The McCain Thread

[X-Ray]

For me ....

Bush, Palin & the hate (the racial ones especially) you hear from his supporters.

 

[Hush]

You don't think it was both, she's a woman and conservative?

No I really don't she MAY have but fact is he NEEDED the conservative base and she was really just as out of no where as Obama, only she was a woman and had and 80% approval rating in her home state.

 

[Anita18]

I disagree. McCain destroyed the Republican Party campaign. McCain should've never been the nominee. Obama was energetic, young, handsome, and an outsider. The Republicans needed one of their own. If Romney won the nomination, the history of this night would be our first Mormon president. Especially following the economic meltdown and Romney's reputation as an economic guru. The Republicans should've never nominated John McCain. They went with name recognition and it bit them in the ass. Palin certainly didn't help, but McCain was the problem. He just wasn't the right candidate for 2008.

I agree that if Romney were the candidate, the race would have been much closer. McCain just comes off as a grump.

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.

Honestly, my first thought upon hearing about Palin's nomination was, "Trying to net the bitter Hilary supporters, eh?"

 

[Oddzball]

I disagree. McCain destroyed the Republican Party campaign. McCain should've never been the nominee. Obama was energetic, young, handsome, and an outsider. The Republicans needed one of their own. If Romney won the nomination, the history of this night would be our first Mormon president. Especially following the economic meltdown and Romney's reputation as an economic guru. The Republicans should've never nominated John McCain. They went with name recognition and it bit them in the ass. Palin certainly didn't help, but McCain was the problem. He just wasn't the right candidate for 2008.

Romney was a dead issue for two reasons. He really did run Massachussets as a liberal Republican and flipped flopped on every issue to try and get the campaign. Doomed him once.

The evangelical faction of the Republican party would not tolerate a Mormon candidate, even if a genuine conservative Mormon candidate had been offered. His second doom.

Huckabee was a dead issue for the opposite reason: Other than the religous right, NO ONE was going to put a wacko Creationist into the Oval Office. If he's nutsy on that issue, he's certainly nutsy on others. Let's not find out where the hard way, shall we?

Thompson was simply too tired and uninterested. People wanted the character he played on Law & Order. But Arthur Branch was far sharper, observant and active than Fred Thompson was.

The fact is there wasn't a white knight to save the Republican's bacon this year. Might as well let McCain do it, he won't be running in 2012, so the guy we want may be ready then.

The Republicans controlled the supreme court, both houses and the White House for six straight years and had enough Senators to fillabuster anything the Dems tried, and a Veto after that which couldn't be overridden.

Translation: What happened for the last 8 years happened because the Republicans put it into effect or stopped something that was in effect.

It really was the fault of the Republicans. Utimately everything that happened in the last 8 years has been a credit to the Republicans or it was their fault.

Fault wins out by a landslide. Bush did to the US what he did to the corporations he ran. EFFED THEM UP BEYOND BELIEF! And the Republican spin machines couldn't hand wave that away.

 

[RKO]

http://isjohnmccainpresident.com/

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Why did McCain lose? Your top 3 reasons please.

 

[Ring Deacon]

1. He wanted to keep all of Bush's policies.
2. His age.
3. he wants to shut down 78% of the coal mines in the country.

 

[Nivek]

1- Palin.
2- supporting Bush
3- Negative crap. The "terrorist/socialist/muslim" stuff just got so absurd.

special suck it down the suck hole point: Joe's. Joe the Plumber, throw that tard down a well so we never see him again. And Joe Lieberman, turncoat *****e. And Joe Six Pack, who showed all tolerant people where the "backwards" areas are on the map again. Thanks Joe, now all of you F off.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

1. Palin - may have helped his base but it lost him the rest
2. Economy - he had no control over it but the crisis did not favor a conservative candidate
3. Republican - Partly becasue of point 2 but also as the incumbant party in power during a world in crisis it was always going to be an uphill battle

 

[Schlosser85]

1. He voted with Bush 90% of the time.
2. He spent more time attacking Obama than addressing the issues.
3. Sarah Palin

 

[Excel]

Palin isnt #1.

1. The anti Republican Sentiment thats been around the country for the past 2 years
2. Never tried to dissassociate himself from Bush till the 3rd debate
3. Lack of knowledge on economics

 

[Vilya]

1) People want real change and Obama is the hope of change.
2) McCain will stick to most of Bush's old policies
3) The people are terrified of another term under the republicans

 

[Comicfilmer]

I) The economic crisis and McCain's Bush-policies
II) Sarah Palin
III) A negative, hateful campaign

 

[Vilya]

Basically if Bush did a good job, everyone would be voting for Republicans right?

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

I disagree. McCain destroyed the Republican Party campaign. McCain should've never been the nominee. Obama was energetic, young, handsome, and an outsider. The Republicans needed one of their own. If Romney won the nomination, the history of this night would be our first Mormon president. Especially following the economic meltdown and Romney's reputation as an economic guru. The Republicans should've never nominated John McCain. They went with name recognition and it bit them in the ass. Palin certainly didn't help, but McCain was the problem. He just wasn't the right candidate for 2008.

