Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain

Pajamas Media ^ | November 4, 2008 | Jennifer Rubin

[yankeedame]

Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain

The results are in and the recriminations have begun. Sure, it might not have made any difference, but the number of sins of omission and commission by the McCain campaign is breathtaking. Let’s get a head start on the finger-pointing and give you the top thirty mistakes John McCain and his team made:

• Not pursuing the Reverend Wright connection, as an issue of judgment and then credibility. Even Jerry Nadler knew it was a sign that Barack Obama lacked political courage, i.e., character.
• Waiting until September to raise Barack Obama’s other troubling connections (e.g., Bill Ayers, Rashid Khalidi).
• Failing to devise a comprehensive economic message until the final weeks of the campaign.
• Failure to explain the Democrats’ role in the financial meltdown.
• Not enough talk about “friends of Angelo” and Democratic corruption.
• Wasting his convention speech on “bipartisanship” and biography instead of pounding home a core economic message.
• Frittering away time and money in Iowa.
• Losing time in the spring when McCain had sewn up the nomination but Obama had not. An ideal time to begin defining the contrast in messages.
• Appallingly deficient “oppo” research and timing. Why didn’t the “bankrupt the coal industry” tape come out before the final weekend?
• Going to war with the MSM without an effective plan to use alternate media to get their message out.
• Cutting off McCain’s daily access to the traveling press corps.
• The frenetic response to the financial meltdown. (Fire Chris Cox! Cancel the debate — no, hold the debate!) All that was missing was juggling knives on a tightrope above a fire pit.
• The roll-out of Sarah Palin.
• The internal trashing of Sarah Palin.
• The failure to put Sarah Palin on every radio and TV outlet they could find in the final two weeks of the campaign.
• The failure to find a top-flight economic advisor.
• Shutting down McCain’s regular contact with new media outlets.
• An insufficiently tough attack on Joe Biden’s lobbying and earmark activities.
• An insufficiently tough attack on Obama’s coziness with the Daley machine.
• An insufficiently tough attack on Obama’s ties and subservience to Big Labor.
• Failure to use McCain’s position in the U.S. Senate to introduce legislation and force votes on the floor that would have defined the two candidates (e.g., a budget freeze).
• Permitting chaos and public fighting among campaign staff. Heads should have rolled.
• Waiting too long to introduce the specter of undivided government.
• Waiting until the final Saturday Night Live before the election to show self-deprecating humor.
• Not firing Palin’s entire staff when they publicly trashed her.
• Insufficient registration and party-building efforts in Colorado and Virginia.
• Too much whining about the MSM.
• Too much hostility toward conservatives offering smart strategy and policy ideas.
• Not enough explanation and focus on Tony Rezko.
• Not enough explanation of the Herbert Hoover analogy (higher taxes and protectionism made the Great Depression worse) to a voting population that doesn’t know who Hoover was.

There is no telling whether some or all of these errors made a difference. Certainly it was the toughest of years for Republicans. Nevertheless, the campaign was one of the worst displays of organizational and ideological disarray in recent memory. Future candidates should take note of the errors and the error-makers and plan their campaigns accordingly.

[lone star annie]

Ageed. We need to close some of the primaries like NH. They gave us McCain to begin with so thanks for nothing. We should either do that or start our Primaries in reliably red states then on to NH. Start with SC and NH.

[marsh2]

Not realizing that the economy would be THE issue. Failing to appreciate that the lower and lower middle economic class are truly suffereing to make ends meet and meet the basic needs of their families - challenges like gasoline prices, health care, food and shelter. Not crafting a program that provided relief to predatory usurious credit and lending practices. Not stressing energy and its ties to prices at the pump. Not coming up with a simple and rational health program that people understood. Not recognizing that there have to be programs to raise up the disenfranchised lower middle class through education, economic development of small business opportunities, mentoring and regulatory relief so that they felt they had a stake in his campaign. Looking like he was a pro-fat-cat wealthy Wall Street corporate greed Republican because he could not articulate clearly how his policies would help the have nots who are now in the majority.

Whenever those who identify as “have nots” are stressed and exceed the “haves” in number, there is a danger of shifting to some populist who has radical underpinnings. History repeats itself.

[MHT]

The Republicans’ first mistake was having primaries on different dates than the Democrats, thereby allowing the RATS to cross over and select the Republican candidate. So...McCain’s first mistake was getting nominated to begin with. After all, he was the favorite Republican candidate of the Democrats...and was their first choice, until they had their own candidate.

