[buzzer]

Who to blame next ?

[tomymind]

It’s true 100%. McCain would have won with 70% of Obama’s money and an economy not in recession.

[JoeVet]

Come on ... most of us here have been slammin’ GW since 04. On a good day just about everyone here called him a RINO ... or worse.

[lewislynn]

His October surprise bailout didn’t help any.

[Hugin]

She’s right. The Bush adminstration did a miserable job explaining and defending the Iraq war, and pretty much gave up trying in the second term. As for spending, the Pubs in Congress were the worst, but Bush proposed big new spending and entitlements, and never used his veto until well into his second term. They made it impossible for any Republican to win. If you doubt that, just look at how many more votes McCain/Palin got than other Pubs down the ticket, both conservatives and moderates.

[EyeGuy]

More broadly it has been President Bush’s failure to carry the mantle of conservatism, which would include vigorously defending his policies and actions.

[Darkwolf377]

I think McCain's being such a crappy candidate was far more to blame. Here at FR we had tons of material he could have used against Obama--not attack dog stuff, but substantial, and which could have been delivered calmly, or through ads.

By far McCain-Feingold was more to blame. Long before the time came, it was obvious he couldn't suddenly decide to opt out of federal financing, because such hypocrisy from Mr. Clean Elections would have sunk him. So McCain was defeated by his own legislation, put in place because he's so obsessed with revenge on Bush for what McCain perceived as vicious campaigning in the 2000 primaries. The end should have been clear when he wouldn't even let people say Obama's middle name, even as he had no problem dumping on fellow Republicans.

So in all respects, it was McCain. This is the first time since her being picked that I thought Palin was BSing. If she were as honest as her superfans claim, she'd have stayed off the Bushbash wagon--just as she should have stayed off the Wall St. Bash wagon--and said it like it is--she honors McCain's service, thanks him for picking her, but man, did he blow as a candidate.

[Moconservative]

All I want to say is please no more people with the last name Bush put on the Republican Presidential ticket for about 40 years. (I should be dead by that time.)

I do appreciate GW for what he did after 2001 and that he kept us safe but just like his father before him they did not carry the conservative mantle.

[ElkGroveDan]

A well known conservative elected official remarked to me election night, “The Bush family has done more damage to the Republican Party than anyone since John Wilkes Booth.”

[DaveTesla]

The war was not the issue.
There was no draft.

The real issue is avoided by everyone.

1. A Marxist media who informed the masses that Obama was the messiah.

2. Soros and gang pulled the rug out from under the market
right in time for the elections.

3. The Public skhool educated who voted for the most charismatic
who promised them the most goodies.

4. 48% of the voting public who thought they were voting
for dancing with the stars.

5. ACORN

I will wager anyone here...
Had Paulin run with someone more younger and
"SEXY" they would have won.
Sad that 40% America has been reduced to this.
As well informed people are here they just don't realize
how shallow a good deal of the country is.

Fear not.

They will come around when they are unemployed and the
messiah fails to do any thing about it.

[caveat emptor]

Aargh. Another Couric type slice and dice. Less than a minute out of a 9'31" interview. Sarah appears to have just finished a relaxed interview with Greta, and told the ET bunch to buzz off (I think). Here's the relevant part of the interview - why she thought they lost:

My notes - not necessarily word for word quotes: There was a desire for change.

Here CNN comes in: (I heard this on the tape)

“I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration?”

“How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing. So people desiring change I think went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could...”

Big mistake I think. Say anything except something which Obama's minions can do what CNN did. I haven't had time to review the campaign yet. If pressed, yeah, I haven't had time to write even my first autobiography yet. Haven't had time to even think about running again.Will certainly give it some thought later if it becomes relevant. Whatever. Whatever.

Or maybe, perish the thought, Palin's not enough of a barracuda to take care of these punks.

[Alia]

What a shame.

[Impy]

They are tons of reasons why we lost. Any 1 or 2 could have made the difference.

[ArrogantBustard]

CNN Lies!!!!

The headline is contradicted by the story.

CNN Lies!!!!

[brushcop]

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!! (not you buzzer) Let’s back up a wee bit here. Look, our family have had a real investment in Iraq with a combat infantryman fighting in two deployments. He was there and witnessed first hand the remarkable elections in Baqubah, a nasty, nasty area, and then was deployed in el-Anbar province, another hot area that had been tamed down considerably on the second one, part of the surge. BOTH deployments were successful, both of them.

Now, some of you armchair generals please tell me where President Bush went “wrong”. Please explain this. I also served many year ago so I know the drill: “After the first shot is fired, all plans are out the window”. I really get sick of people expecting a war to go exactly by plan, doesn’t happen.

We can always look back with coulda, shoulda, woulda crap but that’s not life. I am interested in some good analytical thinking.