Romney is an insufferable *****e who is even less likeable than John MCCain was. Romney has ZERO appeal to moderate and independent voters. At least McCain could play the veteran card. A Romney nomination would've done nothing more than bring out more of the far right element that McCain already had going for him by default. If Romney runs, does he win Massachusetts? Hell, no. Does he win FL, OH, IA, or CO? Most likely no. All he does is insure greater numbers in Mormon strongholds like UT, ID, and NE, states that are red no matter what.

 

[Matt]

Romney also is an economic guru. People proved in this election that they don't give a **** about personal issues when their pocket book is hurting. Romney's economic record would've lifted him over the top following the economic melt down.

 

[Spider-Bite]

a lot of the people who advised Bush on how to run the white house then advised McCain on how to run his campaign. That's half of it right there, and obviously the economy is the other half, with Iraq looming in the background.

 

[Spider-Bite]

I disagree. McCain destroyed the Republican Party campaign. McCain should've never been the nominee. Obama was energetic, young, handsome, and an outsider. The Republicans needed one of their own. If Romney won the nomination, the history of this night would be our first Mormon president. Especially following the economic meltdown and Romney's reputation as an economic guru. The Republicans should've never nominated John McCain. They went with name recognition and it bit them in the ass. Palin certainly didn't help, but McCain was the problem. He just wasn't the right candidate for 2008.

Honestly despite the fact that McCain lost by six points and got less than half of the electoral vote, I think if the Republican Party had nominated anybody else they would have had even less of a chance.

This was all about Bush.

 

[zenile]

Palin was 100% the incorrect choice for VP. McCain was going to get all the staunch republican votes no matter what, and he needed to capture more of the centrists. I was leaning towards McCain prior to his selection of Sarah Palin. I then was firmly decided to vote for Obama after that.

 

[metr0man]

A big factor was George W Bush being a terrible terrible president. But its also that the campaign, the way the campaign did business, was very Bush like.

The whole, patriotism argument, real america and fake america, terrorist lover, socialist, etc, it just left a nasty caustic tone.

The incessant SARCASM and MOCKING of people who liked Obama with the whole "Messiah The One" stuff did not help that tone at all.

Put together it just put this cloud of ugliness and negative energy around the campaign. This stuff matters, as Bill Clinton said, the more hopeful optimistic campaign generally wins.

Also, they didn't let McCain be McCain. The McCain of that concession speech or hell even SNL was BARELY to be seen in this election.

Bush-style politics just don't fit on McCain. Its like a badly tailored suit.

 

[tzarinna]

I am sort of lost

You are drastically affected by the economic downturn and you liked Obama to begin with right? I don't see the issue here

What industry are you in?

I said I was undecided until the debates, and I'm a Union electrician.
I thought I'd add that my boyfriend is a Republican and he worked on Obama's campaign, huge trend a lot of Repubs either voted for Obama or didn't vote at all.

 

[BlackLantern]

I think the McCain campaign didn't do enough to distance themselves from the Bush Administration....the massive amount of negative ads and negative attitude turned a lot of people off IMO....People grew tired of a party who uses fear and exclusion....just look at how the crowd at McCains campaign reacted when he mentioned the President-Elects name...they started booing right off....

 

[Holiday]

Yeah you could really see how positive Obama's rallies were. At his rallies you heard cheers, at McCain's all you heard was boo's.

Another factor is change. That was Barack's message from day one but the McCain campaign didn't have that solid message throughout.

 

[metr0man]

Another factor, straight from a NYT article

It was the third week of September, and Senator John McCain was speaking to a nearly empty convention center in Jacksonville, Fla. Lehman Brothers had collapsed that day, a harrowing indicator of the coming financial crisis and a reminder that the presidential campaign was turning into a referendum on which candidate could best address the nation’s economic challenges.

On stage, Mr. McCain, of Arizona, was trying to show concern for the prospect of hardship but also optimism about the country’s resilience.

“The fundamentals of the economy are strong,” he said.

A thousand miles away, at Senator Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago, the aides who monitored Mr. McCain’s every utterance knew immediately that they had just heard a potential turning point in a race that seemed to be tightening. They rushed out to tell Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, what Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate, had just said, knowing that his words could be used to portray him as out of touch.

“Shut up!” Mr. Pfeiffer said incredulously. “He said what?” Mr. Obama, who had just arrived at a rally in Colorado, hastily inserted the comments into his speech. And by nightfall, the Obama campaign had produced an advertisement that included video of Mr. McCain making the statement that would shadow him for the rest of the campaign.

At the McCain campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., at almost the same moment that morning, Mr. McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, looked stricken when his war room alerted him to the comment. Within 30 minutes, he was headed for a flight to Florida to join Mr. McCain as they began a frantic and ultimately unsuccessful effort to recover.

lol

That week was a nightmare week for McCain. a dead heat (slight 2 pt lead for McCain) turned around:
-Financial Crisis
-The Fundamentals of the Economy are strong
-Suspending his campaign as a stunt and suggesting the debate be postponed (BIG miscalcution there, within two hours there were flash polls showing Americans OVERWHELMINGLY wanted the debate more than ever with the crisis)
-First Debate

After that it was pretty much over. McCain seen as erratic and clueless on the economy, Obama seen as temperate and knowing wtf he's talking about.

 

[Holiday]

Yeah that vwas the turning point for sure. Had this election been about national security and the war on terror we may have elected ol' maverick.