Analysts: McCain doomed from start

UPI ^

[WilliamReading]

PHOENIX, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain lost his bid for the White House mainly because anti-incumbent fury doomed him from the start, analysts say.

McCain made many missteps, but they didn't matter much because it was clear no Republican stood much of a chance in the 2008 election with voters overwhelmingly blaming President George Bush and the GOP for the nation's problems, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday.

McCain, who represents Arizona in the Senate, lost to Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois last week in an electoral college landslide. He never stood a realistic chance, said Alberto Gutier, a longtime Phoenix Republican activist and McCain supporter.

"Everything was going to go the wrong way for the Republicans, in general, because of the negatives that President Bush had," he said. "When you combine the war, the economy, the gas prices -- it's a hell of a thing."

"Our polls and national polls showed that most people by a 2-to-1 margin blamed Bush and the Republicans more than the Democrats for getting us into the mess, and they believed that Obama was more likely to get us out of it," Bruce Merrill, a veteran Arizona pollster, told the Republic.

[Melas]

I’m not buying it. McCain, like Dole, fought the good fight. If there is any FR tendency that I dislike, it’s that FReepers all too often turn on good men like Dole and McCain.

I don’t think Palin hurt McCain’s chances. I just disagree on the level to which some think she helped. I don’t think she helped much at all, other think she’s the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Time will tell who’s right.

[Reagan Man]

I don’t my disdain for jackasses either.

If the shoe fits...

[org.whodat]

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/general_election_match_up_history

[Reagan Man]

Correction: I don’t hide my disdain for jackasses either.

If the shoe fits...

[driftless2]

I don’t care what the anal lists say, they can answer my question since you won’t.

[WilliamReading]

“I am rubber, and you are glue.”

[1rudeboy]

McCain, like Dole, was a war hero who lost (among other reasons) to a young, charismatic Democrat candidate.

The similarities end there, however, I think. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dole's ACU Lifetime rating 90+?

I saw someone here refer to Dole as a "RINO" a couple of days ago. If the above is true, how retarded is that?

[SmokingJoe]

“4. The MSM. A complete total and utter DISGRACE. They were in the tank for Obama from the start”

Well before he went up against Obama, McCain thought the MSM were his friends. He even used to pal around with them.
You see, he was too arrogant to admit to himself that the MSM were only singing his praises because he was constantly attacking Republicans, conservatives and President Bush.
In a way, it serves him right that the media turned on him(as everyone on FR predicted they would), the moment he was running against the media's Chosen One.
McCain deserves everything he got. His current silence over the attacks on Gov Palin allegedly by some in his campaign staff, says a lot about his character.

[SmokingJoe]

“McCain, like Dole, fought the good fight”

Why did McCain suspend his campaign, and cancel all his TV ads, and let Obama grab all the ad slots he'd freed up, when the financial crises hit then?
I don't call that a “good fight”.

[Reagan Man]

Got that right.

I stick to conservatism.

You bounce all over the place.

[Dick Holmes]

Did these analysts also remember that McCain was actually ahead by 3% at RCP a week after the RNC convention, when Gov Palin energized the Republican base, and they had exposed what an empty suit Obambi was?

I remember analysts calling that a post-convention bump.

I think the debates put 0 solidly in the lead. Not that McCain did badly, just that people were leaning to vote for the other party, but wanted to see if the candidate looked like he could be presidential. The same thing happened in 1980; people wanted to dump the dem, but weren't sure about the opposition candidate till they saw the debate. Reagan really took off in the polls after that one debate they had right before the election.

[Revenge of Sith]

And that was always my view too. This was a Democratic year and I liked those pundits who said as early as January that the Democrats should go out of business as a party if they can’t win this election. There was nothing McCain and Palin could have done differently that would have changed the outcome.

[RJL]

President Bush's poll numbers have been dismal ever since Katrina--if he had played that in a politically smart way, like Bill Clinton would have, he might have actually gained popularity from it. He refrained from putting the blame where most of it belonged--on the Democrat governor and mayor and on the Democrat local officials who had failed to make the levees strong enough.

