Looking at all the data, I believe McCain/Palin were going to JUST win it if the economic disaster held off a couple of months. That speaks to Obama’s WEAKNESS more than anything else. The polls cratered dramatically and I think two threads pulled loose from which they could not recover.
1) The collapse itself scared the heck out of everyone, but mainly it was the final nail in the mushy middle/RINO vote.
2) The Bailout portion was the final nail in the conservative turnout.
The object lesson in how both of Bush’s “wings” fell off in the last 3 years.
It really is a miracle McCain did as well as he did, which tells me that without those 2, he possibly was on track to win a close one. He was pulling ahead significantly in key states like OH, FL, VA and NC. It would have been close until the crash/bailout.
What that means now is that all hope isn’t lost, but it won’t be easy. Unfortunately, the GOP often learns the WRONG lessons from events like this. Someone will have to come along that can articulate the positions well enough.
I hope we won’t have to wait 8 years like the Dems did with W, and that if there is a mess for Obama, it comes early on. But pushing back in the house and senate may be just as, if not more, important that 2010. Getting ARTICULATE conservatives is key.
It takes someone special to articulate conservative economic thought in coherent sound bites.
The timing of the crash/bailout deserves study. Could it have been coincidence? Sure.
However, it was also at a critical part in an election campaign. Could it have been politically expedient to have it announced when it was? Yes, it certainly hurt. And the fact that they were able to hold off that “critical need” for money is evidence that it did NOT have to be announced when it was.
Heck, they’re still trying to get banks to quit sitting on the money they were supposedly desperate to get their hands on.
Yeah, I am thinking the Lindsey Grahamnesty/Susan Collins ticket could do it for us in 2012! /sarc
I talked to some Ron Paul folks before the election and asked if they were going to go vote McCain. Pretty much the answer was no across the board. They didn’t see any difference between McCain and the dems.
If you look at the way Georgian voted this time around, the pubbies that showed up voted McCain, then a bunch ticket split and voted liberatarian in the Senate election because they were pissed about the bailout.
I really believe that if McCain had suspended his campaign and gone to Washington and led the way to stop the bailout altogether he would’ve won. When he and Obama agreed that the bailout was necessary, the key difference between them disappeared.
McCain is an honorable man. But politically he is nothing but a tactician. Just like Dole, they were both just “deal-makers” In the Senate, that may be an attribute, but that is the antithesis of leadership when it comes to being President. McCain had no real strategy or rationale for his campaign, and if he had won, the best we were going to get was a caretaker, do no harm type of governance. The ball was not going to be moved forward on conservatism in any way shape or form.
America needs and will vote for a movement conservative. I’m not sure why Mark Sanford of SC doesn’t get more attention. He is a resolute conservative who isn’t taking any earmarks for his state.
I think governors like Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, and Bobby Jindal are the future of the party. We need to get away from the idea that Republican Senators bring anything to the table.