You’re right, we had a Reagan and we showed him exactly what he was worth, one-percent. We thought going soft and presenting a lighter version of our beliefs would win the day. We were bad wrong and instead of drawing voters from the opposing side, some from both sides rejected us for our weakness. If we don’t believe what we believe then why would anyone else?
We treated the primaries just like it was some kind of popularity contest, an American Idol for the Leader of the Free World. So, no one should be surprised when the general Election became the same.
We had a candidate who could have gained a lot of support from those fed up with illegal immigration. McCain did not even bring it up nor could he. Hunter talked about jobs for Americans and keeping jobs from going overseas. He knew we couldn’t just follow blindly down the avenue of free trade and trade paper, but needed to actually produce something.
He would have put the rust belt in play and the broken glass conservatives would have showed up at the polls. He was very strongly anti-abortion and the Evangelicals that get occasional disdain on this site, would have won the election for him. Palin helped in that regard, but she was wrongly portrayed by the media as a dolt and inexperienced and the Sheeple bought it.
The identity politics have already started here and talk of diversity on the ticket. It appears nothing was learned. We shall see, if there is anything left to see. McCain-Feingold and immigration sure didn’t help McCain any. Of course it wasn’t all Mac’s fault, he did what he could against the media juggernaut. Still a candidate with more ammo should have been able to take this no one to school.
While I like Duncan Hunter a great deal, he needs to be governor or have some other executive experience first before I'd support him. I think an underplayed part of McCains' defeat is that he was a Washington insider who was incapable of effectively attacking Democrats for the financial issues because (1) he was part of the problem; and (2) these guys are his friends.
As mentioned here and elsewhere - our candidates should always, always, always come from governors (past or present).
NO!!!! Forget everyone that ran in the primaries this year.. not one of them ignited the party and this is what led to us being so fragmented and electing McCain by default...