Bush never had an unkind word for his political opponents or those that truly hated him, he saved the unkind words for his conservative voting base, we were "vigilantes" and we wouldn't "do what's right for America".

And that's how Bush got to a 25% approval rating.

[Melas]

Why did McCain suspend his campaign, and cancel all his TV ads, and let Obama grab all the ad slots he'd freed up, when the financial crises hit then? I don't call that a “good fight”.

Oh give me a break. McCain honestly believed that voters would recognize that he was putting the good the nation before his own personal gain. In hindsight we all know that it didn't work. It was a decent play on his part, and he didn't have the luxury of knowing the outcome before he ran it. If anything John McCain deserves to be more dissapointed in the voters for not recognizing it than the voters will ever have cause to be dissapointed by John McCain.

[uncbob]

The media was not going to report on the housing mess truth.v

They weren't and didn't report the truth on ANYTHING and that is the reason we are in such a mess

They are just TOO POWERFUL

[Amendment10]

I see two uncomplimentary trains of thought concerning post-election analysis that haven't quite yet met, so I'll join them.

Yes, McCain lost his chance for the coveted Oval Office, quite possibly because Democrats made him a symbol of the much-despised GW Bush, the monster who "stole" the 2000 election from Al Gore.

On the other hand, Dick Morris seems to be suggesting that no political party in their right minds should want to be in control of DC in the next few years. This because the predicted banking crisis tsunami (my words) is quite possibly going to make fools out of whichever party has "control" of DC in the next few years. Here's Morris's link if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.newsmax.com/morris/republicans_stronger/2008/11/06/148571.html

In other words, in contrast to the Hollywood-style campaigning that we saw in this election, if the political parties had been realistic about the predicted consequences of the banking crisis, then they should actually have decided the election in the following manner. They should have drawn toothpicks to see which party gets stuck with DC this time around, the party pulling the shorter toothpick getting the "honor" of having "control" of DC in the next few years.

In fact, based on what Morris has said, not only am I thankful that Sarah did not go to DC at this time, especially if she has goals for 2012, I am also questioning if G-d has possibly given Obama control of the Oval Office so that he has to reap the consequences of his shady contribution to the banking disaster.

[Melas]

Pay no heed. The charge of being a RINO is meaningless. I think the current definition in use is that if you arne’t all a twitter over Palin, then you must be a RINO.

There is a faction here that calls Dole a RINO because he wasn’t combative enough. These people would probably be hard pressed if you asked them to give you Dole’s positions, or political underpinnings, but they recognize that he wasn’t bellicose enough for their tastes.

Look at how Newt is often savaged these days. While he was obviously an imperfect man with his own weaknesses of the flesh, he’s still aces in my book. He did more for the Republican party and conservatism in general than any of his detractors here.

[SmokingJoe]

“Oh give me a break. McCain honestly believed that voters would recognize that he was putting the good the nation before his own personal gain”

I know what McCain believed.
The question is, did voters or anyone with a level head actually believe that nonsense?
Posters on FR and plenty of conservative sites tore their hair in frustration, as McCain withdrew his ads, and was totally swamped by Obama ads everywhere, even while the crisis was going on. McCain never recovered. You just can't stop in the middle of a race, while your opponent powers full steam ahead, and epected to catch up later.
Obama and his people rightly called out McCain on that stunt, and told him that as president, he would be expected to multitask. If as president, you have a crisis in Afghanistan's and Pakistan and Iran at the same time, you can't tell one crisis to just stop, so you can fix the other crisis first can you?

[Reagan Man]

Since YOU chose to FReepMail me first, but have indicated you will delete future FReepMails I may send you, I'll just answer you on the forum, coward! LOL

You say you want intelligent debate and not name calling. Just like most of the recent and endless vanity posts on FR, this article doesn’t elicit intelligent debate. Its conclusions are blatant and obvious and deserved to be ridiculed.

I've seen very little from you since you first joined FR earlier this year, that would lead me to believe you're a conservative at heart. That includes this juvenile effort.

[SmokingJoe]

Interesting take by Dick Morris.
Next 4 years should be very interesting.