Was it electing Palin?
Was it the ecomony?
Was it the negative attacks?
Discuss.....
First and foremost: it was McCain. he had a big lead time while Clinton refused to concede Obama had the nomination. He sat around doing nothing to speak of to ready his campaign.
McCain IMHO is a $3 bill phony and always has been. Certainly he was one of the Keating 5 guys and his "I AM FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM" image was just that: Image. Most of what he proposed didn't pass and what did has loopholes that allow business as usual.
He had his image together in 2000 however. He kept to a simple consistent message.
In 2008, consistency for him was a matter of coincidence. The guy who stood up to thugs like Falwell once kissed the rings of these guys in near insane desire to get to be President.
Was he against Bush or with him? His answers to that were all over the map. But his voting record was easy to pin down. 90% in general much higher when the bill mattered to Bush.
Keith Olbermann made his show into a "McCain does things he accuses Obama of only worse!" carnival. And he was telling us the facts as he did so.
Palin was ultimately a bad choice. He must have figured she would help him with two groups, the hard conservative/religoius factions of the Republican party AND the disaffected Hillary supporters. Palin, looked to him like the person who could get both groups to support him.
Bad miscalcuation. Had they bothered a cursory vetting of Pallin, they'd have gone elsewhere. Too much baggage there.
Then came the economic melt down and McCain essentially destroyed what was left of his campaign. He tried to look Presidential and said he'd suspended his campaign to go back to Washington and get the bailout bill passed.
He just bet his credibility on getting THAT bill passed.
He then threw his credibility away before that by lying to David Letterman. Had he simply gone to Washington and been interviewed by Couric from Washington, he'd have looked like he was doing what he said he was doing.
So he painted himself as a liar then flew to DC. Where he didn't get the bill passed. Word from the other members of either house, Republican or Democrat named him as a big obstacle in getting the bill together and his obstancy gave the House rebels the chance to kill the bill.
At the end of that day, he not only failed to achieve what he 'suspended' the campaign' for, he was responsible for his own Party killing the bill!
He hired the people who'd slandered him for George Bush back in 2000.
His campaign finally collapsed to simple name calling "Socialist" "Muslim" and so on.
Then there was Joe the Plumber. McCain was desperate, "Joe" looked like it was a positive thing for the campaign, and he promptly over used JtP to the point of making America sick of the sonuva*****.
Joe himself was a weak performer all things considered, and tainted since he was a) the son of one of McCain's pals from the Keating/Lincoln Savings days and b) clearly someone who came up to Obama, not the other way around if you watch the video and c) lying through his teeth about being a plumber and trying to buy a plumbing business.
I also think some of his erratic behavior is mood swing medicine related.
McCain's Legendary temper didn't show up. At all.
It should have. It's absence infers something was done about it. Medication is the likely explanation for this. IMHO, the poor bastard was so pumped up on anti-anger medication he started losing it after long hard grueling days on the campaign, which was like every single day.
America noticed this.
And compared the cool and collected Obama, who answered unexpected questions with facts. They saw Obama as prepared and vigorous.
And McCain wanting.