[JayAr36]

Only one thing ruined the McCain campaign . . . McCain!

[Sylvester McMonkey McBean]

John McCain made only one error, IMHO.

He chose being nice over being victorious.

[Mr. Jazzy]

I was replying to post #12.

The rest of the list of what McAmnesty did RIGHT!

I love Lady Sarah!

[concerned about politics]

Oboma won the presidency as soon as he declared his candidacy. The anti-U.S. U.N. saw a weapon and used it - race.
No one dared offend Oboma in any way. The anti-American world was watching for one racial slip up they could use against us. They had a socialist candidate in the U.S. and they had the race card. The two were unbeatable during a time when the U.S. wasn't especially respected in the world.

Oboma was the right color at the right time, and the left took full advantage of it.

[RipSawyer]

Thank you. The “October Surprise” was as if George “W”(orsepresident) Bush had actually set out to sabotage the McCain/Palin ticket in the belief that an Obama in the White House for four years would somehow restore his legacy.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I will wager that it will have some of W’s worst detractors wishing they could have him back in office again.

[Edizzl79]

Mccains theme song should have been “No more Mr nice Guy”.

[ExTexasRedhead]

What killed McCain was his lack of exposing to the American people “who was to blame for the market meltdown.” No guts, no glory aka surrender America to domestic terrorists. Now, America welcome the change as the Germans welcomed Hitler. Don’t be shocked when the Gestapo comes to your door. Remember, your supposed Liberal friends hate conservatives.

[CriticalJ]

If victory was the ultimate goal, without thought for character and class, McCain should have laid waist to Obama’s character and George Bush.

[richmwill]

I’d add the “You don’t have to fear an Obama presidency” and “He’s not an Arab, he’s a good man” speech to that list.

[gnarledmaw]

"What costed McCain the election, once and for all, was the timed and planned market melt down..."

McCain was given a lens that enabled Joe 6pack to clearly see through a web of otherwise obfuscating socialist programs and see how that corruption affected Joes pocketbook. One of the things that costed McCain was that it would have exposed his own relatively minor dalliances with these corrupt elements so he put the lens in his pocket.

[hosepipe]

Overlooking the most important error of the McLaim tribe must be noted..

Number one error of the MmcLaim clan IS..
Failing to notice that McLaim is basically Obama LITE..
That John Mclaim is really a cross dressed democrat..
and the American people MIGHT notice that..

You know... notice that and vote for a REAL DEMOCRAT..
many on Free republic overlooked it as well..
i.e. deluded.. oblivious.. eye rolling stupid(w/ head turn making teeth sucking noises)..

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

[McCain] stabbing us in the back all those years meant he was starting this campaign with NO constituency.

WHO are the morons who put him in the primary??? WHO??? One of the weakest candidates ever! His weeniness is matched only by Bush2 and Jimmy Carter. I still can't get over that he was even IN the race. So, essentially, it's the Republicans who gave us Obama as President. If they had given us a stronger candidate, we wouldn't have the prospect of 8 years of Marxism ahead of us. I blame YOU, the Republican, for giving us this mess.

[dilvish]

Having the same party affiliation as an incredibly unpopular outbound president is really #1. That made the hill pretty big and steep.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

-—The RNC/GOP loses every election before they begin because they do not care about their reputation. What actions have they taken in the last 20 years to combat the MSM’s erosion of their image-—

A lot of truth to that..

[concerned about politics]

WHO are the morons who put him in the primary??? WHO??? One of the weakest candidates ever!

Our primaries are at a different time than the democrats. Millions of left wing activists switched parties to elect McCain. That's why Rush started Operation Chaos. He wanted us to do to them what they did to us, but by the time it was figured out, it was too late. The left picked the weakest candidate for us. That's how we got McCain.

[Brookhaven]

We should end primaries period.

1. It is expensive to open enough polls to allow everyone to vote in a primary. Why should government tax money be used to help a political party (they are both private entities, btw) pick their nominee?

2. Voters in primaries are often as ill informed about the candidates. Often it comes down to being little more than a poularity/beauty contest.

3. Caucuses don’t cost the state/taxpayers as much money as primaries.

4. Caucuses tend to be dominated by the party faithful. People that follow the issues and candidates.

[onedoug]

Reason No. 1: McCain