Posted on 11/09/2008 11:36:20 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
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with ACORN, I think not
If he was doomed from the start, then why did he and Palin lead in the polls right after the Pubbie convention? If it was fated to be a Dem year, then why didn’t Obama-Biden have a crushing lead from the start? It was only until the financial crash did Obama overtake McCain.
PS.
Also, being out spend 4 or 5 to 1 is a death blow in politics.
Which is why if The GOP becomes The Democrat Lite Party, which Mel Martinez implied he wants, The GOP will be returned to minority status for the next several decades.
Indeed, since he never had to face re-election again, he couldn't have cared less about 2008 and made no moves to prepare the GOP for big fight with the Rats that lay ahead. Instead, he appointed his hack buddy Mel Martinez as the RNC chairman, and gleefully spent ALL of political capital (and then some) on trying to shove Amnesty down our throats. McCain was complicit in this and forever became associated with Bush.
In the meantime, the Republican national network withered on the vine, while the Rats ramped up their Soro-backed grass roots organizations and began to tear us apart on the streets.
So here we are...
Bush had the chance to use the presidency as the bully-pulpit and he chose not to do so.
He could have vetoed many things, including McCain/Feingold but chose not to do so. We still have border guards in jail while a drug trafficker was allowed into the United States.
We have the corruption of Dodd and Frank with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and there are no justice department investigations in the making. Yet Stevens from Alaska is indicted with taking illegal gifts?! Good grief.
anti Bush “Fury” ?? Electorial “Landslide” ? ? Nah...
That’s not Reality, Several States were 51-49, 52-48, and a 50-50 thrown in there. Given an Economic “Bomb” 1 month out from the Nov. 4th vote, it was HOPE and CHANGE that squeaked out an Advantage.
McCain was going to be easy to beat, until he picked up Palin, and then it was going to be a battle until the “Bailout” hit.
Obama collected 600 Million for his Campaign, Had/still has the MSM on his Personal Press Secretarial Staff, and Obama did not win by a “Pelosi Landslide” ?
And the same number of voters showed up in 2008 as there were voting in 2004.
Obama’s Tax policies will Sink the Dems over time, and it won’t take that long. And by the WAY, Obama does NOT have the Experience to Govern, he does not have ANY Economic Experience (unless you count spending Grants) and he Owes all those Big $$$ Donors lots of Favors.
Prepare for a Short honeymoon. Unless...Unless....Obama can Learn how to say DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW....then I could be president as we become Energy independent.
I agree if you factor in the Sept economic collapse. I think it was near impossible to win. Without that, the GOP had a shot, but as an underdog. Events had actually been in our favor for awhile this year as the GOP was able to make a nice case on energy / drilling, the war was better, and the economy never did go into negative growth.
A good campaign would have made it close, and the issue of Obama’s leftwing-ness would have been a bigger issue. As it was, that never even was in the discussion.
yea, flush your rotten state that started this mess.
McCain never lead Obama for more than a four or five days, and that was from the convention.
The financial collapse made the hole for McCain impossible to dig out of, but before the convention he never lead Obama. Sure it was two or three points, and not 5 to 10 deficit.
I don’t think McCain or any Republican could win with a two term extremely unpopular Republican President in office.
I'm sorry to say it, but in this day and age of the 30" sound bite and slick imagery running someone who looks like The Cryptkeeper's homely brother didn't help.
Instead the Reps put up the oldest man ever to run for President for the first time, the party maverick who held very similar positions as Obama on such issues as immigration, climate change, drilling in ANWR, etc.. Is it any wonder why the Reps did not turnout for McCain? Even in McCain's home state, AZ, Bush did better than McCain winning more votes and by a bigger margin over Kerry than McCain did over Obama. Rep voters did not turnout for the self-described maverick who campaigned against his own party.
The election was orchestrated, I agree. The question is, by whom?
Hell no I don't. But that's not the same thing as accusing a specific politician of doing it, on the flimsiest of evidence, and then pouring gas on the fire by blaming it on his religion in the most insulting and unwarranted terms.
-ccm
Poor McCain. With McCain-Feingold he was hoisted on his own petard.
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