCain, while continually painting Romney as evil incarnate. People bought it. Oh, and IMHO, a lot of Dem crossover voting for McCain to ensure that the Dems wouldn't have to run against Romney. The left feared Romney and felt that McCain was either beatable, or if he actually won the presidency, he is actually one of them anyway.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I know what you mean. Remember when Rudy was the guy to beat? Then Romney? Then Huckabee? After a late start, Thompson stirred up a lot of media attention. All the while, McCain was not on anyone's radar screen and then suddenly he's the nominee. It's almost surreal.
That's easy. Everyone had this mental list of who they would vote for in order of preference. John McCain was at near the bottom of all those lists. Even some democrats were higher on the list. Nobody was paying attention to John McCain way down there at the bottom, well because he was at the bottom so had no chance of winning. McCain was out of money and out of ideas early in the political season and almost quit before Fred Thompson even got in.
So everyone one the top half of the list just kicked each other around and kick each other out. Suddenly nobody is left on the list except McCain who did absolutely jack squat the entire first half of the season.
Well all the sudden he found out he was the only person actually left in the race and said well guess I'm stayin in then. It wasn't that McCain really won the nomination, it was more that everyone else lost.
I'm not sure but I think that is the same strategy that McCain is employing now that he is the nominee. Let Obama and Hillary knock each other out and he'll be the last person standing.
The way I see it, the first four primary elections were mainly liberal states that allowed open primaries, that is, the Republicans allowed liberals and independents to destroy the candidacy of ALL of the conservatives that were on the ballot.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
Conservatives failed to unite behind Fred Thompson, the most conservative of the serious candidates. This was partly Thompson's fault. He did not successfully rally social conservatives behind him and did not successfully answer the constant attacks of the Left.
Many conservatives were more focused on defeating Rudy Giuliani than in electing a conservative. The McCain and Huckabee campaigns teamed up to fight Thompson and Romney.
A lot of Democrats and Independents voted for him in the early open primaries which carry disproportionate weight in determining the GOP nominee.
Way to fix the problem? Hold every State's primary on the same day, and close them so only Republicans can vote in them.
Good point. I know, well, people from California to Colorado to Texas to Mississippi to Michigan who voted for Paul, people who voted for Thompson, people who voted for Huckabee. I know people who voted for Hillary in the Dem primary. I know people who voted for Obama.
I personally know not one person who voted for McCain. At our caucus, there was one vote for McCain (I didn't know the man).
Obviously, this "survey" is invalid, but questions arise. Did these people vote for him and now hide their stands due to buyer's remorse, lack of courage, embarrassment, or some other reason (I doubt it--they are all outspoken)? Or are the McCain votes ephemeral.
A South Carolina guy told me that once it was clear Obama was a sure thing, he voted for McCain on the Repub ballot. I’m sure that happened a lot. Open primaries are stupid.
In a word; Huckster. He pulled the SoCons (who already did not like Romney) away from Fred and handed the nomination to McCain.
“Can someone tell me again how the hell John McCain won the nomination? All I remember is seeing him at the bottom of the polls, then a haze came over me and all of a sudden he was the nominee. I’m still not sure it’s real.”
I’m afraid it is real! But keep seeing McCain referred to as the “presumptive Republican nominee”. So wish something would happen to cause a BIG CHANGE at convention! A draft of a Thompson/Romney ticket would be a dream come true!
I’ll tell you one big way: he convinced the normally intelligent Cuban delegation in Congress, primarily Senator Martinez, to endorse him in the Florida primary.
Mitt Romney was set to win Florida—and would have had the Michigan and Florida delegates—but the Cuban vote went overwhelmingly for McCain.
I think McCain or a sycophant of his spread some rumor (I forget the content now) about Romney a week or so before the vote in Florida.
We are stuck with McCain. He can do himself some good by picking a CONSERVATIVE running mate...and letting his VEEP have some say in his administration.
Therein is the answer, or at least part of the answer: Nobody thought he had a snowflake's chance in hell, so nobody really went after him.
The other part of the answer involves the primaries being an absolute affront to anything resembling democracy.