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Why McCain Lost
American Thinker ^ | November 05, 2008 | Jewish Odysseus

Posted on 11/05/2008 8:09:28 PM PST by neverdem

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To: neverdem

Innerestin’


41 posted on 11/05/2008 9:24:26 PM PST by El Sordo
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To: neverdem

He lost because he didn’t fight for the win. There was enough material here on FR to bury Obama in scandal until 2020.


42 posted on 11/05/2008 9:27:00 PM PST by Kevmo (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Did you ever think that this lady was so unprepared to begin with that there was little hope but to at least let her try
They had held her back for a reason and it’s apparent that she could only read from a teleprompter and not on her own (even her rallies she spoke off the teleprompter) Don’t get me wrong I love Sarah, but it’s because of her feisty demeanor and yes, her looks.


43 posted on 11/05/2008 9:27:56 PM PST by GerardKempf (Let's Get Over This)
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To: neverdem
Indeed, as the Obama ads relentlessly drilled, he appeared confused, erratic, and out of touch --

I've been thinking about this a lot. Guys, McCain would have been a disaster as President. That's not to say Obama won't be. McCain didn't appear confused, erratic, and out of touch, he WAS confused, erratic and out of touch. McCain was 71, and we heard over and over that his ground game was nil, that the organization was non-existent, and he spent weeks in PA and no time in Florida, when Florida was at risk and PA was hopeless.

Sarah was the only sign of life in the entire campaign, and right now the Republicans do not act like they want to be elected. I think secretly a lot of them are more satisfied with Democrats running the show.

44 posted on 11/05/2008 9:28:45 PM PST by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: neverdem


Why McCain Lost

IMHO...
1. Alienating needed allies, e.g.,
Called the core base of the party that he is a nominal member of
“Racists” for oppossing him on AMNESTY for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

2. Failure to DIRECTLY tell the world what an empty suit his opponent is.
(I can only gather that McCain suspected he couldn’t win and would
behave himself so his remaining years in the US Senate are sedate ones.)

3. Poor Timing...
Didn’t simply let Palin be Palin from the start of her tour of duty.

To paraphrase Glenn Beck from his radio show today...it’s amazing
that 55 MILLION people bothered to vote for McCain with all his negatives.


45 posted on 11/05/2008 9:29:45 PM PST by VOA
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To: Kevmo

I don’t think voters cared about the scandals. All they wanted was to rip off the rich.

Obama supporters want communism.


46 posted on 11/05/2008 9:50:39 PM PST by Tramonto (0bama will give us all free reeducation if he wins.)
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To: neverdem

http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/UPDATE/misc2008/Obama-USA-TODAY-ad.htm


47 posted on 11/05/2008 9:52:55 PM PST by danamco
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To: neverdem

GOP did not turnout

just look at the numbers in solid R states

meanwhile Dem support was strong


48 posted on 11/05/2008 9:54:18 PM PST by wardaddy (I'm looking for a new Danelaw to move my family to...)
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To: wardaddy

...plus the rampant RAT voter fraud.


49 posted on 11/05/2008 9:59:30 PM PST by Zman516 (socialists & muslims -- satan's useful idiots.)
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To: Zman516

I don’t think fraud ...a possibility yes mae this election happen.

Obama beat Mccain almost like Reagan beat Carter in popular votes and 5-6 times how bad Bush beat Kerry.

Obama won on the white vote and low GOP turnout.


50 posted on 11/05/2008 10:01:54 PM PST by wardaddy (I'm looking for a new Danelaw to move my family to...)
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To: neverdem
What was he thinking when he declared on September 15 when he declared the US economy "fundamentally strong"? What was he thinking when he announced on September 24 he was suspending his campaign, including the upcoming September 26 debate appearance, after the financial crisis broke?

If you look at the Rasmussen daily tracking poll, you will find that the shift in voter sentiment was very much impacted by the Sept. 15 & 24 events. (Rasmussen's tracking poll had the least amount of fluctuation and got the final result correct.) The last time McCain led was Sept 17, two days after his "fundamentally sound" comment, because Rasmussen takes 3 days to fully reflect reaction to a given event. The last day McCain polled better than 47% was Sept. 23. The last day Obama polled less than 50% was Sept. 25. These numbers show it was his initial response ("fundamentally sound") to the revelation of deep economic problems that put McCain in a hole that he wasn't able to climb out of. 4 days after the "suspending his campaign" thing, Rasmussen had McCain down by 6. McCain could never help himself in the debates and it was all over.

