Even on "our side" of the fence, Kristol, Brooks et al figured that the Republicans were going to lose this time around. They looked at the generic ballot numbers and the popularity rating of President Bush, and figured out early on that it was a Democrat Year, and the best thing the Republicans could do about it was to lose quietly.
So John McCain, 2000 Edition, was their ideal candidate. He could be counted on to be upright and positive, to not make any waves, and to lose with class. This was the country-club, blue-blood prescription for 2008 from the git-go. McCain was supposed to run a nice, quiet, centrist campaign, and move the center of the Republican Party over to the Left. In doing so, he would get pasted by whomever the Democrats ran, of course, but to the Centrist Wing of the Republican Party, moving their own party to the Center was the only thing they thought they were likely to achieve this time around.
But nobody told John McCain that he was supposed to lose. John McCain is out there trying to win this thing, and John McCain is no fool. McCain realized that the Center means defeat, and that the only way to win this thing was to give people a reason to vote Republican by promoting Conservative principles of thrift, strength and family values. So he skipped over all of the boring Centrist get-along types, and for his biggest decision, he tapped Sarah Palin.
Now, McCain is being soundly criticized for this choice. But when you hear this criticism, you should apply this simple test: Would John McCain be anywhere near competitive in this race if he had picked Tim Pawlenty for a running mate? Or Olympia Snowe? Or Mitt Romney? These picks would have signaled to one and all that McCain was happy to lose with class to Barack Obama, and would have been broadly acceptable for that very reason. But when McCain picked Palin, he signaled that he was not ready to lose with class, and that he was, in fact, not ready to lose at all. That is the real reason people got enthusiastic about the Republican ticket for the first time. Because with the choice of Palin, McCain signaled for the first time that he would not be happy to lose.
Now, I have a lot of Democrat friends, who have picked the name next to the (D) in every election all their adult lives, who are complaining that John McCain is not the John McCain of 2000. They say that they might have actually voted for McCain if he had run a Centrist, dignified campaign. This is complete nonsense, of course. In November, they are going to pick the (D) just as they have for the past 30 years, and just like their parents did the 40 years before that. Gaining their vote was always a mirage, and John McCain is smart enough to know that.
By the way, I root for the New York Yankees. I have had just about enough of “Losing With Class”...