Posted on 11/06/2008 5:49:40 PM PST by DocT111
Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States because the Republican Party and John McCain handed him the presidential election on a silver platter.
The Republican Party and the Bush White House walked away from Republican ideals, and they walked away from Republican values.
George Bush allowed the Republican Congress to overspend in the first six years of his administration without once using the veto pen; he blindsided the conservative Republican members of Congress on many occasions, and walked away from the base of his party on immigration reform and other issues such as Medicare and No Child Left Behind.
He refused to sit down and break bread with the conservative members of his own party on Capitol Hill, yet believed that he could break bread with the liberal Democrats in Washington the way he did with the Democrats in Austin, Texas. And when he discovered it didn't work in Washington, it failed to stop him from trying and trying and trying over again what was obviously impossible.
Finally, the coup de grace was Dick Cheney's endorsement of John McCain in the waning days of the campaign, which gave Barack Obama the final nail to put in the coffin of McCain's campaign, which was striving mightily to distance him from the Bush administration.
Then there was McCain's campaign itself. It was the worst campaign since Bob Dole's on the Republican side, and the best campaign since Ronald Reagan’s on the Democrat side.
The McCain campaign was a campaign out of the 20th century, while the Democrats were running a campaign in the 21st century.
We need to understand that this was not a referendum on Reaganomics and Ronald Reagan. This was a referendum on George Bush, and Bush-ism, and Bush’s lack of leadership.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Yes and, if I remember correctly, Michael endorsed McCain by saying that his Dad would have wholeheartedly supported him. I choked on that at the time and was chided quite a bit around here. Now Michael wants to complain that McCain handed the election to the democrats? Please.
There is a lot of things bash worthy about the Bushes, BUT, John McCain, “Republican” candidate for President campaigned against George Bush, assuming everyone hated him (stupid).
I bet you a LOT of the Republicans who stayed home did so for that reason, I have a ton of problems with W, but there have been no attacks, not even a car bomb in America since 9/11. You could have won millions of dollars after 9/11 taking that bet, credit where credit is due.
If he credited Bush with keeping the country safe at every rally, I’m sure he would have gotten millions more votes.
There was never any Straight-Talk. McCain never named names. The whole economic crisis McCain was absent. This was an opportunity to lead, and he failed to be a leader.
Now his incompetent advisors are trying to shift the blame from themselves onto Palin. These imbeciles should have been Standing Up and Fighting Obama, instead of waiting until after they lost and backstabbing a Republican.
Bravo for Cheney. McCain wouldn't have had to work so hard to distance himself from Bush if he'd not knifed Bush in the back so many times in the last eight years. Disagreements over policies are fine, organizing his gang of 13 was over the top.
But never forget it was the McCain strategy that was fatally flawed from the get go. Running as Democrat lite is a 100% loser proposition.
The Republican Party and the Bush White House walked away from Republican ideals
The Party, the Bush White House, and the McCain campaign, save Palin, were not even in the same ZIP Code/Area Code/County/what have you with true Republican ideals, IMO. The poster that pointed out how Reagan campaigned and drew centrists to his position was absolutely right on point.
There was not even a nodding acquaintance with real conservatism among that pack of RINOs and it didn't take being a charter subscriber to National Review to understand that basic premise. I suspect that even Joe the Plumber could have told them that.
I agree with you on all your points, did you steal them from me? :)
but seriously, glad to compare ideas with you.
Obama ran what is tantamount to an affirmative action campaign. The usual vetting was simply not applied to him. He was given special treatment, a dark horse (no pun intended) who remained dark up to the day he was elected, right down to the document he is protecting from view in Hawaii.
No I wrote the same thing the night McCain lost. You can check if you want.
But it’s true, regardless who came up with it. Truths don’t vary.
(2) Bush had a chance to pick any issue he liked to fight his second term on, and he picked one that split his own party wide open, out of pure political arrogance.
(3) Paulson had a chance to prevent the market slaughter before us by preventing a disorderly bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and he insisted on doing nothing instead, to cater to doctrinaire libertarian puritans and duck populust flack over bailouts for bankers, for one week.
Those three policy mistakes, all reflecting collosal arrogance, ideological stridency, contempt for pragmatism and long experience, and a smugness about the consequences of world-historical proportions. All were entirely unforced own goals. All were violently opposed at the time by wiser men and rammed through anyway.
Now don't say we didn't tell you so.
Exit polling showed plenty of both did not vote for him, but plenty of rino's and republicans did.
Bush had the bully pulpit but failed to use it, and the Democrats walked away.
Shockingly, John McCain failed to use the most potent weapon in his arsenal — the culpability of Barack Obama and his friends in the wholesale looting of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current debacle. McCain had the goods, but wouldn't exploit them.
Also, I will add my own point:
Governor Sarah Palin out-staged McCain and McCain limited her to keep the spotlight from going off him. He failed to use Governor Palin effectively I believe, because it would make him seem less effective. When Gov. Palin was allowed to get media exposure, it was not well thought out. They let her go on taped interviews, which allowed her comments to be twisted by editing tactics. Not a smart idea. For those who get paid the big bucks to run a campaign, they should have been fired immediately for this failure.
The McCain campaign did not meet the task countering the media campaign against Gov. Palin. She was assaulted with a barage of issues from stupid things like the clothing cost to the Saturday Night Live barbs. The McCain campaign sat on their thumbs and acted as if the media war was not happening. They should have given top priority to the media destruction effort against Sarah Palin. It showed McCain campaign was not up to the task of countering the media war. If McCain thought this media war was tough, he showed that he was not up to the task of what he would experience as President. Those on his staff who let this failure happen should have been given their walking papers.
Contrary to what Michael says, Ronald Reagan would have never voted for Obama, even though he would have been disappointed in the Republicans. Reagan would have seen that Obama was an enemy of the freedom that is the foundation for America’s success.
Ironically, though, it was Reagan’s selection of George H.W. Bush, which was a capitulation to the notion that conservatives needed to please the moderates, that is at the bottom of our current problem. Without this selection, there is no George W. Bush and the “compassionate conservatism” which has brought us the Medicare prescription drug bill, the excessive spending, the failed immigration reform, the bailout, and a host of other problems. While I believe that President Bush did the right thing in Iraq for the right reasons, his presidency has been a mixed bag for conservatives, as he told us it would be from the start. I wish President Reagan had selected somebody more firmly on the right.
Agree. I attended a McCain-Palin rally just after the convention. I found out about the rally on the McCain website, and in order to “pre-request” my tix, I was instructed to email a McCain campaign office in my area. When I picked up my tix at the office, I had to give them my driver’s license to verify. They had both my email address and my address. Not once after that was I sent email requesting time or money for the candidate.
I had heard that McCain’s campaign website was inferior to Obama’s in how it approached and appealed to visitors (read “potential donors and volunteers”), so I visited Obama’s campaign website to check things out. In order to do something on the site (maybe to see if there were rallies in my area?), I had to supply my email...I’m glad I supplied my Yahoo address which has a great spam filter because I was sent several emails a week from “Barack Obama”, “Michelle Obama”, “Joe Biden”, et al. asking for both money and time...”just five dollars”...”send ten dollars and you get a bumper sticker”...
Even though Obama’s announcing his VP pick via text messaging was a stunt, it was symbolic of his grasp of the power of new communications technologies...McCain was horse and buggy compared to Obama’s high speed rail.
Missy
Yes, a one on one interview with all who wanted one would have corrected the issue for sure. But then she can do that tomorrow.
Thank you Mr. Reagan!!
Exactly so and well said.
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