Posted on 11/05/2008 5:27:12 PM PST by beagleone
Get your sorry a** off my computer!
Straight Talk Bump.
I admire the man, voted for him, and wish he would have won. He made lots of tactical mistakes in this campaign - not being more assertive about Obama’s radical past, namely. But I think the bigger problem he had was more fundamental.
What was John McCain’s big idea?
Obama’s idea was, for better or worse, huge. Subtly, it was that an African American man could be elected president 50 years after segregation and that he could deliver us from the horror of the last eight years change we can believe in yes we can blah blah blah...
it was patently nonsense, but that was at its heart a big idea...what was McCain’s big idea?
John McCain is a fine man and set a good example to the country by the way he carried out his campaign.
I’m glad we’ve got him. He may be able to do more good for us as a country in the Senate than in the confines of the Oval Office.
There’s a whole generation out there that doesn’t begin to understand the meaning of tough times and sacrifice-yet.
I think that you’re right in that those were probably the ideas he would have pursued while in office, but I’m not sure he conveyed those ideas effectively. I’ll give you an example. For you, number one was “reform”. In McCain’s convention speech, how many times was the word “reform” uttered? Once.
I will agree that he found an effective argument with Joe the Plumber. As far as government having less influence in our lives, I can’t remember a single one of his speeches that struck me as a Reagan-esque defense of individualism and limited government. He advocated it, sure, but he never made the case for it.
Anyway, just my take on it
I’ll have to say you’re right, because he lost.
Exactly. When McCain's not maintaining enough control of his staffers that he can shut off the trashing of Sarah (or, even worse, doesn't care to), then that is a real black mark where I'm concerned.
Amen, Amen, AMEN!!!
You are incorrect, he ran a poor race. He could have won it with a better won.
I know there were big mistakes:
Biggest mistake - mishandling Palin after the nomination until the VP debate. I believe this was McCain listening to his advisors on this. They were wrong. Also, McCain’s campaign was ineffective at neutralizing smears of Palin that portrayed her as unpresidential.
Second biggest mistake - Supporting the bailout and not blaming the Democrats early enough, often enough or effectively enough for the Fannie/Freddy meltdown. Not pushing Obama’s connection to kickbacks from the mortgage companies.
Third biggest mistake - taking public funding after Obama broke his promise and went private (and illegal) funding. There was no way to get our message out there when Obama ruled the airwaves.
However, McCain made some good moves as well.
Smartest move: Picking Palin as VP and keeping it a surprise, stealing Obama’s headlines after the Democratic convention
Other smart moves: Joe the Plumber was good. Tying Obama to socialism - good. Explaining how rasing taxes on the “rich” hurts everyone - good. Trying to call attention to Obama’s ties with Palestinian Khalidi - good. Uncovering Obama’s plans to bankrupt the coal industry and raise energy costs - good.
You can blame McCain for all those mistakes but it is unfair to expect perfection. Even an imperfect McCain campaign should beat an inexperienced socialist with criminal ties any day of the week. Something else was going on.
When voters in coal-producing states RUN out to vote for someone who has said he wants to destroy their livelihood, we are not talking about rational people.
There was a backlash against the GOP in this election and a lot of it has to do with George Bush completely stuffing up his second term.
Does anyone know where McCain is? If I were him, I'd be asleep for a good long time after that hellish schedule towards the end.
Lets give him the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer. The media has been complete bastards through the whole campaign and it should surprise nobody here that they are trying to create infighting in the GOP after the loss.
Lets give McCain a little while to respond before passing judgement.
We need to choose candidates to represent us who truly represent us, and who can communicate our views and principles in words and deeds that those you talk about understand. We have grown very good at electing people who neither represent us nor who can articulate our cause with any coherency. Reagan was called, as you know, the Great Communicator. There was a reason for that. He made the idiocies of liberal bureaucracy crystal clear. Due to those demographics you mention, which I agree with you on, we need more than one Reagan. We need a bunch. But I still think dropping our principles in candidates to “match the demographics” is the wrong way to go. That's what we've been doing for years, and look where it got us.
“Tying Obama to socialism - good.”
Except morons don’t even know what the word means. :/ That’s why berry and Joey’s response was to feign shock or laugh it off.
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