Economic issues aren't McCain's strong suit, and worse, he is blind to this weakness within himself. Consequently, he didn't feel the need to seek the advice of advisers who were knowledgeable about conservative, free market economics. Cutting taxes and eliminating earmarks aren't the answer to all of our economic problems. If he had taken the time to read and understand Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics at some point in his senate career, he would have been equipped to debunk Obama's economic BS and make a compelling case for his own economic plan.

Ultimately, McCain lost because he is McCain. It is bad enough that Obama won, but even worse that Johnny now returns to the senate where he may well prevent the coalescing of an effective opposition party.

51 posted on 11/05/2008 10:05:08 PM PST by vamoose
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To: wardaddy; Clintonfatigued; El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; ...
GOP did not turnout

I think you're correct. I checked NY numbers. GOP was about 500,000 shy of registration, although rat turnout was about 800,000 shy of registration, those numbers probably include more chicanery and folks who are registered for just their primaries. The latter are the original "Operation Chaos" voters; they never vote in the general election for rats in NY.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

It's an interactive map with no advertizing that I saw. I scanned it as well as I could twice. It links to state results broken down by county, at least for NY. I'd be surprised if they didn't do all states that way.

52 posted on 11/05/2008 10:36:41 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

Republicans can’t make the same mistake the Dems made following the first Bush election. That mistake is simply stated: We’re right, it’s the process that’s wrong.

If you don’t admit, analyze and accept mistakes, then you’ll keep making the same mistakes.


53 posted on 11/05/2008 10:49:31 PM PST by durasell
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To: danamco

Thanks for the link. It should be posted if it’s not!


54 posted on 11/05/2008 10:51:29 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

John McCain lost his bid for the presidency because America has quite plainly lost its collective mind.


55 posted on 11/05/2008 11:00:57 PM PST by Jack Hammer (here)
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To: durasell
Republicans can’t make the same mistake the Dems made following the first Bush election. That mistake is simply stated: We’re right, it’s the process that’s wrong.

If you don’t admit, analyze and accept mistakes, then you’ll keep making the same mistakes.

I want an accurate postmortem. Would you care to elaborate on the specific mistakes the GOP made?

56 posted on 11/05/2008 11:02:53 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

A) They ran an older guy who based his entire campaign on “the past.” As I wrote previously, he did everything he could to alienate young voters except yell at them to keep off his lawn.

B) Mac had to fight a front war/campaign — against Bush and against Obama.

C)They didn’t present Mac as a technician. What people want is a “technician” — someone who will cast a cold eye on the situation and solve the problems.

D)He dithered on the economy. Every secretary and messenger on Wall Street knew there were problems last year or 18 months ago. I have no idea what possessed him to say the economy was “fundamentally strong.” Then to rush back to DC for photo ops was just naive.

There’s more, a lot more.


57 posted on 11/05/2008 11:12:19 PM PST by durasell
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To: neverdem

E) He never went into the “lion’s den.” I don’t believe I ever saw him face a hostile audience. Joe the Plumber was actually a plus for Obama.

Look, it’s very simple. We live in a very marketing savvy culture. No successful product, President’s included, can be sold based on the past. At every step of the way Mac was presented as an expert on the past and non-starter on the future. Look at typical tv ads, every product tells you what it will do for you in the future, not what it’s done for you in the past.

Note: None of this has much to do with the reality of who Mac is or his potential as President


58 posted on 11/05/2008 11:20:12 PM PST by durasell
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To: neverdem

going door to door for McCain in Henderson Nevada, I had the pleasure of meeting retired general Kempf who was a friend and knows McCain well. He served with him in Vietnam. He told us that the problem was that John has a hot temper and what he has done is supress it to some degree. That makes him weaker than we needed him to be in confronting Obama in the debates. He did his best for sure, but our problem was that we had not the strongest candidate. We had better close off the primaries to anyone other than republicans or this is going to repeat itself again and we will not have an America, eventually.


59 posted on 11/05/2008 11:32:04 PM PST by fabian
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To: durasell; fabian
Thanks for the feedback. There's a reason that conservatives are called reactionaries. IMHO, the left has to make a complete mess before the right is called in for a time out, but not a correction. We have disasters waiting in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, all ignored for all intents and purposes in the campaign.
60 posted on 11/06/2008 12:05:35 AM PST by neverdem (Xin loi min oi)
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