[goldstategop]

John McCain never ran as a conservative. He found himself agreeing with his opponent on most of the issues. The American people picked Obama because they believed he was more conservative than McCain! Being a moderate does not win American elections.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[johnthebaptistmoore]

“The American people picked Obama because they believed he was more conservative than McCain!” Boy, are they going to be surprised, after January 20, 2009!

[Diogenesis]

Apparently, McCain felt that he would lose
(The Arizona curse as he described it after the loss).

Never tried really. Let down a lot of people.

[Man50D]

Being a moderate does not win American elections.

McCain didn't run as a Conservative because isn't a conservative. Moderate is a euphemistic term for socialist. To quote Ronald Reagan:

"We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn't make any sense at all." – Ronald Reagan, 1965

“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” – Ronald Reagan, CPAC address, 1975

[Old Sarge]

Political exile may be the best thing that’s happened to the movement and the party. Perhaps we’ll learn to fight again.

Ask Napoleon about being exiled - he came back, got his arse handed to him, and exiled for the rest of his natural life.

Ask the Soviet exiles, too - if you can hold enough seances to find them.

The conservative movement can be described with one phrase: "ashheap of history".

[AgThorn]

Well written. I got excited about McCain, only when Palin joined the ticket. I never really was voting for McCain, only against Obama. A candidate can't win that way.

Good article, and I can relate to every point.

[wny]

McCain ran against his own party and won.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Republicans could have appealed to middle-class rage over the failure to control our borders – if anyone but Senor Amnesty was the nominee. Along with his buddy, Ted Kennedy, in 2007, McCain was the co-sponsor of a bill to “regularize the status” of roughly 12 million “undocumented workers.” Talk about throwing away a winning issue. BTW, two-thirds of Hispanics voted for Obama.

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The GOP better learn its lesson with candidates and party members who support Illegal Alien Amnesty....its a loser

Not mentioned, but reported elsewhere....the majority of those voted for Obama are also against Illegal Alien Amnesty.

Any pro-Amnesty GOPer needs to be run out of the party

[Cacique]

bump for later

[xJones]

'We wuz robbed'. Republicans were forced to consider voting for the RINO of all time, he was not loved at all by most Pubbies. And yet he won the nomination, in part by Dem voters crossing over in the primaries because everybody knew he was the worst choice to head the ticket from a Republican and popular vote point of view.

Paraphrasing from Gore Vidal, "McCain looks like a triumph of the embalmers art." Okay, so he looked like Mr. Stay Puffed, but he didn't need to act like the personality machine had ran over him and sucked out every last bit of a winning personality. He tanked, and Sarah Palin, a complete newcomer to the national view, upstaged him from the very start, because he wasn't even really trying. Or least that's how it appears.

[I see my hands]

Of course, McCain sucks in every way but he had the hand he wanted to play: All American.

The election was a referendum on America.

Whether or not to honor it's history. Does America love or hate C. Columbus?

Whether or not to honor it's culture and values. Does America love or hate cowboys?

Whether or not to honor it's gift of liberty. Does America love or hate private property? And on.

The answer is clear. Most dislike what made America great. Maybe the election was a referendum on life or death.

Can't unscramble eggs. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. Don't throw pearls before swine. Lie down with dogs get up with fleas. America can't be fixed any more. Got to start new, somehow.

So, I dislike McCain for the usual reasons but most of America thinks he's a punk. And they want to spread the wealth. And hide. They prefer to lie to themselves rather than miss being part of a crowd.

[LowCountryJoe]

Other than taxes [and spending cuts and free(er) trade], which McCain promised to lower for everyone, the principal difference between his economic program and Obama’s was the wrapping.

When looked at this way, there's significant differences there. To write that there was not that much difference is dishonest. I am no (and was not) a McCain champion but, come on, let's be somewhat honest here.

[HardStarboard]

"McCain did a poor impression of a conservative."

Well knock me over with a feather!

[AC-130 Gunship]

McCain ran as a New World Order Globalist patsy - same as GH Bush 2.0, and Dole.

He offered ZILCH, NOTHING, NADA to conservatives - and even Sarah Palin knew it.

McRINO merely should have run solely on THIS motto:

"I'M THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS!"

[exhaustedmomma]

McCain did so run as a conservative, said so himself! Conservative Liberal

Not to forget the GOP's push to the more "inclusive" left.